CO882-(4-5) — Page 209

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Tε Ti

سلبيا

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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10. "Especially in Walupane were fields over-assessed," says Mr. Baumgartner again, as I have several times had occasion to mention. There is no doubt that the asssess- ment of many fields in Walapane was excessive, and the register of commutation was signed by the owners rather for the sake of the collateral advantages, as securing to a "record of ownership, than because they accepted the agreement as to the amount of tax as a fair one. The assessment was carried out on the principle of making as little change as possible; and very little, if anything, was done to rectify errors and over- assessment." 11. “

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The commutation registers for the current term," said Mr. King, the Assistant Government Agent of Badulla, were not the result of a general re-assessment of the fields; they were almost entirely office compilations."-A. Ğ. A., Badulla, to G. A., 827 of August 9, 1884.

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12. Again, Mr. Baumgartner states:-" Another representation was made of the over-assessment to the Government Agent on 20th July 1877; and though the "Assistant Government Agent was authorised to make reductions, no appreciable

changes were made.”—A, G. A. to G. A., 806 of 10th November 1883.

13. The people of Walupane," he says, "have been very poor during the past few years. The coffee crops have failed; and I believe that the water supply for their fields has, in many instances, been permanently impaired by the clearing of forests for " estate or chena cultivation."

14. "In addition to this, a large portion of the population is very sickly, venereal disease being widely spread, and having made great ravages amongst them."

15. Again, in July 1883, Mr. Baumgartner finds the fields of Gangapaláta in Uda Héwaheta to be over-taxed; and Mr. Ekanayaka, the Kachchéri Interpreter, who was sent to Walapane in October 1883, to make seizures, reports that inany owners of fields stated that they never signed the register at all, but that a cross has been marked opposite their names without their consent, and that this was borne out by the fact that in the register of one Kórála all the signatures without exception were crosses, while the majority of the men knew how to sign their names, the signatures opposite to the names of the headmen even being crosses.*A. G. A. to G. A., 551 of 20th July 1883.

16. The practical proof, however, of the over-assessment is to be found in the reduc- tions made by Mr. G. W. Templer, the Grain Commissioner, in Uda Héwáheta in 1888, and by myself in Kotmalé in 1888, and in Walapane this year; the reductions amounting to 23 per cent. in Uda Héwáheta, to 12 per cent. in Kotmalé, and to no less than from 50 to 60 per cent. in Walapane.

17. The causes of the large arrears outstanding at the beginning of 1881 are now clear. They were, first, the over-assessment of the fields; second, the injury to the water supply by the clearing of forests for estate or chena cultivation; third, sickly nature of the population; and fourth, and principally, the failure of the coffee crops.

18. It was the first three causes that induced the then Assistant Government Agent to abstain from taking stringent measures to recover the tax, and it was the fourth that prevented the realisation of their hope and that of the people, that "next year" would give them a good crop, and enable them to meet their liabilities.

Measures taken to recover Arrears.

19. This, then, was the position of affairs in 1881, when I was appointed to the administration of the district.

20. There were arrears extending from 1878 amounting to about Rs. 13,500; it was practically impossible to recover them except by the sale of the lands and the eviction

of the owners.

21. I, therefore, adopted the method of recovery by putting up the fields to public auction, bidding them up and buying them in for the Crown, and then allowing the original owners to continue in possession, giving one-fourth of the produce to the Crown instead of paying the assessed value of one-tenth of it, until the arrears were wiped off.→→ A. G. A. to G. A., 956 of 30th December 1881.

22. This method was sanctioned by Government and continued in operation for some time; but after I had left the district, and Mr. Baumgartner had succeeded me, the Government Agent cancelled the arrangement in April, 1882, and insisted on the arrears being paid up. Col. Sec. to G. A., 154 of 17th February 1882.

• This is the case not in one kóralé a'one, but throughout the district.

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23. The sales-first of all movables and crops and then of the fields-began in July 1882, and were continued from time to time through 1882, 1883, 1884, and 1885, when it was found impossible to sell any more property; and the remainder of the fields were put up for sale and (as in 1881) bought in for the Crown, the arrears on them amounting to Rs. 5,027.

24. The number of fields sold to outsiders or bought in was 2,780, and the amount of tax recovered by these sales, roughly, Rs. 6,000,

The Effect of these Sales.

25. Considering that the people at the commencement of the sales were in bad circumstances from the failure of the coffee crops, want of water, and bad health, it was hardly to be expected that these sales of every thing that belonged to them, and the rigid enforcement in all other cases of a tax that was admittedly excessive, would have no effect upon them.

26. The effect was soon felt.

27. In November 1882 the Ratémahatmayá of Uda Héwaheta drew attention to it in the following words. Speaking of the order to make seizure, he says:—

"The people of this district are getting poor day after day, as they have no cooly work

as was in former days, nor have they any coffee in their gardens, and besides which most of the crops of the fields have been sold this year and the last year for default of com- mutation and road taxes, and also a few days ago the crop of the fields what the people have cultivated for this yala season has been sold for default of road tax, and conse- quently, majority of people will have to leave the district next year.

"In former years the people were in good condition, and they had cooly work on the estates, and also they had little coffee in their gardens; but now it is not the case. And now if we were to sell the remaining crops of the fields for commutation tax there will be a famine in the district.-R. M. to A. G. A., 266 of 18th November 1882."

28. In January 1883 be reported that the people of Gangapaláta were in a distressed state," and he sent in a list of 373 persons who were in want of “food and very clothing," and stated that the people could not cultivate their fields for want of food and seed and buffaloes.-R. M. to A. G. A., 7 of 14th January 1883.

29. This was duly reported to the Hon. the Government Agent by Mr. Baumgartner, who confirmed the Ratémahatmaya's statement and spoke of the "miserable and starved "condition of the people, the abandonment of their fields, and their gradually increasing poverty," and who pointedly alluded to the fact that out of a population of 2,154, 373 were in distress for want of food and clothing.-A. G. A. to G. A., 47 of 16th January 1883, and 145 of 26th February 1883.

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30. On an examination of this list of 373 persons, I find that most of them had lost their fields for default of tax the previous year.

31. It was proposed, in order to alleviate their distress, that Government should give the people loans of money and seed; but it is significant of their frame of mind that the people refused this help, because they were afraid Government would sell them up afterwards if their crops failed and they could not repay the loan,

32. This partly explains, too, why so many fields were allowed to remain uncultivated at the time, viz., that the owners did not care to cultivate them in order to make them more valuable, and therefore more saleable; indeed their only chance of retaining possession of these fields was to allow them to remain fallow and unused.

33. Again, in May 1884, the Ratémahatınaya of Uda Héwabeta reported that some families at Ampitigoda were "likely to perish" from want of food (R. M. to A. G. A., 184 of 2nd May 1834), and the Ketayapatana árachchi reported great distress in his

wasɛam as follows :-

"Some of the inhabitants of some of the villages in this wassam are now in great distress owing to want of food, cloth, and health. In the event of any of these people getting ill, they will undoubtedly die, as they have no relations who are capable and willing to assist them. The Government Agent may be aware that some inhabitants in a village close by died of eating unwholesome food through want of proper food, 1st June 1884."

34. Again, on 20th May 1884, the Rutémahatmayá reported "poverty and distresa " in Maturata from the failure of coffee, the sales for arrears of taxes, and the failure of the crops.

35. Again, on 18th February 1885, he reported (No. 50) great poverty and want of food in Pallé Gampaha and Uda Gampaha kóralés, and on 8th April (No. 122) in the same year he stated that most of the people in the other kóralós were "starving for want

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