78
"The collections in 1883 compare with those in 1881 and 1882 as follows :—
Arrears
Current
1881.
1882.
1883.
Rs.
Rs.
Rs.
19,614
24,124
20,083
10,029
12,681
26,288
Total
29,543
30,655
46,316
Forming a total percentage on one year's tax of
95.5
118.5
149.8
which shows that the process of clearing off the arrears begun in 1882 was continued more rapidly in 1883, when a year and a half's tax in all was collected,
"The total reduction in the balances due amounted to 151 per cent., taking into account certain exemptions and errors not previously allowed for. The arrears vary in amount in the several parts of the district, and stood as follows at the end of each of the past three years :---
79
"In Walapane special efforts were made to recover the earlier years by distraining any available property, the interpreter of the Kachchéri being engaged in the district for several weeks in supervising and directing the work, but the measure met with only partial success, as the above table discloses; and I much fear that there of arrears which will be irreducible in the ordinary manner.
a residuum
“From various causes there are many fields in Walapane which have gone out of cultivation. Such fields are unsaleable at any price, the villagers not having means, even if they wished, to become purchasers, and the outside speculators, who buy land at defaulters" scles, not caring to invest except in regularly cultivated land from which they may be sure of a profit."
In many cases the owners of these uncultivated, though commuted, fields have left the district, and there is, therefore, no means whatever left of recovering the tax due.
"Only in the very last resort should the expedient be adopted of the Crown buying in fields on account of tax, but in the case of many fields I confess I see no other course at present open. No decision has as yet been come to, as it is intended to continue the efforts for recovery of the tax, the headmen being only too ready to extend and acquiesce
in the course of buying in the land for the Crown, which would save them much distasteful work in distraining,
"(1884.) To revert to that subhead of revenue which most calls for attention, namely, "paddy commuted," the amounts collected in 1884 were:-
Percentage outstanding at the end of
1891.
1889.
1880.
Arrears Current
Ra.
-
5,024
28,106
33,130
Kotmalé
Uda Héwéhéts Walapane
Total for the District
67
26
5
82
84
28
166
140
78
108
89
88
“This shows that in Kotmalé alone, as a whole, were the collections brought at all near the desired degree of punctuality, which has been the object kept in view during the two years,
In only one of the kóralós of Kotmalé, viz., Pallépana, were the accounts past fully closed, there being nothing outstanding for it on account of any year, In one kóralé of Uda Héwáheta, viz., Kohoka, the outstandings were only 1 per cent, of a year's tax, Kotmalé, however, was weighted with a less load of arrears than the other divisions, and the people moreover are much better off and more able to respond to the demands made on them to pay up their arrears than the people of Walapane and the parts of Uda Hówáheta, where arrears are heaviest. Walapane, it will be seen, has paid no less than 293 per cent. of a year's tax in the two past years, and Uda Héwaheta 254 per cent. Very large recoveries were made in December on account of the current year's tax, about 50 per cent. of it having been got in that month. This was in anticipation of defaulters' sales, and the readiness with which money was forthcoming to pay the tax leads me to the belief that there is not really the extreme difficulty in raising means that the people represent to exist.
recovered is satisfactory, but the progress made in reducing the arrears of the earlier The total amount years of default was not equally so.
The necessity for resorting to sales was confined to a few cases,
"There is still a small balance due from Walapane for 1878, and for subsequent years the amounts are larger.
"The following shows what was outstanding at the end of 1883:-
Total
forming, with other reductions, a total percentage on one year's tax of IC8, thus reducing the percentage outstanding from 39 at the end of the year 1883 to 31.
"While 90 per cent. of the current year's revenue was collected and brought to account within the year, as against 84 per cent. in the previous years, the collections on account of arrears of previous years showed a great falling off, namely, from Rs. 20,083 in 1883 to Rs. 5,024 in 1884, i.s., from 66 to 16 per cent. of a year's tax.
"The state of the account at the end of the year was by no means so satisfactory as it was expected to be, the chief reason being that the irrecoverable arrears to be wiped off by purchase of the fields on behalf of the Crown had not been got rid of. These formed a total of Rs. 5,289 out of the balance of Rs. 9,815 outstanding at the end of the year.
“A further sum of Rs. 1,000 is to be deducted from the balance apparently due, being amount collected, but not paid in, by the kórála of the Yatipaláta of Walapane, against whom legal proceedings have been taken. Making allowance for these deductions the actual arrears outstanding amounted to about 11 per cent. of a year's tax.
"The percentage due from each of the three chief headmen's division was as follows:-
Kotmalé
Uda Hewaheta Walapane
Percentage outstanding at the end of
1182
1883,
1884.
28
$
4
84
28
80
140
78
81
38
31
998
Kotmalé.
Uda Hówábeta.
Walapage.
Total.
Rs.
Bs.
Rs.
R..
1878
63
63
1879
54
686
690
1880
89
782
1,085
1,856
1881
247
577
1,450
2.274
1882
744
1,578
2,817
1883
106
1,305
8,198
4,604
Total
892
8,862
7,980
11,894
For whole District
"In Walapane there was thus an increase instead of a reduction of the arrears. This is attributable to the extreme poverty into which most of the people of the greater part of Walapane have sunk. I refer especially to Yatipaláta and Udapaláta, and in a slightly lesser degree to Medapaláta. For a series of years since the failure of their coffee the people of that part of the district have been getting poorer and poorer, and in 1884 the protracted drought, which destroyed much of their paddy crop, and the prevalent fever and other sickness, greatly aggravated their distress, so that many of the people were on the borders of starvation.
"In these circumstances I deferred carrying out sales of their own property--their fields-which would have taken place in December had there not been such a forcible K 4
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:
PEC.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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