PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
pamphlet
■ 2792.
mmittee's
The Ceylon National Association add to this list taxes on curry stuffs, dried fish, cloths, earthenware, also the Select and kerosine oil; and possibly stamps might also port, pars. 27-8. be added; but the four which have been stated may fairly be taken as the taxes through which the ordinary villagers contribute to the cost of Govern- ment. Of these the Arrack Tax is the only tax on. luxuries which any of them pay, because arrack is almost the only luxury which they have; and, if taxes are to be levied, it is difficult to see how they they can be levied except on their persons, as in the case of the road tax, or upon their necessaries. An ordinary Onylon villager, if called upon to pay a tax, will pay it by growing more food stuff of one kind or another, because he has no other wealth; a tax upon him is a tax upon necessaries, because he only grows necessaries, and only so much at a time as his needs dictate. Thus Mr. Twynam says of a Land Tax: " Under whatever name a land tax may be levied, it would be in most cases, if not in all,
792, Enel. 7.
weight of
knowledge experience ery strongly at the abo
of the
st tax.
+1
"
a tax on food, the produce of most of the lands; and Col, Clarke, the Surveyor General, when writing of the same subject-a land tax-says of the class which he styles "villagers in out of-the-way parts,” that whatever they cultivate, whether rice, coco- "nuta, or garden produce, is grown for food or for barter in exchange for clothing, that is to say, to support life.'
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Again, though the issue of write and right of recovery against moveables is spoken of in some parts of these papers, there is presumably no doubt that the Sinhalese peasant has little or no moveable property in most cases, except agricultural imple- ments, and possibly buffaloes; his wealth consists in his garden or his field, and the recovery of any tax must lie ultimately and mainly against the land. Obviously, also, the more a grain tax is turned into a land tax the more direct is the incidence of taxa- tion on the land.
3. The predecessors of Sir Arthur Havelock, men of broad views, widely differing from each other in character, and more than one strongly prepossessed against this tax before coming to Ceylon, were opposed to abolishing it. The large majority of the Government Agents are opposed to its abolition; the Executive Council is almost unanimously op. posed to it (Mr. Saunders alone giving an uncertain sound). Two Select Committees of the Legislative Council have unanimously reported against it except as a distant contingency, and though Sir Arthur Havelock, in his present singularly fair judging and clear despatch, gives his decision against the tax, he had only had some seven months experience of the Island when he wrote.
Among unofficial individuals there are of course opponents of the tax, though Mr. John Ferguson, for instance, the owner and editor of the "Ceylon Observer," is one of its staunchest supporters; but perhaps the strongest argument in favour of the present system is the extraordinary inconsistency of its opponents, and the way in which nearly all of them, when brought face to face with the pro- blem of what to put in its place, stem to fall back on the conclusion that other alternatives are worse than the existing duty. Mr. Wall apparently, while
protesting against the taxes in 1877, signed & Exstern, No. report to the effect that "the payment of tithe is p. 62. “borne without complaint by the people, and is
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generally felt to be neither oppressive nor unjust." The Native members, who in the late debate were speaking more or less in opposition to the tax, Messrs. Senevirima, Pansbokke, &o., signed the report of the late Commission to the affect "* that "the abolition of the grain tax, involving, as it necessarily would, the curtailment of expenditure on new public works, and the cessation of expendi- "ture on irrigation, would be disastrous in its "effect on the country at large, and especially "disastrous in its effect on the holders and cultiva "tors of paddy lands."
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Mr. Twynam, whose opinion, owing to his very long experience, is entitled to great weight, is now,
so the Governor states, of opinion that, in view of 2792, pur. 10. the feeling against the tax, an effort should be made to abolish it, provided that the import duty on grain be not interfered with, and provided that the interests of irrigation are safeguarded; but even this rather half-hearted opinion is discounted by the fact that in October last, when answering the circular to the Government Agents, he laid down that "the more I consider the matter, the more 2702, Eu strongly do I feel the force of the arguments p. 5. brought forward by the Commissioners in their report against the abolition of the existing grain tares, viz., the land tax on paddy and the import duty on rice and paddy, and the imposition of a
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land tax in place of them.” And this again was, he says, a reversal of a previous opinion in favour of a land tax. Mr. Saunders, like Mr. Twynam, only hesitates about the tax because a ovy has been raised against it. His own personal opinion is as follows: "I do not believe that the grain tax is Enel 8
regarded as an objectionable tax by the bulk of "the people who pay it, and I consider the Grain 4. Tax Ordinance to be one of the best laws in the "Statute Book."
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The Ceylon National Association, who, in s pamphlet annexed to the papers, criticise the grain tax and make suggestions for providing substitutes, are not distinguished for wisdom or weight. Under their old name, the Ceylon Agricultural Association, they were described by Sir Arthur Gordon as a "somewhat_grotesque clique." Their chief man, Mr. Rama-Nathan, is, to judge from his speech in the late debate, not at one with his fellow members in their conclusions. In that debate two points Enel. §. among others may be noted; first, that its opener, Mr. Christie, the planting member, has expressed himself strongly against expenditure on large irrigation works, which expenditure is closely con. nected with this grain revenue, and secondly, that the cautious terme in which his motion was worded show the difficulty which even opponents of the tax feel with regard to abolishing it. His motion was, That no unnecessary delay should take place in affording moh relief as the circumstanoss of the "revenue will admit to paddy growers, and that in
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the opinion of this Council the eventual abolition "of the pady tax should be aimed at, in order to
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