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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TTIC.O. 882

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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH---PEKT

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON:

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from this sum, if the Kandyan provinces are excluded from the calculation, which reasons have been assigned for doing.

All this is very loose and vague. But one thing is tolerably clear, viz., that the field for the immediate extension of the Ceylon land-tax is but moderately wide. The future extension of the land-tax in times to come must, however, not be neglected in our calculation. The popu- lation and agriculture of Ceylon is rapidly increasing. At present seven-eighths of the island is a jungle, and only one-eighth culti- vated. The time may not be distant when these proportions may be reversed. Long before that time arrives, the expenses and necessities of the Government, growing with the sphere of its duties, may compel it to resort to the agri- culture that is thriving under its protection, for the defrayment of the charges incident to the office of protector. The recognition of its claim on the land then depends upon the asser- tion of its right now. If the traditional prero- gative of the Crown is much longer neglected, it will become obsolete altogether; and there will remain no appeal but that one so uncertain of issue, and so likely to be tried by physical force-the appeal, namely, to the law of nature. The fact then that the future prospects of the revenue are so much contingent upon the immediate rectification and extension of the land-tax in Ceylon, must be admitted to coun- tervail a considerably degree of objection to the measure on the score of expense.

The extension of the land-tax presupposes---- what is in fact the chief expense-a survey of some sort; except perhaps in cases where the condition of the people does not admit of their paying a money assessment, but only of contri- butions in kind; though even here a survey of the boundaries of the several holdings, and a record of the different conditions on which they are held the obligation, for instance, to pay this or that proportion of gross produce, or this

or that fixed quantity of produce—would be a manifest and acknowledged desideratum, no

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less as a protection to the Government than as a guide to bidders under the farming system which is generally adopted in these cases. Further than this, where levies in kind were concerned, it would obviously be needless for revenue purposes to push the survey.

Where money assessments are in view, a sur- of wider scope is in a manner indispensable.

vey

A money assessment is of necessity based either on an actual survey and valuation simultane- ously made, or on some ancient or previous survey adopted for the occasion. Now a tho rough, elaborate, systematic, and scientific in- quiry like Mr. Bird's in the only fair basis of a land-tax; and if the landholders do not resist

it, though very expensive at the time, is good economy in the end, not less from its numerous collateral advantages in drying up the sources

of litigation and clearing out the channels of industry, than as being the most efficient means to its own specific end of assessment. In the case of Ceylon, none of these kinds of advan- tage would be absent. It was owing, in all probability, to the want of a scientific and systematic plan, that the past attempts to extend the land-tax in Ceylon over a great number of small holdings, invariably ended in inextricable confusion and the abandon- ment of the undertaking. It in certainly ,owing to the want of such a survey, that whether in the taxed or untaxed parts of the island, the territorial rights and relations of the Government in respect of its subjects, and of its subjects amongst themselves, are so deplorably ill-defined and insecure.

The advantage of carrying such a systematic survey over the lands which are at prosentt taxedl, fa not leas clear than the almost necessity of carrying it over the lands we inimed' to

in fature. The advantage expected in the Tase on the old field of mastion, anti

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taken apart, may be small fou

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