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generally, but authorises the Governor and Executive Council to fix a later day in any specified district or district should stand. They express a hope that in carrying out the provisions of the measure care will be taken to make, as far as possible, the annual commutation payable at that time of the year in each district when the cultivator is most likely to have the means in his hands for paying it.

11. The remaining alterations of the Bill which the Sub-Committee have to suggest will be found in the amended draft, but do not require special reference.

12. The Sub-Committee are satisfied from the inquiries which they have made and the information which they have received, that the success of the measure will depend much upon the Commissioner or Commissioners to whom the duty of carrying it into effect will be entrusted. They venture to express a hope that gentlemen will be selected for this office whose sympathies will be with the people, the object of the Government being, not the increase of the revenue, but the settlement of this branch of taxation upon a sound and equitable basis.

Legislative Council Chamber,

Colombo, 9th December 1878.

No. 2.

J. DOUGLAS. RICHARD CAYley, F. R. SAUNDERS. W. D. WRIGHT.

M. COOMARA Swamy.

J. VANLANGENBERG.

J. P. OBEYESEKARA. G. B. LEECHMAN.

The Right Honourable Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH, Bart., to Governor Sir J. R. LONGDEN, K.C.M.G.

(Telegraphic.)

GRAIN tax Ordinance sanctioned.

Proposed arrangements approved.

(No. 97.)

No. 3.

Downing Street, 31st March.

The Right Honourable Sir MICHAEL Hicks BEACH, Bart., to Governor Sir J. R. LONGDEN, K.C.M.G.

•

Downing Street, 18th April 1879.

1. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch, No. 32, of the 27th January, forwarding Ordinance No. 11 of 1878 of the Legislature of Ceylon, entitled " An Ordinance to make better provision for the due collection of the Tax,

Duty, or Share due to Government upon Grain grown in this Island."

2. You will have already learnt from my telegram of the 31st ultimo, that this Ordi. nance has been sanctioned, and I now have formally to convey to you Her Majesty's gracious confirmation and allowance of it.

3. In doing so, I have much pleasure in expressing the satisfaction with which I have read your Despatch, and the very clear and able report of the Queen's Advocate which accompanied it.

4. I shall be glad to hear further from you as soon as sufficient data have been collected on any or all of the various points to which reference was then made.

(Signed) M. E. HICKS BEACH,

SIB,

No. 4.

Governor Sir J. R. LONGDEN, K.C.M.G., to the Right Honourable Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH, Bart.

(No. 185.)

(Received 23rd June 1879.)

Pavilion, Kandy, Ceylon,

12th May 1879.

WITH reference to my Despatch, No. 32, of the 27th of January last, forwarding the Grain Tax Ordinance, I have the honour to report that I have appointed a Com- mission to inquire and report upon the best mode of assessing and collecting the duty or tax upon what is known as dry grain.

2. Much greater difficulties have always been anticipated in the task of commuting the taxes on dry grain than in the commutation of the Paddy tax, owing to the very occasional character of the dry grain cultivation, the small parcels of land or gardens on which the plants subject to the tax are grown and other causes. While commutation of the Paddy tythe has been in force for many years in some provinces, and the people, speaking broadly, are not disinclined to the general adoption of it, there is no actual precedent for the commutation of the dry grain tax, and many of the people of the Northern Province in which this grain is principally grown are decidedly opposed to commutation, and have avowed their preference to pay the tythe in kind instead of commuting. I would especially invite your attention to the inclosures in the letter of the Government Agent of the Northern Province, dated 11th December 1878, printed at pages 27, 28, 29, and 30 of Sessional Paper XXXVI, a copy of which I inclose for 1. immediate reference. It will be seen from the reported remarks of the speakers at the meetings held in the Northern Province that there are peculiar difficulties in the way of commuting the dry grain tax which do not exist in the case of the Paddy lands, and in respect to which the Commission will be able to collect the precise information which it is essential to have before proceeding to commute the tax.

3. I have selected for the Commission, Colonel Fyers, R.N., the Surveyor-General, Mr. Twynam, the Government Agent of the Northern Province, and Mr. Moir, acting Government Agent of the Eastern Province. All these gentlemen are thoroughly acquainted with the question, and a report most valuable for the guidance of the Government may be expected from them.

4. I should have issued the Commission some time ago, but Mr. Twynam has been engaged in superintending the Pearl Fishery, and could not give his attention to the Commission at an earlier date. I enclose a copy of the Commission.

The Right Honourable Sir M. E. Hicks Beach, M.P.

&c.

&c.

&c.

I have, &c. (Signed) J. R. LONGDEN,

Governor.

2.

• No. 1.

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No. 1.

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