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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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It was so recovered in the low country on all grain grown, as well on high lands (Hén) as in Padifields (wi). In the Kandyan country where we, on the British accession in 1815, succeeded to the rights of the native sovereigns, we continued the recovery of tithe on padi; fine grain being by custom free, and the lands of chiefs and headmen exempted during office. The titbe was reduced from one tenth to one fourteenth in several divisions, as a reward for the loyalty in 1818 of the inhabitants. A redemption

of tithe was allowed about 1830, but the indulgence-whích had not been very extensively availed of-was withdrawn after further consideration.

The rendering of the tithe in kind at the threshing floor of the fields was the simple procedure in entire accord with the traditions and feelings of the people, and cheerfully ncquiesced in, the payment being regarded as satisfactory evidence of title on the part of the payer.

Very early arose the practice of "renting out or farming the Crown share for a money payment in advance at public auction to the highest bidder who stept as renter or publican-into the position of the Crown for the harvest then ripe, and had a right to take the title from the land before removal of the crop.

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In the Kandyan country the able men entrusted with its administration very soon devised a voluntary form of commutation, under which the people escaped the obvious cvily of the "renting system" by the payment of a certain quantity or its value, at a fixed rate for a certain term of years. The fields were assessed as regarded extent and crop by two assessors--men of standing, probity, and experience-and the rate per bushel for a term of years was fixed by the Governor in Council, on the advice of the Government Agent, an appeal in case of hardship from error in the registers being allowed to the Government Agent, and thence to the Governor.

A very long term of 20 years' commutation was unfortunately allowed in 1840 in a large part of the province with very low rates, but where this was not the case, the rates were raised in 1856 without any sensible hardship, and in 1863, Mr. Philip Braybrooke, one of the ablest administrators ever employed in the Kandyan country, recommended a new commutation for seven years at rates in accord with the then prosperous state of the country, varying froin 18. by 18. 4d., ls. 8d., 2., to the maximum in the richest divisions of 2s. 8d. a bushel of parli. The term of seven years was suggested to allow of adjustment in the event of a change in the condition of the country. That the rates were wisely fixed was proved by the absence of complaints, and the recovery of the revenue without any difficulty wherever the assessment had been fairly made and duly supervised. But the need of such care was made manifest even in those prosperous times by the occurrences in Uva in 1864-7, where the assessments were badly made, and the commutation registers were found to be full of errors. this fact to his Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson on taking charge of Uva in 1867, and I represented permission was at once given to re-open the assessment, the books were corrected, all the arrears were cleared off at the reduced assessment, and the collection of tithe was made without difficulty during the term ended 31st December 1870, and the following one ended 31st December 1877, when the same rates were retained.

In 1877 a new voluntary commutation term of ten years from the 1st January 1878 was ordered throughout the Central Province, and was being carried out when I left, early in 1878, to take charge of the North-Western Province, where the renting system prevaled, and I ceased to have personal knowledge of the state of things in the Central Province. In 1879 the coffee blight swept over the country, estates became gradually abandoned, cart traffic with all its attendant trade along the high roads ceased, and, in fact, the coffee enterprise collapsed. The effects, of course, were not fully felt for a year or two, but no doubt the occasion called for a prompt reduction of the commutation rates, which, in the sadly altered condition of the country, had become too high.

Meanwhile the new cominutation Ordinance, No. 11 of 1878, had been passed in deference to public opinion for the abolition of the renting system. It is hard to conceive a more equitable or careful system of commutation than that so provided. I can speak with personal knowledge of its working in the Southern Province, and testify to the care, accuracy, and consideration for the landowners, with which the Commis- sioners then employed did their work in the districts of Galle, Matara, and Hambantota. As regards the Central Province, I have in my administration report for 1887 (pp. 740- 764) dealt with the working of the Ordinance, which had already come into operation in the district of Kandy, and was then being introduced in Uda Ifewaheta of the Nuwara Eliya district, and in reply to the criticisms of Mr. Le Mesurier, I there showed that all his objections to the assessment had been met by the reductions made in detail by the Commissioners. The annual assessment in Upper Dumtara, a division very similar in character to Walapané, having been reduced by 21, 25, 26, and even 31 per cent., while

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a sum of Rs. 3,998 had been transferred from annual to crop commutation. I then wrote, the practical working of the existing system-commutation gradually adjusted in a judicial procedure by a responsible officer of high rank, tithe to be paid in the year, "land liable for arrears, but to be always bought in by the Crown unless its fair value be bid at the sale, with the additional safeguard of the defaulter being allowed to “redeem within a reasonable time-will, I have every reason to hope, be found alike equitable, safe, and satisfactory." I further showed that in Uda Hewaheta, the only one of the Nuwara Eliya divisions then commuted under the Ordinance, Mr. George Templer, the Commissioner employed, had reduced the annual assessment by over 23 per cent. throughout, and in one korale by 31 per cent. Eventually the Governor decided to have a voluntary commutation in Walapané and Kotmale so that the new Ordinance was not introduced at all.

*

The sensational writing, then, in these papers has no connexion with the working of the existing tithe commutation system, but gives a highly coloured picture of the disastrous results of the coffee blight on the peasantry of Walapane, one of the poorest, most remote, and unhealthy divisions of the Kandyan country. To talk of tithe as a tax on food, and on that ground to demand its abolition, is preposterous. Tithe is the only impost, save and except the salt duty, which reaches the bulk of the population, and it forms too large a portion of the general revenue to be lightly dealt with or altered. More reasonable critics-like the "Ceylon Examiner," always temperate in tone and broad in its views ask, not for its abolition, but for its reduction; to revision in details there can be no objection.

But there are two enactinents which should be given fair trial, Ordinance No. 5 of 1885 took power for the Government, on the suggestion of Sir Frederick Dickson, to buy in the lands at sales for arrears of tithe, where insufficient bids are made on the under- standing that the lands may be redeemed within reasonable time. This is a valuable safeguard against the improvidence of the Kandyan peasant who will not store away his surplus grain in times of plenty to provide for seasons of scarcity. Seasons of scarcity consequent on drought will recur in tropical countries, and the best possible remedy has been provided by Ordinance No. 2 of 1887, which absolutely vests one-fourth of the land revenue of each year in the Central Irrigation Board, to be returned to the soil in irrigation works throughout the country. This wise and generous enactment is a noble monument of the political humanity of Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, worthy of ranking with the Irrigation Ordinance, 1856, and the Paddy Cultivation Ordinance, 1867, in which the courage of Sir Henry Ward and the sagacity of Sir Hercules Robinson,- virtus Scipiada et metis sapientia Læli -his great predecessors in dealing with agriculture, find their fitting memorial.

W. E. T. SHARPE

St. Stephen's Club,

2630.

SIR,

8th February 1890.

•

No 8.

(Signed)

COLONIAL OFFICE to W. E. T. SHARPE, Esq.

Downing Street, February 13, 1890.

I AM directed by Lord Knutsford to acknowledge and thank you for the clear memorandum* which you have drawn up on the grain tax question in Ceylon, which will be of great assistance to his Lordship in dealing with this difficult subject.

80), &c. W. E. T. Sharpe, Esq.

(Signed) R. H. MEA DE.

3033.

(No. 30.)

MY LORD,

No. 9.

SIR A. H. GORDON to LORD KNUTSFORD. (Received February 17, 1890.)

Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon,

January 25, 1890.

I HAVE the honour to enclose six copies of a pamphlet lately published by Mr. George Wall, and, as I am informed, sent by him to every member of the House of

• No. 7.

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