PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
94
I request that you will do me the favour of expressing to Lord Knutsford my thanks for this reply, and for the attention his Lordship has been pleased to give to my representations.
His Excellency Sir Cecil C. Smith, K.C.M.G.,
Governor of the Straits Settlements.
11,616.
(No. 163.) MY LORD,
No. 15.
I have, &c., (Signed)
SI A. H. GORDON to LORD KNUTSFORD. (Received June 18, 1890.)
•
J. F. DICKSON.
Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon, May 19, 1890.
WITH reference to the 13th paragraph of your Lordship's Despatch, No. 49, of the 28th February last, I have the honour to forward the enclosed return, affording a comparison of the sales of lands for public and private debts in the Nuwara Eliya District between the years 1881-1885.
The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, G.C.M.G.,
&c.
&c.
&c.
Enclosure in No. 15.
I have, &c. (Signed)
A. GORDON.
RETURN of LANDS sold for PUBLIC and PRIVATE DEBTS in the NUWARA ELIYA DISTRICT
between the years 1881-1885.
Walapane
+
Uda Hewaheta
Kotmale
13,763.
Name of Division,
Lands sold for default of payment of Paddy Tax.
Lands sold in execution
for Private Deblu.
Number,
Average extent.
Number.
Average extent.
766
94
706
697
Less than
Less than
half an
217
613
10 acres.
acre.
Total
1,689
No. 16.
SIR J. F. DICKSON to-COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received July 16, 1890.)
1,244
REMARKS. on Report of a Select Committee of the Legislative Council of Ceylon appointed to consider the working of the Grain Tax Ordinance, 1878.
THIS report will be read with interest by many-with profit by a few; by those acquainted with the subject with a feeling (possibly of relief) that there is nothing new in it. It brings together, however, some valuable and instructive statistics and papers, especially selections from old records from 1828, ending with a valuable and highly-instructive paper, dated April 1858, by the late Mr. John Bailey, a followe und pupil of Mr. Turnour and Mr. Dyke. The value of the report is in the appendix : from it we learn that in many parts of the country the substitution of the commutation for the "renting" system is regarded as a great evil; that while Ordinance XI. of 1878 is, on the whole, free from the defects which have been too freely attributed to it, still there has been a failure to carry out the commutation system with that care and study which Mr. John Bailey and those before and after him have in vain urged as absolutely necessary. The first cost would be great; but the contentment of the people, by securing
* No. 10.
95
them a just system of assessment of their rents, and the consequent security of the land revenue, are objects to secure which a large expenditure may be properly incurred.
2. Whether the Government rent be levied only on grain-producing land, or on all cultivated land, or on all land cultivated and uncultivated in private hands, the first thing necessary to be done is to make a revenue survey sufficiently accurate to deter- mine the extent of each holding and its capabilities for cultivation, and then to classify the soils and estimate the advantages and disadvantages of the several tracts of land, so as to arrive at a fair and equitable assessment, which shall secure to the State as its share a sum of money equivalent to one-tenth of the gross produce or one-half of the net produce; and if this is levied on an average of years, it is clear that it should be paid annually for good years and bad years alike.
3. Theoretically, no doubt, the proper mode of collection is by an annual commuted rent; and on paper the Cobden Club is undoubtedly an excellent exponent of what is good in theory; it is not so good when its theories are applied to the idiosyncrasies, and the weaknesses, and the traditions, of a conservative. Oriental people of Aryan descent. The appendices to this report show how much hardship the commutation as compared with "renting" has in some cases produced; and a careful study of these papers can only lead to the conviction that the one remedy required is, under proper safeguards, to give the people in all the poorer and outlying districts, and wherever cultivation is uncertain from excessive or deficient water or other causes, the option of reverting to the renting system.
4. The "conclusions" at which the committee arrived, as summarized in para- graph 93, are generally sound, but some exceptions are to be taken to them, e.g., the condemnation of a general land tax is too sweeping; it may be at the present time impolitic and undesirable, but it is not impracticable. Clearly, the statesmanlike object to keep in view is to make such surveys and so to prepare the minds of the people that a general land tax may be levied throughout the island, in substitution of all Customs duties, thus abolishing all taxes on imported grain, and making Ceylon a free port, and levying a fair Crown rent on all land in private hands, and not only on grain-producing land.
5. In the meantime, the paddy lands in Ceylon are taxed more lightly than corresponding lands in Madras, and, as here reported, the taxation is lighter under Ordinance XI. of 1878 than at any previous time; nevertheless, the committee recommends changes which will involve a direct loss to the revenue of 25 per cent. and an increase in the cost of collection. For this, as the report itself shows, there is no justification; it says, "the abolition" (and pro tanto the reduction) “ of the grain tax, involving, as it necessarily would, the curtailment of expenditure on new public "works and the cessation of expenditure on irrigation, would be disastrous in its "effect on the country at large, and especially disastrous in its effect on the holders " and cultivators of paddy lands."
C
44
6. The proposal to remit the "tax" in any case where the yield does not exceed fourfold is opposed to the fundamental principle of a commutation," and would involve a large and expensive supervising staff and that constant inspection of the land by Government officers which it is one of the main objects of a commutation to avoid; it would lead to much abuse, corruption, and jobbery; it would inevitably tend to the accumulation of arrears, which, it is now known, are the most certain cause of hardship to the cultivators. What is required where the renting system is not adopted is a fair assessment, which must be certainly paid at the appointed time, and it must be known that non-payment will bring certain punishment in the shape of costs and, if necessary, prompt sale of the land. Then there will be no arrears, the tax will be always promptly paid, without recourse to compulsory powers, except in cases where the shareholders wish to have recourse to sale as a cheap and easy mode of re-distributing property held in vexatious subdivision. Let the cultivator be able to claim,exemption on account of the crop being only fourfold or less, and the claims for exemption will be numerous and vexatious, made in hope only of gaining time.
7. The first step to be taken to place the land revenue of Ceylon on a stable footing would appear to be to give up the present system of grain commissioners and to obtain the services of an experienced Indian settlement officer to direct settlement operations through the Government agents and their assistants, whose staff might be temporarily increased for this service.
Government House, Singapore, June 16, 1890.
M 4
(Signed)
J. F. DICKSON.