PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
104
Northern and Eastern Provinces are probably Indian corn and the different kinds of millet, and these are among those which fall under the dry grain tax. If an extensive cultivation and consumption of this class of grain could be established in the drier parts of Ceylon, either as a substitute for paddy or in addition to it, much of the misery from the failure of the paddy crop which so frequently arises might be averted, and the necessity for costly works of irrigation would probably become less pressing than it is. As long as these grains are subject in those provinces, as they are now, to a vexations impost, it is unlikely that their production will extend.
5. I hope your Lordship will agree with me that now that the finances and trade of the Island have recovered from the depressed condition they were in when Sir Michael Hicks Beach, in 1879, hesitated to assent to the repeal of the dry grain tax, the time has come for relieving the inhabitants of the Northern, Eastern, and Southern Provinces from a burden from which their fellow countrymen in the other provinces have long been exempt. The repeal of the dry grain tax is in no way connected with the various proposals that have been made with respect to the paddy tax. It is a matter that stande by itself and on its own merits. It will not satisfy those who disapprove of the system of food taxes which prevails in Ceylon, but it will remove the most glaring and the most indefensible defect in that system. I may say that the members of the Executive Council concur in the policy of my proposal to abolish the dry grain tax.
6. The removal of the dry grain tax will only place the inhabitants of the provinces in which it is now in force on the same footing as the inhabitants of the provinces in which the tax is not leviable. I do not therefore propose any substitute for the dry grain tax. I believe the natural expansion of the revenue may be safely trusted to cover the insignificant loss which will be incurred. If it does not do so, it will not be difficult to effect retrenchment in expenditure equal to the amount which may prove to be deficient.
I have, &c.
7. I await with anxiety your Lordship's reply to this despatch. The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, G.C.M.G.,
SIR,
&c.
&c.
&c.
(Signed) A. E. HAVELOCK.
Enclosure in No. 20.
Jaffna Katcherry, September 9, 1870. In connexion with my letter of the 23rd ultimo, No. 180/2, reporting the conduct of the headmen of the Valli Kamam West Division, in regard to the estimates and sales of the dry grain rents of the third quarter, and recommending the removal of the Maningar, I have now the honour most respectfully and earnestly to recommend, in the interest of the Government, the cultivators, and the public in general, that the tax on dry grain in the Jaffos district be abolished after the close of the rents of the fourth quarter of the year.
The tax as levied here is peculiar to the Jaffna district, and was first levied, I believe, at least in its present form, on the recommendation of Mr. Gisborne the then collector in 1827, and has no doubt contributed a large proportion of the revenue of the province.
It is a tax, however, both in its nature and mode of collection, directly opposed to the now accepted principles of sound taxation, as being a heavy and direct tax on grain, the produce of the labour and chief article of food of the poorer classes, recovered in a manner which either exposes the cultivators on one side to oppression, and the Govern- ment on the other to fraud, whilst the headmen, and through them the middlemen or renters, are enriched at the expense of both, or as has recently been the case, renders both headmen and cultivators liable to pay up a heavy sum arbitrarily fixed on as the amount which should be recovered on certain crops.
The dry grain tax in this district is levied on the following grains
Varaku.
Mondi.
Mondichami.
Putchami.
Karuttachami.
Thenaichami.
Panichami.
---
Kampampullu.
Kutheraiwali. Payaru.
Ellu.
Ulunthu. Kollu. Kurakkeu.
The annexed statement A.* shows the amounts recovered on account of dry grains from 1858 to 1869.
• Not printed.
105
Varaku is a grain, the rent of which is sold by itself. The cultivation is carried on at the same time as that of paddy, of which there is one crop annually in this district.
It is grown on high lands not well suited for paddy, and together with paddy on other lands.
The tax on this grain should not be interfered with.
The other grains are grown continuously throughout the year, and the rents are sold four times in the year, and are called the rents of the first, second, third, and fourth quarters.
The quarters are as follows:-
Jaffna
Valli Kamam, East
Do. Do. Vadomcratchey Ponakary Islands
Tenmorstchy Patchelapalle
-
First Quarter.
Second Quarter.
Third Quarter.
Fourth Quarter.
September. October. November.
North. West
December January- February
March. April
June July
May
August
January.
April
February March
May
July August
October.
-
-
November.
-
June
September
·
December.
·
The cultivation is carried on in the paddy fields after the Calapogam paddy crop has been reaped, and in small patches of garden lands, together with vegetables of various description, tobacco, &c.
In one plot of land may be seen beds of tobacco, onions, bringals, payaru, ellu, &c., the payaru and ellu alone being taxed, whilst they require as much labour and attention as the others; and on one plot of ground there may be growing at the same time the crops of three quarters, viz. :—
The full-ripe crop of the first quarter.
The half-grown crop of the second quarter.
The recently sown crop of the third quarter.
This will at once serve to show how difficult it is to check any fraud that may be committed by headmen, and cultivators in collusion with the headmen, in regard to the estimates, or by headmen in collusion with renters, who are in most cases their friends, and what oppression the cultivators must be subjected to where the headmen and renters combine to get as much as possible out of them; and how, again, one renter may defraud another by bribing the cultivators not to reap their crops till the day after or the day before the expiry of one quarter; and with regard to this, I think it right to forward a petition that has been presented to me by the cultivators of the maniagar of Vallikamar West, whose removal in connexion with false estimates I have recommended. Of 70 lachams of land belonging to the maniagar, cultivated for the third quarter, which expired on the 31st August, only 26 had been estimated as sown.
The maniagar admitted this. It is now, however, tried to be made out that the crop belonged to the fourth quarter, not the third. As I have pointed out, the third quarter only expired on the 31st August, and on the 2nd September a petition is presented to me to the effect that the crop of the fourth quarter, which only commenced on the 1st September, and the rent of which has not yet been sold, and will not be sold for some days, is dead ripe.
The fact is, the lands were sown for the third quarter, the crop belonged to the third quarter, and the maniagar, in order to trouble the renter and the odear, and to clear himself, if he can, of the charge brought against him, has not allowed the crop to be reaped. This, I must beg to point out, is the action of the chief 'headman of an important division.
On my arrival in this province in September 1869, a similar instance of fraud on the part of an odear, who was dismissed by Mr. Russel, was brought to my notice.
The selling of the dry grain rents has, during the last five years, been attended with great difficulty, and I know from conversation that I had with him on the subject, and the remarks made by him in his diaries, that the business connected with these rents caused much annoyance and anxiety to the late Government Agent, Mr. Dyke; and the system on which these rents have been recovered during 1868 and 1869 has so much increased the difficulty, and is now exercising such a demoralising influence over the
• Not printed.
62048.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.