PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TILICO. 882
9
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
40
This was in itself an that the system was working. They felt that money which should have come into the public chest was being diverted into private pockets. evil, but none of the administrators dared to touch even the fringe of the subject, On all hands it has been admitted that it is an evil, and that it strange to say. bas demoralised the people the whole system has demoralised the people, under this system the arrack renters enriched themselves, and in most cases illicit sales of arrack were carried on; and general demoralisation followed. But, strange to We find say, from Sir Frederick North down to Sir Henry Blake, this question was not
Why, it is difficult to say. grasped by any one of our administrators. that the first movement towards a reform was made in 1586, during the régime of Sir James Longden, when his Auditor-General, the late Mr. Ravenscroft, evidently realising that through the ruin of the coffee industry the revenue of the Island would suffer greatly, bethought himself of doing something to arrest the decline. He wrote a meniorandum, often quoted here and outside the precincts of this Chamber, But he was unable and substantially the conclusion that he arrived at was that the farming system was admittedly a defective method of collecting the revenue.
to suggest a remedy which he could confidently say was one that would be effective. Ile advised the greatest possible caution in dealing with the question. It was a delicate question; the revenue from arrack then was pretty considerable, something over a million rupees; and no administrator would, simply because he apprehended that he would be taunted with wanting to make a revenue from arrack, sacrifice it. He said that if the people indulged in the luxury of drinking arrack, they must be made to pay for it; and that if a tax were levied, nobody should share with the He suggested an excise system, and he Government any portion of that revenue. put the cost of disestablishment down at Rs. 44,000 per annum, but Mr. Twynam, of Jaffna, considered that it would be nearer Rs. 100,000. Sir William Twynam now, Then, the question arose whether a revenue which was being collected without any trouble or expense, without an effort almost, should be risked, or that such a large sum of money should be spent in its collection by a different system. Sir, the next was a report by a Select Committee in 1887. On that Committee were experienced men like Messrs. Moir, Saunders, Sharpe, Downall, and Burrows. Those gentlemen were well acquainted with all the requirements of Ceylon; they were planters and officials; and they, with one voice, objected to the excise system. But it is quite It has been left, Sir, clear that the reason, the only reason, that induced them to object to the excise system was the question of the possible danger to the revenue. to you to make a bold and daring attempt to grapple with this question (hear, hear !); and I hope your efforts will be crowned with success. Sir, you will have done your should stand up for duty to the Colony, for which the Colony will ever be grateful to you. (Hear, hear!) I came into Council yesterday with a firm conviction that the coconut industry, and insist with all the energy I possess, that arrack should be made only out of the coconut palm. Now, we have all been accustomed to regard A very learned authority, Dr. H. M. arrack as the product of the coconut tree. Fernando, whose statement I accepted in full, in a recent speech said that arrack made out of jagger was not pure arrack, that it was an inferior kind of rum, and 1 determined to do all I could to prevent the people from drinking what was not good arrack; and I looked at Ordinance No. 10 of 1844, and I there found that the law laid down that arrack should be distilled only out of the coconut palm or other palm or sugar cane, and I was going to ask you to direct that a definition of arrack should be inserted in the interpretation clause-- also that a clause should be inserted in the Ordinance to prevent spirit being made in Ceylon from any other deleterious substances, such as Madras jaggery was said to be. But I heard yester- day-and the statement was made authoritatively-and subsequent inquiries have confirmed me in the belief that the distillation of a drinkable spirit should not be restricted to any particular base; that is to say, that good spirit can be made from a variety of substances, and that it would be a mistake, therefore, to ask that we should be bound to make our spirit only from the coconut palm or the sugar
cane.
The Honourable the COLONIAL SECRETARY: I do not wish to interrupt the Honourable Member, but I think it may interest him to know that whisky, for instance, has no fixed base, precisely in the same way as is suggested in regard to arrack.
The Honourable the BURGHER MEMBER: Nor any other spirit!
The Honourable the COLONIAL Secretary: None.
The Honourable the BURGHER MEMBER: Nor brandy?
The Honourable the COLONIAL SECRETARY: Nor brandy.
11
The Honourable the BURGHER MEMBER: As long as you can make a good drink- able spirit out of toddy or other substance-- if you make it even of jaggery-the base would be the coconut. That was my chief point. That was the point on which I was going to do battle-that we should not allow the coconut industry to suffer. But we know, Sir, that coconuts have risen so much in value, that I believe that if the rise goes on--and there is no reason to think that it will not that people will not give their coconut trees in Ceylon to be tapped for toddy. (Hear, hear!) Į am sure that time is coming, because I have heard that coconuts have been sold at Rs. 100 per thousand. It I could have foreseen this, I should have been a happy man to-day (Laughter); and 1 should have been the proud possessor of thousands of acres of land planted for me on the yoïya system without any personal expendi- ture. (Laughter.) 1 should have had such au estate to-day, and perhaps my ambition would have taken me away from this Colony. (Laughter.) Now, Sir, with that point gained, I do not know what I have to ask for, except with regard to this question of local option. Now, I am really afraid to say what I wish to say, lest some of the good people in Ceylon would say unkind things of me, or conclude that I am opposed to local option. I am really afraid to say so, because there are so many missionaries and others in Ceylon who say that local option is going to be the panacea of all the evils of Ceylon as regards drink. Now, Sir, if we were to test any village-supposing we sent a missionary to an outlying village, who would put it to the vote as to whether a tavern should be established in that village or not, you will find, Sir, all the illicit sellers will rank themselves on the same side as the missionary!
The Honourable the COLONIAL SECRETARY: Hear, hear!
The Honourable the BURGHER MEMBER: They would be the very people who would insist that their voice should be heard, and that no taverns should be established.
The Honourable the COLONIAL SECRETARY: Hear, hear!
The Honourable the BURGHER MEMBER: That being a fact, it would be interest- ing to inquire why it is so. Well, Sir, I do not wish to bring my personal experience to bear upon a matter of this sort, but having been the Crown Proctor of Colombo for many years, I have a very clear idea of the old renting system; because, Sir, it was part of my business, and contributed considerably to my monthly income and one is often very liable to remember the causes that contributed to filling his pocket. (Laughter.) Now, in 1876 I happened to be appointed Crown Proctor of Colombo, and I think about the 10th of every month I used to have thirty or forty bundles of papers sent to me for the purpose of instituting proceedings against the men then called recalcitrant arrack renters. The only person who benefited by their inability to pay was myself. (Laughter.) They would be put in Court; judgment would never be entered, as they would come ten or fifteen days after institution to pay the Crown Proctor's fees and stamp fees and go away. This went on merrily for many years, and, so far as I myself was concerned, I did not mind for how long; but the Government Agent, Mr. Dawson, suspected that there was a com- bination amongst the renters, and so there was, and he thought he would be equal to the occasion, and he asked for the permission of Government to call for tenders, instead of putting up the rents to auction. The tenders were called for, and the arrack renters were in a manner divided; they had to bid against each other because This went on for some years. Mr. Ellis then of this new system of tenders. appeared on the scene, and he said: "You seem to have been making too much out of this system; I will see that they do not get a rent without depositing a full month's instalment. The result was that my interest ceased; these renters were not put in court monthly. I watched proceedings. About twenty years ago these renters found that they were paying into Government coffers what they thought was too large an amount. They combined; every year or two there were ten or twelve tenders before the Government Agent sent in by the syndicate. This went on for about thirty years. I am bound to say that it is generally supposed that these renters made huge fortunes. I do not think that was quite the case. renter is exposed to a great deal of risk; the tavern keepers are, more or less, scamps or rogues; and their servants were drunk all day, and they try to get what they can out of their master; and so it came to pass that what they really made out of the outlay, when they had to deposit Rs. 100,000 as security in cash, which was only got at a high rate of interest from the Chetty, was about 12 to 15 per cent., I think, at the outside, after paying the Government dues. It is only during the last two or three years that one man put up for the Colombo rent. I think the
""
The
1