CO882-(1-2) — Page 178

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:

LLC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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ing us their services to pick our coming crop; and we shall most certainly avail ourselves of all the hands we may require. Even the latter part of last year we experienced the salutary effects of Govern- ment; for we gave employment tom any Singhalese residents in our neighbourhood, who informed us that their motive for working was, that they had to meet the new taxes. Their services were indeed acceptable, for the ricts had frightened numbers of the Malabars from the island, and we with others suffered from paucity of labour. Even if Lord Torrington's policy should effect no other benefit than this for Ceylon, it is one moral and social advantage which it would be impossible to over estimate.-

"Trusting, my dear Sir Emerson, that we may have the honour to see you ere you embark for England,

"We remain, &c. (Signed)

G. and M. B. WORMS."

These taxes have been misrepresented as the pro- jects of myself and others, persons new to the colony, and inexperienced in the habits and customs of the natives; and that they proved objectionable in consequence of their injudicious selection and

vexatious machinery.

They were, however, no novel suggestions of

mine.

They were not suggested for the first time in my the Report on Revenue in 1846; on the contrary, appendix to that report contained documents to show that they had been recommended years before I came to Ceylon; and proposed for adoption not by persons inexperienced in the colony, and unac- quainted with the natives and their habits, but the oldest civil servants in the island, and amongst them Mr. Anstruther, who now condemns their operation, though he himself was the foremost to urge their

enactment.

In 1842, when the rage for coffee-planting was at its height, and when roads were clamorously re- quired to open up the districts in which landa had been purchased from the Crown, the colony was in no condition to undertake their construction. There had been annually deficiencies of revenue to meet current expenditure. Mr. Anstruther had himself

See Mr. Wode- 4672, 6,555.

house's Evidence,

ļ

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représented the Colonial Treasury to be "so com- pletely drained," as to render it difficult to provide funds for the ordinary charges.

And a committee was in consequence appointed to consider and report on the best means for pro- viding funds to construct roads to the interior.

That committee consisted of Mr. Anstruther; Mr. Wright, the Auditor-General;

Mr. Gibson, the Government Agent of the West- ern Province; and

Four unofficial Members.

The result of their deliberations was to recommend the immediate imposition of certain taxes which they particularised, and which it was indispensable to propose at once, rather than await the tardy opera- tion of other expedients which they considered, but which would not be ràpidly productive.

These taxes were,

I. A Land Tax, to include the lands of the natives, "for by working on the roads, all such will have the means of commuting their tax to labour;

and if disposed to work for their subsistence, they may easily earn far more than they pay "-p. vii.

The committee recommended it as a check on the vexatious practice of the natives to set up false claims to land, which now constitutes one of the greatest obstacle to its acquisition and cultivation by planters.—p. viii.

[Mr. Henry Layard now (6211) gives it as one of the causes of the rebellion that these claims were not admitted! but his own evidence in the Com- mittee of 1842 was strongly in favour of levying a direct tax on the lands of the natives, in order to check their false claims.]

II. A Fish-Tur, "as its abolition in 1833 had neither led to the extension of fisheries, nor caused any diminution of the price of fish." (Tb.)

III. A Tar on Fire-Arms, as a legitimate source of revenue, "in the shape of a gun licence; one which would be willingly submitted to and easily collected; and on political grounds a register of arms is highly desirable," from their increasing importation.

IV. A Tax upon Dogs.

V. A Tax upon Carriages and Horses.

VI. A Tax upon Carta. [The native witnesses recommend it, p. 69.]