PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TELEC.O. 882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
26
of food," and unless they were supplied with food at an early date they would die through starvation.
36. In consequence of this distress Government began, at the commencement of 1885, to distribute food amongst the people, and this distribution continued throughout 1885 and part of 1886.
37. Side by side with the distress came similar reports of poverty and want and destitution from the adjoining districts of Walapane, duly reported to the Government Agent.-R. M. to A. G. A., 11 of 23rd January, and '19 of 20th February 1884; A. G. A. to G. A., 113 of 27th February, and 127 of 1st March 1884.
38. On 26th September 1886, the medical officer of Uḍa Pussellawa, who had been in the district on duty, reported “the scarcity of food," and from his personal observation the extremely weak and emaciated condition of many of the villagers from this cause, and gave instances of persons who were dying for "want of food."-Mr. de Kretzer to A. G. A., 104 of 26th September 1886.
39. On 9th October 1884, the Ratémahatmayá sent in a list of 878 persons who were in a state of" starvation," and on 30th October he sent in a supplementary one, showing 449 more "in want of food."
40. An examination of these lists shows that the majority were persons whose fields had been sold for default of tax.
"
41. This distress had similarly to be relieved by Government from time to time; and it culminated in the present relief works at Nildandahinna, where something like 200 persons, principally women and little children, have received employment and food for the last eight months.
42. Mr. Baungartner made several representations to the Hon. the Government Agent of the poverty and of the distress prevailing amongst the people; and there are many entries in the diaries to the same effect.
43. Here are a few of them :-
"After this a crowd of women and children comes forward and complains of want of focd. Their appearance is clear proof of the truth of their complaint. I was not aware that such destitution existed in this part of Uda Héwaheta, and the Katémahatmaya says he did not know of it. The people are from villages in the valleys of the Bilihul- oya, and they seem to have shrunk gradually into their present state of poverty. I made detailed inquiries into most of the cases of the people who were present. They are mostly without any land, having lost what they had by debt or default of tax. Many of them are women whose husbands have died or disappeared, and in most of the cases now brought to notice there are large families of small children. Where there is a inan at the head of the family the complaint is that the country is so poor that no work can be had.-11th February 1885.
"On the way passed the houses of several families who appeared to be in great desti- tution. These are the villages from which most of the people came yesterday; but many did not come, as I now find. In two cases I found women with large families of small children without clothes to cover them decently, and so reduced through want of proper food as hardly to be able to crawl out of the house. -12th February 1895.
•
Discussed with the Ratémahatınaya the state of distress and destitution into which
so many of the population in his division have suok, and inquired particulars of the
cause.
"Most of the distressed are without land. Some of these people have lost it by voluntary sales to meet their debts, or by forced sales brought about by the creditors or by Government for default of tax; others have never possessed land.
44
People without land have up to recent years been able to procure work in the fields
and gardens of their neighbours; but this source of employment is now very much reduced owing to the reduced means of even the landed class. living by collecting and selling firewood, and similar works.
Others have made a
"The Ratémahatmayá states that some people are in danger of starvation.—19th April 1885.
"To Baranagolla, to make inquiry regarding a death regarding which, owing to its suddenness, there was some suspicion; destitution, however, was the accelerating cause, so far as can be known. Many of the people there are very poor, and make no com. plaint.-13th June 1885.
"The Kóṛálai complain of much poverty among the people and difficulty of collecting from them paddy commutation.-23rd May 1884.
"The Korála of Oyapaláta comes to make application for the post of Shroff of this Kachchéri, and states that the collection of the paddy tax is now attended with so much difficulty and danger that he wishes to get other employment. He has not, however,
27
been a very active collector, and can hardly, I think, have roused the animosity which partly causes the danger he alludes to. But there is no doubt of the increased difficulty in getting tax from the people notwithstanding that each Kórála is monthly urged to do better. They one and all complain of the want of means among the people; and the collections have been very small.
"Received report from the Katémahatmayá of Maturata reporting destitution in the village Ampitigoda, where he states people are in danger of starving for want of food, and must be helped till they reap their harvest at the cad of this month. The Ratémahatmaya has reported distress before, but never of so pressing a nature as this. Authorised him to employ the destitutes on minor roads at the expense of the Road Committee at 25 cents a day, similar to that adopted in Walapane.
"A largely signed petition to his Excellency the Governor from headmen and people of Maturata and adjoining kóralés, complaining of destitution and difficulties caused by sale of property for default of payment of paddy and road tax, has been received by me for report.
-
"Mr. de Silva, schoolmaster and catechist here of the Church Mission, gives a bad account of the poverty and general state of the villagers about here. He says that the children coming to school have hardly cloth to cover them, that the women are in the same state, and that the men are the greatest rogues he knows. He does not speak maliciously; and he is doing much good among the people.-2nd July 1884.
As I have heard the same thing in several quarters, I note here that the practice appears a common one of Sinhalese villagers taking their daughters about the planting districts for purpose of prostitution, the alleged motive being want of money to pay And I may add to this, that it was and is by no means an uncommon taing for parents to sell their children to Moormen and others in the district.-24th November 1885."
taxes.
44. During all this time the Government Agent insisted on the arrears being recovered, and issued from time to time stringent instructions to this effect.
45. "It is contrary to all accepted rules of revenue administration," he said, "for the Crown to buy land which owes it taxes (to A. G. A., 27 of 25th April 1882); and again, "it is a cardinal rule of revenue administration in the East never to remit any land revenue.' (To A. G. A., 82 of 6th February 1885). And so the sales went on.
46. And, as if the sale of their movables, their paddy crops, and their field was not enough, their chena crops were sold for the default in their paddy tax as well (A. G. A. to R. M. Walapane, 38 of 6th January 1883); and to add to all their troubles, a tax (afterwards declared to be illegal) was imposed in 1885 on their private chenas as well.— Petition to A. G. A., 10th February 1885, re tax on private chenas by 166 persons who had had their fields sold.
47. Is it any wonder, therefore, that the destitution which these sales occasioned should have resulted in a large number of deaths in the families of those who had lost their lands ?
48. The process was somewhat as follows.
49. villager was in arrears of tax for two, three, four; five, and sometimes even six years. Perhaps his field was cultivated: often enough it was too poor to yield even the yearly tax on it, much less the arrears; and it was left uncultivated. But the man had a hut and garden, perhaps a buffalo or a chena crop to depend on, and he managed to get along somehow.
on.
his gun,
50. Suddenly he was called upon to pay up his arrears and no mercy was shown him: first his movables were seized, his store of food, his cattle, his tools, his bed, his pots and pans, the materials of his hut, his fruit-trees or the crop of his field or chens, if they were under cultivation, in fact anything that the seising officer could lay hands And when this was found insufficient to pay the arrears, his last remaining pro- perty-his field-was sold, and he and his family were turned adrift. He wandered about the village, getting food as best he could from his relations and neighbours or from what he could pick up in the jungle, and now and then working as a cooly for a meal. His relations and neighbours being badly off, and having little enough for themselves, were not able to do much for him; and so, before long, he became so enfeebled and emaciated by want of food and proper shelter and clothing, that fever or diarrhoea, dropsy or consumption, or some kindred disease fastened on him; and his constitution being unable to withstand the attack, he soon dropped off, and his death and others like it furnish, with the foregoing, an ample justification of the remarks to which you have called my attention.
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Page 210Page 211
28
51. I subjoin a statement of the present population of the different kóralés of Walapane This has been ascertained accurately by a house-to-house census by special officers told off to make it, and may be relied on.
52. For the sake of comparison I have added columns showing the population in the kóralés in 1871 and 1881 from the census returns of those years :~~~
WALAPANE.
Difference
between 1871 and 1881.
Difference between 1881 and
1889.
Population in
1871. 1881. 1889.
Remarks.
Increase per cent.
Decrease
Decrease per cent. per cent. per cent.
Increase
Uḍapaláta Yatipaláta Medapaláta Oyapaláta
2,578 2,419 1,926 1,329 1,376 1,045 9,814 3,339 8,747 9,589 8,028 2,628
8]
18 19
9,360 10,148 8,346
**
│[]"
90
24
18
1,857 fields were sold out of a total in the district of 5,209,
13
or 26 per cent.
18
53. It will be seen that there was a considerable increase in the population between 1871 and 1881-i.e., of 91 per cent.-and a marked falling off, amounting to 18 per cent., since.
54. There has been no particular epidemic, except an epidemic of want, during the last eight years; and there was no particular reason, except the prosperity of the people, for the increase in the population between 1871 and 1881; thus showing that there must have been some exceptional causes at work to account for such a falling off in the numbers of late years, and these causes, I submit, were the failure of the coffee crops, the severity of the taxes, and the forced sales for default in paying them.
55. I also subjoin a statement of the number of fields that have gone out of cultivation in each kóralé since the cominutation of 1877, principally in consequence of the severity of the tax on them :-
29
them on contract at the same rate as Tamils; another would only employ women and children; another would employ them, and would expect them to do as much work as Tamils; and two others would employ them if I would guarantee that they would remain permanently.
59. This can hardly be said to show a great demand on the part of estates for village labour at the time it was most required.
60. Further, to show that the villagers did avail themselves of such a demand when it arose later on, I would state that large numbers of the Walapane villagers have gone to work on estates in Maskeliya, Dikoya and Uḍa Pussellaws, Maturata, &c. Many have gone to seek work on the new railway. Mr. Charles de Soyza has a considerable number of the villagers of Uḍa Héwábeta working on his lands in the Kuruwiți kóralé, and Mr. Whitefoord on Maha Uva has constantly employed the Walapane villagers on road work, &c., and lately got far more than he wanted or could find work for.
N.B. The lista annexed show that 1,322 have left their villages in search of
employment since the sales of their fields.
-
61. Finally, I beg that reference may be made to such well-known local authorities us Messrs. Dick, Bagra, and Whitefoord, who live in the neighbourhood of these evictions, and who are well qualified to speak on the subject, to ascertain what their experience and opinion is as to the effects on the people of these forced sales for default.
1. Number of persons]
in the families of the
I am, &c. (Signed) C. J. R. LE MESURIER,
ABSTRACT OF Lists.
Assistant Government Agent.
Walapane.
Uda Hówábeta.
Uda. paláta.
Yati- Méda-
Uda Pallé- Oya-
Gan. | Gate paláta. | puláta. | paláta.
pola. pola.
Kotmalé.
Ko- Gan- Diya-Gangs-Pallé- Uda- hoka. nowa. tilaka. paláta. pané. pané.
Total
-
-
116 124
original owners at the time of sale of their fields
837
968
919
1,088
827 1,489 786 486
319 1,426 340
810 10,983
107
8. Number of those
105
who died after the
168
187
132
181
63 163
3
85
67
34
140 91
57
1,387
sale of their fields.
3. Number of
✓
those
452
who died of want and
destitution, and the
diseases
141
147
198
196
58 146
63
48
11
=
190
NO Nil
981
consequent
R
thereon, after the
Kotmalé.
sale of their fields.
4. Number of those
23
who left the village
after the sale of their
176
161
905
145
108 104
54
$7
109
77 199
1,890
fields.
ૐ|
5. Number of those
left destitute in the village.
264
239
254
449 159 854
181
65
2.
74
148
8
990
2,539
6. Number of flalda sold
in kóraló.
397
445
224
891
197 342 127 156 106
946
* 196
1,780
Uda Héráheța.
Walapane.
Udagampaha
44
Udapaláta
Pallegampaha
37
Yaţipaláta
Kohaka
3
Medapaláta
Diyatilaka
1
Oyapaláta
Gannewa
·
20
Gangapalata
120
225
Uḍapane
-
Grand total
700
And I annex copies of letters that have been written to me or have appeared in the public prints Iriyagama, late Ratemahatmaya of Uda Héwáheta, whose note of warning in November, 1882, has been amply borne out by subsequent events, and such well-known gentlemen as Messrs. Cross, Whitefoord, and Rossiter-in support of my
several statements.*
56. A great point has been attempted to be made by those who would cast doubts on the fact of there having been distress in the district, by the statements-first, that there was a great demand for Sinhalese labour on estates close to the villages at the time of the alleged destitution; and secondly, that the villagers would not avail themselves of it.
57. These statements are incorrect.
58. Shortly after I was re-appointed to this district in 1886, and when I first heard of the distress in Walapane, I sent out a circular to the managers of 67 estates in Uda Pussellawa, Maturata, Pussellawa, Ramboḍa, and Pundalu-oya, asking them if they would employ Sinhalese labour. I received answers from 37 of these: only two sald unconditionally they required and would employ such labour, 30 said they would not employ them at all, and 20 did not even answer my letter. One said he would employ
• Not printed.
Sir,
The Hon. the Government AGENT, Kandy, to the ASSISTANT GOVERNMENT AGENT,
(No. 728.)
Nuwara Eliya.
Kandy Kachchéri, July 25, 1889.
I HAVE the honour to refer to you the accompanying letter from the police magistrate of Nuwara Eliya, and its enclosures, and to invite your attention to the statement of the second witness.
This witness refers to four fields as having been owned by the deceased, but of these I can find only the first, viz., Dambaheriya, of 1 amunam 1 pela, in the list of fields Bold furnished to me from your office. This is field No. 1,325 in that list, and it appears to have been bought in by the Crown, failing purchasers, in 1885, and to have been restored in 1887. This field is now, it has been stated, cultivated in ande for the mother-in-law of the deceased.
D 3
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