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C.O. 882
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such an impost as 58. per acre on these patches of land would almost be a prohibition in the way of native coffee planting, and the crushing of an industry which is largely spreading and improving the condition of the people in the higher districts.
18. I may next refer to cocoanut plantations. My figures represent all land planted with cocoanuts, whether in bearing or not, but for the first seven or eight years at least there is no return from this tree. It would be impossible to tax a tract of land producing nothing. Were it to be levied at the rate of 38. an acre for seven or eight years, till the trees were in bearing, the tax would generally double the actual cost of the land at the usual upset price. I believe that the very apprehension of the tax would deter from this branch of cultivation. I could go into other items and give reasons why it is more than doubtful whether the amount assigned to them could be obtained.
19. The summing up of the first branch of the question is to this effect :-
1st. That no substitute for the customs duty on imported grain and on home-grown
rice has been suggested except a general tax.
2nd. That the loss to the revenue, were a land tax to be substituted for the present
system, would be not less than 68,000l., or 70,000l. per annum.
20. Next arises the very grave question, how far would such a change of taxation be acceptable to the people. Since I began this despatch much light has been thrown on the subject by the Sinhalese member of council, Mr. Alwis, who moved the following
resolution :-
"That a Committee or Commission be appointed to inquire into the taxes on food now levied in Ceylon, and to report whether it would be advisable or acceptable to the people of this island to substitute a general land tax in their place, and, if not, whether it would not be possible to devise a better mode of levying the existing tax on paddy than by the injurious mode of farming it which generally prevails at present."
21. Mr. Alwis is a Sinhalese gentleman of high position. He is a man of wealth, character, and learning, and has deservedly much influence among his countrymen, 2. 22. I forward a copy of the debate, which is well deserving of attention. Mr. Alwis expressed no disapprobation of the import duties nor of the paddy tithe, as such, which he showed was in harmony with the traditions and the feelings of the people; but he commented strongly and most unfavourably on the proposal to establish a land tax. He intimated that it would be universally resisted, and that not a single native would be found to advocate it. He pointed out with remarkable force the great injustice of removing from the immigrant and floating population the only tax they pay for the protection they receive, by converting the customs duty into a land tax, and thereby Baddling the cultivators of Ceylon with an impost of 112,0007. in addition to the 110,000%. which they now pay. I calculate that the planters pay 65,0001. of this duty, thus making up the sum total to 177,000l. At the same time he expressed his strongest disapprobation of the renting system, and reiterated all the arguments which have been used against it by the best authorities. In summing up the debate very briefly, and in granting the Commission of inquiry asked for, I stated that I fully concurred in all that had been alleged by Mr. Alwis against the renting system, that it was indefensible in principle, and in practice mischievous and oppressive. This had been almost universally acknowledged. How then did it continue? Was it supported by the Secretary of State? Certainly not. It had always been viewed with disapprobation at home.
Was it the Governors who upheld it? Certainly not. They had condemned it and tried to substitute commutation in its place. No one had a stronger opinion in this respect or had more frequently expressed it than myself. Was it the Government agents? They had for a long period by their annual reports expressed as adverse opinions to its continuance as Mr. Alwis himself. It was solely owing to the intense stereotyped con- servatism of an Oriental people who were accustomed to do things in a certain way from a long period of time, and who would not move out of the beaten track except by com- pulsion. This compulsion the Government did not wish to resort to. They lived in hope that with the spread of wealth and education the natives themselves would abandon this wretched system, which no one in authority wishes to maintain, and which imposes a vast amount of trouble. I was fully able to corroborate Mr. Alwis' statement that to the tithe on paddy there is no objection whatever. I have spoken to the cultivators in all parts of the island and in no case have I ever heard an unfavourable comment on the tithe, though I have had many representations as to the manner in which it is levied. In every instance where I have asked if they would be willing to have a land tax accompanied with a reduction of tithe, they have shown the strongest aversion to it. It was tried originally when Ceylon was under the East Indian Government, and it had to be abandoned. It was subsequently tried by Sir Edward Barnes, a man of inflexible
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will, but he found the levying of a tax on gardens and small plots to be so objectionable, and fraught with such an amount of resistance, evasion, and extortion, that he also abandoned it.
23. I have alluded to the intense conservatism of the East. Changes are unwillingly accepted even if the benefit of the change be acknowledged; how dangerous would it therefore be to introduce such a change as that proposed into the taxation of the country, the benefit of which would be hotly and in native opinion universally contested. A general land tax is undoubtedly a more fair mode of raising a revenue than is a partial tax on grain, but no one who has studied the history of the Sepoy mutiny can fail to recognise that the sympathies of the villagers in many districts were enlisted on the side of the revolt solely or chiefly by changes in the administrative system, the beneficial effects of which could not be denied, but which evoked suspicion, irritation, and insur- rection. "No man of healthy intellect can express a doubt that the system of govern- "ment which the English introduced into Oude was far superior to that which was
superseded."
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"We are in too great a hurry to do good after our own fashion, and so introduce sudden changes which the people rarely understand, and often resent until resentment grows into resistance."
"Our zealous civilians instead of waiting plunged at once into a great sea of reform, and raised a storm which could only be subdued by an overwhelming army.”—Kaye's Sepoy War, vol. III.
24. In dealing with an Oriental people we may remodel and alter indirect taxation as much as we please, but the imposition of fresh direct taxation is a very serious matter, the consequences of which no one can foretel.
25. The objection to the paddy tithe, as I said before, not to the tithe itself, but to the mode in which it is collected. I have also pointed out that the reason it continues is owing to the desire on the part of the Government to defer to the wishes of the culti- vators, and not to force on them a reform they are unwilling to accept. Sir Charles Layard, in his Administration Report of 1869-1870, wrote to this effect: "There has always been an unwillingness on the part of paddy growers in the maritime districts to bind themselves to any money, payment to Government. The payment in kind they have long been accustomed to, and they prefer it with all the inconveniences of the renting system to committing themselves to an obligation which their improvidence, "of which they are not unconscious, might disable them from fulfilling, and the non- "fulfilment of which would entail the possible loss of the property which secures the "ultimate recovery of whatever may be due by them." Mr. Sharpe, the Assistant Government Agent of Badulla, a civil servant of experience, in a recent report corrobo- rates this view, which is generally entertained by our revenue officers. Mr. Sharpe says: "The value of commutation is I think understood generally; but whenever the cultiva- "tion is precarious the people prefer to face the renter when there is a crop and the "Crown share is sold, rather than pay on an average however low for a long series of
years during which there is no crop." He is, however, referring to certain districts where the supply of water cannot be relied on.
26. The following return also shows that at one time there was a rapid increase of commutation up to 1870, but that from that period it has been declining considerably :
GRAIN TITHES.
Rented.
3
50,824
Commuted.
£
1860
11,980
1862
51,682
-
10,992
1865
·
75,124
·
22,100
1870
54,978
·
43,776
1873
·
49,937
32,093
1874 1875
47,485
28,818
·
59,589
·
26,990
Ka
27. Mr. Alwis has not hesitated to indicate that he would not object to enforce compulsion of commutation, if it cannot otherwise be effected, and the Committee now appointed will inquire whether the rate of commutation has been too high, whether B
A. 684.
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