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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TIPIC.O. 882

سائي

5

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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I came to the district, paddy sold at Re. 1 a bushel; since then the price bas gradually increased.

I know that a great number of people died for want of food. Most of them were people who had owned fields whose fields had been sold. We employed many people who were in a starving condition, who were in search of employment. Even now we have such people employed on Hapugastenna estate. Many people whose lands had been sold went to Kuruwiti kóralé to Mr. De Soysa's fields there. The fields which those people owned are now cultivated for the purchasers by other villagers, not by strangers. The cultivators are people who own other land as well as people who do not own land. I know from rumour that many people died of want, but I am not personally aware of such cases.

I believe that within the last 10 years, since the sales the population of the villages has decreased. Many went to estates and some left the district altogether. Many people told me that the commutation tax they had to pay was too much; and I know that Dodangahatenna Vidané left Ketakandura in Walapane and went to Kandy, saying he could not afford to pay the tax. People of all the three divisions in which I lived made the like complaint.

R. M. Appuhámi, Registrar of Hanguranketa, says :—I am a native of Uḍa Héwáheța. I can speak of the condition of the people during the last 15 years. When I first remember, the people were in a flourishing condition. There was plenty of coffee then, and the paddy fields were productive. Last witness's statement (which I have beard) is correct, but I should say also that consequent upon the felling of the surrounding forests, the supply of water for the fields was diminished, and the dryer fields did not yield as good crops as the muddy fields used to yield. The circumstances of the people have changed during the last 10 years. The coffee having failed, and the produce of fields also having diminished for want of water, the people have become impoverished. The impoverishment of the people has come on gradually. It is difficult to assign a particular date to the time when the fields began to yield diminished returns, but certainly during the last 10 years they have decreased in fertility. There may have been a decrease in their productiveness previously to the introduction of the 10 years' settlement (1877), but it could not have been a marked decrease because the people accepted the settlement of 1877, which was the same as the preceding one.

The grain tax was allowed to fall into arrear because, owing to coffee failing, people could not get money.

Some fields were not cultivated, and the cultivated fields did not yield more than was necessary for the support of the people. The fields left uncultivated were not cultivated for want of water.

I own several fields, and the tax payable for them in kind was in some cases excessive. In some cases the tax was fair, In some cases the assessment was less than the The money rate for the commutation was fair at that time, for the ordinary price of crop. paddy then was 20 fanams (28. 6d.); sometimes it sold for 3a. floor paddy was never worth more than Re. 1.

But at the threshing- inferior quality, it would not fetch more than 75c. at the threshing-floor. I do not know In Gangapaláta, where the paddy is of who made the assessment in 1864.

The sale of fields for the recovery of tax drove people from the villages, because they had then nothing else to fall back upon. In these cases they had either themselves sold their movables, first for their support, or else they had been sold for the taxes before the fields were sold.

No one said that any one had died for want of food. But it is the fact that many did die from the effects of insufficient and unwholesome food. have ascertained on inquiring as to the cause of death in the case of deaths reported to I know this from what I me to be registered. I have seen many people in a starving condition-they have come to me for help, and I have seen them at the vihára. Many of those people said that their fields have been sold for the tax. Several said that they had abandoned their fields in Gangapa'áta because they had not been able to pay the tax. I have not seen those fields, but have no reason to doubt the statements.

Rikiligaskada, July 15, 1889.

Galugoda Loku Banda, Registrar of Kohoka Kóralé and Maturata, says: I live at Debipé in Kohoka kóralé, but am familiar with all the kóralés. previously to when the people received profits from coffee gardens. Even before coffee I remember the time gardens began to yield them an income, people were in good circumstances. They were dependent chiefly on paddy cultivation and kurakkan cultivation. Whilst the coffee

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gardens were productive they were in still better circumstances; now they are much distressed. This has been brought by several causes :-

(1.) Taxation has been increased from 4 fanams (64d.) a bera (24 cut seers) to

Re. 133 per bushel (32 cut seers).

(2.) The sowing extent has been also increased, a bera being reckoned as a bushel. (3.) The failure of coffee. (4.) Decrease in the number of cattle. For whereas in former times cattle could be allowed to wander about anywhere, and so multiplied; now, after estates were cleared, the area for grazing was reduced, and cattle had to be confined to a comparatively small area.

(5.) Paddy cultivation depends upon rain. The Crown forests having been very generally felled, the supply of water has decreased and the yield of the fields has diminished.

A good many fields have been sold for the recovery of the tax. The tax fell into arrear because the rate had been increased in and after 1856. At first the increase was not felt because the produce of coffee gardens enabled the people to pay taxes; but when coffee failed, the produce of the fields being barely sufficient even for the food of the people, they had no means of paying the tax, and so fields came to be sold. The money rate fixed in 1855, viz., 18. 4ď. a bushel, was reasonable. Paddy was worth so much at the threshing-floors. The money rate was raised to 28. 8d. in 1864; that was not a fair rate, and landowners managed to pay only through the help they got from coffee. People would have abandoned their fields if, after coffee failed, they had had anything else to fall back upon. I believe that the price of paddy at that time at the threshing- floor was from 1s. 6d. to Re. 1; the price had risen somewhat owing to the increase of the population and the settlement of strangers. Now paddy sells at the threshing-floor at rates varying from 75 cents. to Re. 1 as far as I know.

I have a field, Ukkatarawa, of two amunams and one pela in extent. In the first assessment the tithe was fixed at seven beras; in 1864 it was fixed at nine bushels. That field yielded only 70 bushels if it was a good crop, and 60 bushels an ordinary crop. All my fields were over-assessed. I was in office in 1664 and complained to the assessors, who took no notice. This method of over-assessment was universal.

The people whose fields were sold partly left the division, whilst some remained and subsisted by cooly labour. I know that many deaths occurred owing to insufficient nourishment which brought on different disorders. Previously to the sales the people depended on their fields, and were not reduced to the distress in which they now are. I believe that there would have been no distress had the fields not been sold, and that people would not have had to leave the villages.

All newly-asweddumised would appear in the commutation register. No fields were abandoned on account of the tax alone, so far as I know.

taxes.

D. B. A. Abegunasekara, Kohoka Kórála, says :-I have lands in all the divisions of Uda Héwaheta. Distress has been most severe in Gangapaláta. There has been distress in that division since the beginning of 1864. Most of the fields in that division are fields which cannot be regularly irrigated. The tax was increased, and many of these which were dependent on rain water were abandoned. They did not really agree to commute-they merely marked a cross in the register. No fields were sold under the settlements of 1864-70 or 1871-77. People had coffee, and were able to pay the Coffee gardens began to cease to be profitable in 1877 and 1878. The distress became greater at that time. People were not in distress previously to that time.

Kirihámi Kórála, of Gangapaláta, says I have been in office as Arachchi and Kórála for about 20 years. The commutation settlement of 1864-70 was then in operation. The people did consider the assessment high, but they did manage to pay the tax from having coffee gardens. Some lands abandoned during 1864-70 were re-entered in the register in 1871. In some cases the owners agreed, and in some the headmen agreed for them, knowing that they would not object. They did so because they were afraid that if they did not commute for any one settlement the land would be entered as Crown in the next following settlement, and they did not wish to lose their lands to which they were attached.

Coffee gardens began to cease to be productive in 1877 and 1878. Then those whose fields were abandoned depended on chena and garden cultivation. Such people were not in distress. But later on chenas did not yield good crops and they fell into distress. By far the larger number still owned and depended upon their paddy fields.

Coffee gardens failed; fields had to be abandoned for want of water; the yield of the fields not abandoned diminished owing to the diminution in supply of water; chenas E 3