PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
THECO, 882
6
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
|ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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Ceylon. The first statement is an instance of the unfortunate exaggerations which are employed by many critics of the new scheme. The total number of toddy shops established in the first year was only 1,167, and the number for 1913-14 is only 989; while the number of villages in Ceylon amounts to many thousands. The fact, of course, is that the object of this Government is to abolish the illicit toddy sales which ave hitherto been carried on in almost every village in which there are toddy-pro- ducing palms.
The second allegation can only be stigmatised as a deliberate mis-statement. The Ordinance was passed by the Legislative Council without a dissentient vote, and this fact must be perfectly well known to anybody who is sufficiently interested in the subject to read the newspaper reports of the debates.
This
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The Association conclude their Memorial by a request that a Committee of Enquiry may be appointed. Personally, I should welcome an enquiry by an inde- pendent Commissioner from outside the Colony, when the right time comes. Government has nothing to fear from any investigation. I deprecate, however, the holding of any such enquiry until the system has been at work long enough to enable a proper opinion to be formed of its merits. At the present moment & Commission could serve no useful purpose and would almost certainly do harm, as its appointment would be represented by interested parties as an indication that the fundamental principle of the reforms the separation of the sale of arrack from that of toddy— was still sub judice.
I have, &c.,
R. E. STUBBS, Officer Administering the Government.
Enclosure 1 in No.-9.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LEWIS HARCOURT, M.P.,
HIS MAJESTY's SecretaRY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.
The humble Memorial of the Low Country Products Association of Ceylon, Respect-
fully sheweth :-
Your Memorialists beg respectfully to thank you for the concessions you have already granted, or have suggested for further consideration, in connection with the working of the new Excise system of the Government of Ceylon. They appreciate the sympathetic consideration you have given to the suggestions, submitted by the various public bodies both in this island and in England, with the object of diminish- ing the evil of drink in this Colony.
2. On the 18th November last, at a general meeting of the members of the Low Country Products Association, the following resolution was passed unanimously:--
"That in view of the facts now available as to the opening of the toddy taverns and of the evil resulting therefrom, this Association would respect- fully submit to His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies the necessity of suppressing all these toddy taverns, which are injurions and useless to the public, and further that the Committee be empowered to draft a petition and take such other steps as it may deem necessary in furtherance of the above object."
3. Before entering on the discussion, authorised by the above resolution, of the question of the toddy taverns, your Memorialists consider it essential to expose some of the inaccuracies which unfortunately underlie the despatch of His Excellency the Governor, No. 466, of August 22nd, 1912, in reply to your despatch, Ceylon, No. 326, of the 26th July, as the general arguments therein maintained have an important bearing on the restriction of toddy and arrack taverns throughout this island.
4. Your proposal for the establishment of District Licensing Boards is welcomed by your Memorialists with the greatest appreciation, as being the only satisfactory form in which public opinion may be consulted, and may adequately influence the granting of liquor licences. In opposition to this proposal, and with a view to restricting the powers of those Boards to those of mere advisory bodies, the Government of Ceylon with great emphasis have advanced the remarkable view that in this Colony a reduction of arrack taverns is not followed by a diminution
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in the consumption of liquor. Five paragraphs (9 to 13) of the despatch are devoted to establish the contention, and the general argument is supported by a crucial instance with statistical details.
5. Your Memorialists hope to satisfy you that the argument is illogical and its conclusion erroneous. Since the question involved is one of fundamental im- portance in this controversy for upon it may turn the whole future policy of licensing in Ceylon your Memorialists claim your indulgence for a detailed criticism of the following paragraph :—
"In illustration of what I have written, I may mention the following facts. In the year 1898 the licensed taverns in the North-West Province (Kurunegala District) were reduced from 96 to 49. This action was adopted inder the mistaken belief that the reduction of the number of taverns would bring about a reduction of the amount of intoxicants consumed.
The sum paid by the arrack renter for the right to sell arrack and toddy in this area was, for the year immediately preceding the date from which the reduction in the number of taverns was made, Rs. 143,250. For the following years, however, it rose steadily, though the number of taverns was not increased. The figures are as follows:
"
1894
Rs. 102,700
1895
Rs. 101,400
1896
Rs. 110,080
1897
Rs. 133,280
1898
Rs. 143,250
1899
Rs. 140,000
1900
Rs. 140,000
1901
Rs. 166,650
1902
Rs. 181,770
1909
Rs. 181,770
The only inference to be drawn from this is that the reduction in the number of licensed taverns, far from leading to reduced consumption, resulted in a notable stimulation of illicit sales, to an actual increase of consumption, and to large quantities of liquor being bought and sold in circumstances which released them from all regulation and control."
6. Your Memorialists cannot help characterising the above as a flagrant instance of the misuse of statistical data. The Government revenue from arrack in the Kurunegala District rose by 26 per cent. during the five years 1890-1903, The contentions that such an increase of revenue necessarily proves an increased con- sumption of liquor, and that reduction of liquor [? licences] should result in a dimi- nution of the aggregate consumption of liquor in a community whose numbers are rapidly increasing and whose general prosperity is steadily advancing, are not only erroneous, but once more reveal that unpardonable ignor- ance of the factors governing the excise problem which has been a conspicuous failing of the advisers of Government throughout the whole controversy.
7. The briefest reflection will satisfy you, that the amount of revenue derived from liquor sales can be accepted as an index of the amount of liquor consumed only if the excise duty per gallon remains uniform, and under no other circum- stances. It is very material to the proper understanding of the illustrative case quoted by Government, to realise that the years under discussion synchronise with an era in the Excise administration of Ceylon, when, as a matter of settled policy, and. by an alteration in the law regulating the sale price of arrack, a deliberate attempt was made to reduce consumption by increasing the price of the retail vend. This attempt was undertaken under the advice of Mr. Ellis (vide Sessional Paper XXXI. of 1897), and came into operation just before 1809. When Mr. Ellis examined the figures in 1897 the amount of rent (excise duty) paid per gallon in the North-Western Province (in which the Kurunegala District is included) amounted to only Rs. 2.27. (Statement 9, Sessional Paper XXXI. of 1897.) On the other hand in 1910 the amount of rent per gallon had increased in the same Province to Rs. 4.74 (Statement 1, Sessional Paper I. of 1911), an increase of more than 100 per cent. If, then, this factor of the increase of contribution ner gallon to the revenue be kept in mind the figures quoted are governed solely by this factor-the fallacy of the Government becomes at once demonstrated. Whilst the revenue per gallon increased over 100 per cent. between the years 1897 and 1910, the total revenue from arrack increased by only 26 per cent. between the years 1899 and 1903. Such a state of affairs is quite consistent with the view that the number of gallons consumed in the district in 1903 may have been less than that consumed in 1899. So much for the operation of one factor.
8. There is another. It is a well-established fact that in a district or country, other facts remaining the same, the amount of liquor consumed rises with abounding
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