CO882-(4-5) — Page 197

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TELEC.O. 882

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

13,479.

(No. 228.)

MY LORD,

•

No. 2.

SIR A. H. GORDON to LORD KNUTSFORD.

(Received July 6, 1889.)

Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon,

June 17, 1889.

I HAVE had the honour to receive your Lordship's despatch, No. 115, of the 7th ultimo, enclosing a copy of certain questions asked in the House of Commons, and calling for my observations and report thereon.

2. To the first question of Mr. Barbour I have no hesitation in replying that it is not true that, under the Commutation Act, 1878, the tax on grain has been raised 50 per

cent.

On the contrary, it has been considerably lowered.

3. The second question is put in such a form as to suggest that the honourable member was but very imperfectly acquainted with the subject to which he addressed himself. The separate lands of different owners are never united in one block for purposes of taxation. Each field is taxed separately, but a single field may be, and usually is, the property, in undivided shares, of many shareholders. The Crown does not accept from a single shareholder his proportionate amount of the tax, and as the interest sometimes amounts to the thirty-second share of four-fifths of an acre capable of cultivation, it may be, only once in 10 or 15 years, the reasons for dealing with each field as one whole are obvious. Moreover, where default is made, the land is not "confiscated," but put up for sale, and in such a case as that where the default has been on the part of a few out of a large body of shareholders, it is almost always bought in by their fellow-shareholders, from whose partnership the defaulters are thus thereafter excluded.

4. I wish I could meet with an equally positive negative the last question put by Mr. Barbour. In its full extent, the assertion it contains is not true, but it is true that land has been in some cases thrown out of cultivation under the Ordinance in a manner which is, I think, to be regretted.

5. The Ordinance of 1878 has been put in force in the following provinces :-

The Western Province,

The Southern Province,

The Eastern Province,

The Saffragam Province,

Parts of the Province of Uva.

It may, I think, be doubted whether it should have been brought into operation in either of the two last-named provinces.

6. In the Kalutara and Saffragam districts of the Western Province, it may, perhaps, be the case that too little consideration was at first shown to the cultivators in the working of the Ordinance; nor can it, I fear, be denied, that in parts of the Central Province, and in what is now the Province of Uva (which was then part of it) the voluntary commutation which preceded the present Ordinance was exacted by Sir J. F. Dickson when Government Agent, Central Province, with a vigour (or rather rigour) which was productive of great hardship. It is to these cases, and not to the operation of the Ordinance of 1878, that reference is made in the articles of the "Ceylon Independent" quoted by Mr. Barbour.

7. Since your Lordship's despatch was written, a letter has appeared in the English newspapers from Mr. C. S. Salmon, late Chief Civil Commissioner of Seychelles, in which he asserts that owing to the action of the grain tax, over a thousand persons have recently died of starvation in the neigbourhood of Nuwara Eliya. The authority given by Mr. Salmon for this statement is tast of Mr. George Wall, well-known as a political agitator here for the last 30 or 40 years. As the statement is a very. grave one, I sent for Mr. Wall (with whom am personally well acquainted), and asked him on what grounds he had made such an assertion. He at once replied, with the greatest levity, that he had seen the statement in a pamphlet of which he had forgotten both the title and the author's name, but which had seemed to him to be worthy of credit. I have directed the Government Agent of the province to make a searching inquiry into the circumstances and results of the evictions referred to, which took place several years ago.

• No. 1.

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8. The whole subject is now under careful consideration of a sub-committee of the Legislative Council, the report of which will, of course, be submitted to your Lordship.

I have, &c. (Signed) A. GORDON.

The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, G.C.M.G.,

&c.

14,957.

SIR,

(No. 197.)

&c.

&c.

No. 3.

LORD KNUTSFORD to Sm A. H. GORDON.

Downing Street, August 6, 1989. WITH reference to your despatch, No. 228, of the 17th of June, respecting the operation of the Grain Tax Commutation Act in Ceylon, I have the honour to enclose a copy of a further question which has been asked on the subject in the House of Commons, and of the answer which was given. I shall be glad if you will add to the report on the subject, which I trust inay be forwarded at no distant date, the return asked for by Sir Edward Watkin, in the last paragraph of his question, if it can be made out with any approximation to accuracy.

Sir A. Gordon.

Enclosure I in No. 3.

I have, &c. (Signed)

KNUTSFORD.

Sir Edward Watkin.-To ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies why the

Returns of "Vital Statistics in Ceylon, formerly published as a supplement to the

Gazette," were stopped in 1887.

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2. Whether it is the case that the deaths recorded in these returne under the item of "deaths by starvation” were mainly produced by the eviction of the cultivators from ancestral holdings for nonpayment of rent or tax.

3. Whether these evictions have been and are now carried ou by thousands in a year,

and invariably followed by starvation and death.

4. And will he grant a return of the number of evictions and deaths from starvation for each year 1869 to 1889, inclusive.

Enclosure 2 in No. 3.

As

Baron H. de Worms.-It is not known why the statistics alluded to in the first paragraph of the question, which were printed in 1887, were not again printed last year in the Gazette." They are no doubt published in the administrative reports. regards the second paragraph, it is not known here that the deaths from starvation, which were three in 1886 and nine in 1887, were the result of evictions. As regards the third paragraph, the Governor ascertained that the author of this grave statement could adduce no proofs in support of it, and it is believed to be at least a very gross exaggeration. The Governor is causing a searching inquiry to be made into the circumstances and results of the evictions, and will be requested to cause the return mentioned in the last paragraph of the question to be added to the report.

Sir Edward Watkin.-Can the Right Honourable gentleman say when the information is likely to be received?

Baron H. de Worms.-There will be no delay whatever in obtaining the information.

• No. 2.

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