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Reference :-
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As easy as to add "and to devote many to starvation and death." It has been shown that there is no trustworthy evidence in support of the latter allegation, and there is none in support of the former.
The testimony of the Salvationists is, so far as it goes, correct; but they did not testify that the prisoners they met at the gate informed them that they lost their land owing to default in payment of grain tax. There are many ways whereby villageru "lose their land," especially those who find thereafter a place of refuge in a Government prison.
The Fiscal of the Cental Province, for instance, reports that from 1881 to 1885, both years inclusive, 3,607 parcels of field, garden, and highland were sold in execution of decrees of the Civil Law Courts for the recovery of private debts, no less that 731 of which parcels belonged to the " districts affected.”
And, seeing that over one-third of the whole male population of the island is engaged in agriculture, it follows, as a matter of course, that "a vast proportion" of prisoners in the island must be of the agricultural class, either in fact or nominally.
The number of deaths given by the editor as having taken place in the district of Nuwara Eliya in 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, nre, according to official returns, correct, though it would have assisted his readers to form a more accurate idea of the conclusions to be drawn from those figures, especially in respect of the general condition of the people, had he added from the same returns, in comparison, the number of births registered during the same years, and the number of births and deaths during 1887 and 1888. Such a comparison is shown below :—
1889.
1883.
1884.
1985.
1886,
1887.
1988.
Births
1,632
1,978
3,123
2,597
2,737
2,755
2,938
Deaths
1,281
1,168
2,197
Excess of Births
351
790
926
2,076 521
1,983
2,289
2,303
754
516
035
It can scarcely be said upon these figures that normal mortality is represented in 1882 and 1883, and exceptional mortality in 1884, 1885, and 1886, when the deaths in 1887 and 1888 not one of which is alleged to have occurred from starvation, are higher than those for any year from 1882 to 1885.
And when such a large excess of births over deaths occurred-the latter, be it remembered, being compulsorily registered, and the former, until 1888, only optionally ---need there be the least apprehension that the growth of the population of the Nuwara Eliya district during the last seven years has been, by any cause, seriously checked.
The Government have recently given relief to the people in some villages of Nuwara Eliya, who are still suffering from insufficiency of food and from disease, caused by want of wholesome water to drink, and of water to cultivate, a want brought about to a very great extent, if not entirely, by the indiscriminate clearing of forest lands; and so far as the Government is responsible for having permitted this injury to their water supply, and no further, it may be said that it gave, and is still giving, "relief to save its
victims."
It is perfectly well known what the expenditure upon irrigation works has been in every province of the island. Such expenditure has been undertaken chiefly in the restoration of ancient works in order to make more land irrigable and available for cultivation, and partly in order to provide water for the cultivation of lands now uncul- tivated through having been deprived of their natural supply. The ultimate success of these ventures is certain, and the results have been, on the whole, most satisfactory.
Large extents of waste land have been reclaimed and cultivated with rice, notably in the Eastern Province, where the number of acres of land under paddy has increased from 22,665 in 1856 to 36,863 in 1866, 59,730 in 1876, 65,773 in 1886, and 75,000 acres or more in 1889; no less than 19,970 acres having been added to the arable area since the introduction into the province of the Grain Tax Ordinance. In other provinces, too, the area of fields already existing have been fertilised and their crops rendered less thoroughly dependent on rainfall, and, therefore, less insecure.
A sub-division of the Mátars district of the Southern Province, where in 1866 fever, aggravated by scarcity of food, caused the deaths of 10 per cent. of the population, has been, since the provision of water through irrigation works, as healthy and prosperous us any other part of the district, and other divisions of other districts show the same happy results.
83
There are villages, it is true, and many villages, where the area of arable land is limited, and where the inhabitants have increased until that area can no longer produce for them a sufficient supply of food.
It is true, too, that in many of these cases the people have come to want, have abandoned or disposed of their undivided interests, often so minute as to be unmarket- able, in the family field and garden, and have left their villages to seek a livelihood elsewhere. Many of these are, no doubt, those of whom the Salvationista testified, and who appear on the Prison Returns of the Island as agriculturists by occupation. Some scheme of colonisation under the large works already finished, in progress, or projected must before long be devised to meet this evil, which, under natural circumstances, must be ever increasing.
The editor of the "Ceylon Independent" ends by asking "in the name of common sense, justice, and Christian principle for a total and unconditional abolition of the grain tax."
He does not ask it in the name of those who pay the tax, and for a very good reason. They do not ask it.
64
-
The Hon. Mr. Alwis, who represented the Sinhalese in the Legislative Council of the Island for many years, who had studied their history and knew well their wishes and wants, thus spoke on the subject in Council on December 20, 1876:-
"Constituted as we are, it is simply impossible to say that the food taxes at present existing in Ceylon are vexatious in themselves. As to whether they are distasteful I can only say that I have gone amongst the people, have been in the houses of the poorest amongst them, and have talked to them, but in all my inquiries I have never heard a word against the impost as a food tax."
带着
But so much has been written lately in the newspapers of Ceylon, especially in the Ceylon Independent," by persons ignorant of the principle, the origin, the history, and the incidence of the tax, and who do not know, or, knowing, ignore, the real opinion of it held by those on whom it falls, that it is as well to add to these notes (Appendix D.) the views in full of the Hon. Mr. Alwis, as expressed in his speech.
The Grain Tax Ordinance was the outcome of the debate which ensued; a measure which was intended to provide an improved mode of collection of the tax, and into the working and effects of which, as stated above, a Select Committee of the Legislature is now inquiring.
The opinion formed by the editor of the "Ceylon Independent" of Mr. Moir's report is erroneous. It cannot be maintained when subjected to close investigation; it is, indeed, as unsound as is his appreciation of the results of the administration of the grain tax and the policy of the Government in regard to it.
APPENDIX A.
STATEMENT of the POPULATION, BIRTHS, DEATHS, and their RATES for the periods 1871-80, 1881-88, and 1889 (first half-year), for the Divisions of Walapane and Uda Héwábeta, Nuwara Eliya District, furnished by the Registrar-General of Ceylon.
Divisions.
Cenang, 1971.
Population.
December 21,
June 30, 1880.
1871-80,
Birthe.
1871–80.*
Deaths.
January 110
Birth-rate par Death-rate par
Mille per Annum. Mille par Annum.
"89-LOSE
1871-00.
8,787 2,986 3,000
118 5,007 1,738
134 1,004 1,990
270 271 | 300 | 25° 11°
10 | 319 | 34'8 | 30'B | 94°7 | 00°1 | 30-6
Üda Höwdkota.
Maturaia
Koboks
4.1.06
5,401
4,704
1.798 3,007
Diyatilaka
Gangapaláta -
Gannewe
1,016 3,001
1,710 1,206 -1,577
1.000 1,734
7,000 1,100 3,000
Falapene.
3,724 5.507 1,475
1,000 4,904
1,000 1.900 1.900
8,479 1,544 1,000 4,000 1,004 1,000 2,010 (1,178
08 | 1,00 $10
|06|1,277 |1,300
* | 2014
Udapalata
Medagmidin
Üympaläis
}
101-3297 | 50·1 | &'1 26.02+0 27-0294 || 48°4 │[ 20°C | 24'6 | 2079
• Norg―The igures in those solumme Inolude also the births and deaths which occurred on estates haturson the pears 1871–76, and quently the rates for the period 1871-00 are not strictly comparable with the rules for the other perioda, via, 1801–00 and 1ono (fest hold-yon).
L 2
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TIC.O. 882
سلئسسسسلسا
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84
APPENDIX B.
ABSTRACT from the NUMERICAL RETURNS of PERSONS liable to perform labour under the Ordinances No. 10, of 1861, and No. 31, of 1884, from the year 1871 to 1889, furnished by the Chairman of the District Road Committee, Nuwara Eliya.
21,989.
(No. 19).
SIR,
Number of Men liable.
Year.
In the whole District.
In Walapane.
In Hewábeta.
1871
4,025
1,740
1,260
1972
4,414
1,877
1,337
1873
4,407
1,945
1,317
1874
4,632
1,956
1,290
1875
5,243
2,000
1,758
1870
5,367
2,107
1,430
1877
5,848
2.181
1,887
1878
5,936
2,262
1,823
1879
6,085
2,197
1,928
1880
5.581
2,168
1,917
1881
7,617
1,906
3,376
1882
7,795
2,136
3,286
1883
7,829
2,128
3,232
1884
7,627
2,171
3,180
1883
8,730
2,289
3,271
1886
9,683
2,253
8,317
1887
9,439
2,193
3,265
1888
9.770
2,290
3,400
1889
9,765
2,308
3,417
No. 10.
LORD KNUTSFORD to SIR A. H. GORDON.
Downing Street, February 28, 1890.
I HAVE had under my most careful consideration your Despatch No. 406 of the 22nd of October last,* enclosing Mr. Moir's report on the "Alleged deaths from starvation in the Nuwara Eliya district," and your Despatches, No. 456 of the 20th of November, and No. 30 of the 25th of January,t on the same subject.
2. I have also received a despatch from Sir F. Dicksont replying to the charges which have been brought against his administration of the Central Province, and asking that his answer and its enclosures may be printed and laid before the Legislative Council of Ceylon.
This request of his should be carried out at once; the papers are not enclosed, as he states that a copy has been sent to you.
3. The allegations, as I understand them, are that in the years 1882-85 arrears of the paddy tithe in the Nuwara Eliya district were dealt with in a harsh and arbitrary manner, and that, owing to the sale of fields in default of payment, 1,048 cultivators died of starvation; and the authors and supporters of these allegations deduce from the real or supposed hardships in these particular cases arguinents against the system under which taxes are levied on grain in Ceylon.
4. With the latter point, the important question of the justice and expediency of the so-called grain taxes, I do not propose here to deal, as I am awaiting the report on the subject by the Sub-committee of the Legislative Council, which may be expected shortly, and, moreover, it is to be remembered that there is no direct connexion between the question whether or not arrears of certain taxes were too rigidly collected in a particular district at a particular time, and the question whether a given system of taxation is in principle unfair or oppressive. In whatever way a population is taxed, there must occasionally be arrears of taxes, and the liability to distress for non-payment would equally have arieen during the period in question if the tax, instead of being a grain tithe, had been a land, poll, or income tax, or any other rate or tax whatever.
• No. 4
† Nos. 3 and 9.
‡ No. 6.
85
5. I lay stress upon this point as in the printed matter which has been issued by the opponents of the paddy tithe system these two distinct subjects have been treated as if they were intimately connected with each other, and a further element of confusion has been introduced by the criticism of the Grain Tax Ordinance of 1878, which, as has been duly pointed out, was not at the time in force in the two divisions of the Nuwara Eliya district, Walapane and Uda Hewaheta, to which attention has been specially called, and which to the present day has never been put into force in the Walapane district.
6. The working of that ordinance, and the question as to how far by assimilating the grain tax to a land tax it has or has not benefited the peasantry of Ceylon, will be matter for consideration when the sub-committee's report has been received. need only be noticed that the provision contained in it for making the grain tax a first Here it charge against the land is wholly beside the point so far as the two districts in question are concerned.
7. The allegation, then, which has now to be considered is that in the years 1882-85 1,048 cultivators died within a certain limited area, owing to the sale of their fields.
It is certainly to be regretted that a grave charge of this kind was not brought forward and pressed upon the notice of the Government at an earlier period. This terrible mortality is stated to have occurred within the personal knowledge of some of the gentlemen who have now made representations in the matter, but it has only recently been brought to my notice, some four years at least after it is stated to have occurred, and not until the cause which was supposed to have led to it, viz., the high taxation, had already been removed by a new and lighter assessment, until the officer who was most concerned, and whose administration is directly attacked, has long left the Colony, and until the lapse of time has made it exceedingly difficult to verify the accuracy of details.
8. An extraordinary number of deaths in these two divisions must, it appears to ine, have resulted in a striking increase in the death-rate, and a noticeable decrease in the numbers of the population; yet I gather from para. 17 of Mr. Moir's report that the death-rate in the years 1882-85 in the whole Nuwara Eliya district was considerably lower than in the Kandy district, to which no special attention has been directed on the ground of any abnormal mortality, and Mr. Dawson shows in his memorandum that the population of the two sub-divisions concerned, Walapane and Uda Hewaheta, was in both cases, according to the Registrar-General's statistics, larger in 1881 than in 1871, and in 1888 than in 1881, while the Road Ordinance returns of adult males Irable to labour, to which he refers, and which are given in full in Appendix B. to his report, show an almost stationary population, but with a slight tendency to increase, the figures being--
Years.
Walapane.
Uda Hewaheta,
1882
2,136
3,286
1885
2,288
3,271
1888
2,290
3,400
1889
2,303
3,417
I am unable to reconcile these and other figures which have been given with the statement that the years 1882-85 were years of extraordinary mortality.
9. But even assuming for the sake of argument that this large number of deaths took place, it would still have to be shown that they were connected with the sale of lands. It would seem from the administration reports quoted in Mr. Dawson's memorandum that a large proportion of the fields sold had previously been allowed to go out of cultivation, and Sir F. Dickson states broadly that "the fields sold were (if not all) "almost all exceedingly small in extent, and were, as a rule, outlying borders of ranges of fields which from the circumstances of the people were not worth retaining, as they could not be cultivated with profit.
Whether their abandonment was
24
due to their over assessment is one question, but whether, after they had been abandoned, their sale caused the starvation of the owners is another and a wholly different one, and it seems difficult in the case of the uncultivated fields to resist Mr. Dawson's conclusion, that these paddy lands were "worthless, and could add nothing in consequence to their (the owners) supply of food, or to their means of procuring food."
10. I trust, therefore, that I am justified in believing upon the evidence and case before me that the statements with regard to the extent and causes of the mortality in L 3
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