PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
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C.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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to Report of Beat Committee, 17.
12,76,3.
Eastern No. 26,
#9-60.
992, Encl. 7,
14.
rt, p. I
86, &c.
792, Enci. 3.
lastern No. 26,
18-16.
17.
28.
, Encl. 7,
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the younger officers, Mr. Brodhurst writes: "I con **sider that a land tax would be fairer, lighter in its "incidence, and altogether preferable."
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There is one very good authority in favour of the eventual practicability of a land tax, i.e., Sir F. Dickson. In a short memorandum on the Report of the Select Committee, received in July last, he says: "The condemnation of a general land tax, is "too sweeping; it may be at the present time
impolitic and undesirable, but it is not impractic "able. 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 substitu- "tion for all Customs duties, thus abolishing all taxes on imported grain, and making Ceylon s "free port, and levying a fair Crown rent on all " land in private hands, and not only on grain- "producing land" and he adds that the first step to be taken is to give up the present system of Grain Commissioners, and obtain an experienced Indian settlement officer to direct operations. This opinion, it may be added, coincides with the opinion of the Committee of 1877 (of which he was a member), who, while summing up the difficulties in the way of any immediate introduction of a land tax, yet considered "that possibly at some future day it may be desir- "able to adopt it."
Some of the difficulties in the way of a general land tax may conveniently be summed up here.
(1.) The unpopularity of a new and strange tax, to which reference has already been made. Mr. Jevers thinks that "the distastefulness of a land "tax to the Native landholder is
largely
"due to the idea that such a tax would be a supple- "ment to rather than a reduction of existing "taxation."
(2.) The difficulty of assessment. The Select Committee comment on the "extreme difficulty of "the measure owing to the complication of titles, "the varying tenures, and the minute subdivision "of land."
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The authorities, however, are not at one as to how far complete surveys of the Island are necessary before a land tax can be levied. The Surveyor- General says, "A survey is not the indispensable preliminary to the assessment of land for taxation, as the area of an unsurveyed land can for all practical purposes be estimated in paddy sowing "extent." His predecessor apparently agreed with him; and Mr. Fisher says, "The objection generally "raised as to the necessity of a preliminary cadas- "tral survey is untenable, as the Native method of computation of areas could be equally applied, and as successfully, to high lands sa to low landa." On the other hand, the Surveyor. General's statement is criticised by the Government Agent of Sabaragamuwa, who holds “that it should "be an indispensable condition of a general land "tax that it should be preceded by a survey of the "land to be so taxed." Sir F. Dickson clearly contemplates a complete and careful survey as a necessary preliminary to the introduction of a land tax; and Mr. O'Brien takes the same view, as based
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both on Indian and on Ceylon experienes, pointing out that in India two surveys are required, one by the Survey Department and the other by the Bevande Department. The what of a proper sarvey is mach felt even by the present Grain Commissioners for the purposes of the grain tax alone, as is shown by the App A. M evidence of Mr. M. A. King, the Chief Grain of Select Ce Commissioner.
mittes, p.
(3.) The difficulty of collection. Mr. Saunders 2792, Exod.1 put this very strongly: "It is in the collection of the tax that I apprehend such very great diffoulty.”
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The same procedure (as in
"the case of the grain tax) would have to be extended generally throughout the Island for the recovery of a land tax and with greatly magnified ** resulta.
The fact is that direct taxation
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喝着
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the Encl. 7, p. &
"in any form is most dificult to collect in this country, however fair it may be and however light may be its incidence on the people generally. Mr. Moir's opinion as to difficulty of collection has already been quoted. He adds that he does not consider a land tax would supply an equivalent for the grain tax, "not so "much because it would be impracticable to fix
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upon rates which would be fair for all lands, although, as stated, that would be a labour of great magnitude and difficulty, but because I do "not believe that the rates could be collected." Mr. Templer mys, "The difficulties of collection and p. 9. "the liability to expropriation would be spread
over a larger area than under the grain tax,” Mr. Fisher says, "It can hardly be questioned that "a general land tax of the scope contemplated by "the Committee, by reason of its being an “universal direct tax, would be most unpopular, "that it would be both expensive and dificult to "collect, and that the abuses now existing with
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regard to the collection and assessment of the grain tax would be proportionately increased."
P.
18.
Mr. Wace points out that "the difficulties in the p. 22.
way of introduction and recovery of a general land tax have been forcibly illustrated by the working of the Grain Tax Ordinance during the "last ten years." Inasmuch as the hardship caused by recovery under that Ordinance was alleged to arise from its being practically a land tax, the difficulty of recovering a general land tax is likely to be very much greater than that of recovering the grain tax. In the opinion of the Select Committee Report, p.
C
the sales under the Grain Tax Ordinance" are as par. 35.
nothing compared to the endless evictions which would inevitably be entailed by the operation of a general land tax in Ceylon.”
In his despatch Sir Arthur Havelook expresses his 1792, opinion that his advisers have not sufficiently, con- sidered the merits of a land tax at a uniform low rate. Whatever relief, however, were given by such a tax, the collection would still be difficult. In bad years it is not so much a question of not paying much as of not paying at all; and, for the same reason, in the calculation of the amount to be derived from suoli a tax, allowance must be made for arrears of tax in bad years. It seems váry
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