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widely known also took part in the debate and warmly supported the motion, My honourable friend, Mr which, as I have said, was unanimously passed Arunachalat, who was the only other speaker, condemned the present system, and

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Lvery civilised Government has passed or is promoting legislation which reflects both a growing public cotisetoustiess of the evils of the drink We in Ceylon are grateful Traffic and determined efforts to overcane them.

to Your Excellency for realising the necessity for a like policy here, and for taking steps so early in your administration to carry it out

Government, therefore, found itself warmly supported by all the speakers to the resolution, fortified also by a unanimous vote of this Council, and was able to rely the more upon the opinions which had been expressed at this Board, because they had been Vaiced by" gentlemen with long and intimate experience of many sections of the communities of this Colony, who were entitled to speak in authori tative terms We also had the opinion of my honourable friend, Mr. Kanagasabai, to the effect that the Madras system appeared to him to be "admirably good, and The action which we are now proposing to adapted to the conditions of Ceylon take. Sir, amounts to the first steps towards the adoption of that system, duly We consider that it would be pre- adapted to local circumstances and "conditions. mature and unwise to attempt to adopt the Madras system suddenly or universally; but the eventual adoption of that system in an adapted form is our object, and all the steps which it is now proposed to take are steps which lead in that direction. Having received the mandate of this Council by the resolution which I have just read, the Government lost no time in applying to the Government of Madras and asking for the services of an experienced officer thorougthy conversant with the As Honourable Members are aware, Mr. Thurley, system in force in that Presidency

of the Abkari Department in Madras, was appointed to this Colony, and he arrived in September. At that time I chanced to be administering the Government during Your Excellency's absence in England, and I caused to be associated with Mr. Thurley an experienced civil servant. Mr. Horsburgh, whose character, as well as whose ability. I felt might be relied on with confidence. My object in taking this step was to prevent the Madras system from being adopted slavishly in this Colony, and to facilitate the process which we believe to be necessary, namely, that before it could be universally adopted, it must undergo a certain process of adaptation. Mr Thurley's deputation to this Colony was for a period of three years, and that I should like to take this opportunity, Sir, period will expire in September next. of recording the appreciation, the warm appreciation, of Government for the manner in which Mr Thirley has discharged his duties during the time he has served in this Colony. I have been in constant cominunication with him, and his devotion to duty, his wide and deep and thorough knowledge of his subject, and the way in which he has always placed that knowledge at the disposal of Your Excellency and your advisers are beyond all praise. Already, Sir, you have recorded in an official letter to the Government of Madras your appreciation of Mr. Thurley's services, and your thanks to that Government for having lent us so able an officer. In the future an officer of much junior rank will, it is hoped, be obtained from An officer of Mr. Thurley's attainments Madras to help the Excise Commissioner.

and rank in his Department is no longer needed now that we have passed beyond the initial stage of laying down our policy, and are about, with the sanction of An Honourable Members, to embark upon the task of following that policy out. officer drawing less pay and of less standing will in future be associated with Mr. Horsburgh as adviser to the Excise Commissioner. Now, Messrs. Horsburgh and Thurley began their inquiries into this very difficult question in the month of September, 1909. They visited every part of the Island, and they acquired, I venture to say, more information on the subject of the manufacture, distribution, sale, and consumption of intoxicants in Ceylon than had ever before been possessed by any officers at the disposal of the Government of the Colony. After devoting more than nine months to a close study of this question, they furnished the Report which was laid before the Council in July, 1910. Now, on the first appearance of that Report, it is interesting to note --memories are rather short in this Colony-it is interesting to note that it was greeted by a universal pean of praise by every news- paper having authority in our midst. The main principles of that Report were referred by Your Excellency to the members of the Executive Council, were by them approved in a general manner, and the Secretary of State was addressed asking

for a similar general approval to enable us to begin beating out our line of policy. By the time that approval had been received, however, forces of some kind or another had got to work, and the pæan of praise abruptly and suddenly had become trans- formed into yells of execration. We were told that the Report was a monstrous document. we were told that Government, hungrily searching for revenue, was busily intent upon demoralising the people of this Island for its own mean and paltry ends, and we were told" "inuch more nonsense to the like effect. Two subjects in the Report were eagerly seized up on. One was the multiplication of taverns. would insist, Sir, upon the fact that the term multiplication of taverns of our crities, not a phrase of my coming. The other subject was the tree tax, with Later I will return to these matters. special reference to the jaggery industry

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is that

Now, if, as it had been alleged, Government had not only approved the main prin ciples of its policy, but had decided upon the immediate steps which it intended to recommend for the approval of Honourable Members, there would have been no difficulty whatsoever in introducing this Bill a year ago, and attempting to pass it through the Council When I returned to this Colony in January of last year, I found a very violent discussion going on among a number of very excited persons, and I immediately devoted myself to studying the question as far as possible, and Your Excellency decided that it was impossible to bring the matter before the Legis- lative Council at that juncture, because we required much more inquiry and much more information before we could honestly ask this Council to pledge itself to endorse the policy which, if explained then, would have been explained in a very sketchy and inadequate fashion. Therefore, taking an opportunity which happened to present itself at the St. Patrick's dinner on March 17, 1911, and feeling that this Colony was in a state of turmoil and distress, which I hoped a few words would possibly relieve. I ventured to tell those who were present, and through them a larger public outside, that Government had not yet decided what steps it would recommend the Council to take, and that when it had so decided, the matter would be laid fully before Honourable Members and submitted to them for their con- sideration and discussion. That pledge, I may incidentally mention, I am carrying out to-day to the best of 'my ability. It is rather interesting to note the way in which that speech was received, because if people honestly were in such terror that the Report was to be adopted from A to Z, why was it that instead of giving a sigh of relief when they had an authoritative statement from myself, the accredited mouthpiece of Government, to the effect that the Government programme was not yet outlined, and could not yet be submitted to the Legislative Council, why instead of that did a fresh yell of execration and excitement rise to affright the heavens? Why? That it did is within the knowledge of all of us. My only suggestion, possibly a wrong one, is that fears were entertained in certain quarters that the agitation would die down unless some fresh soda was poured into the mixture to cause a new ebullition and effervescence. Those who honestly disapproved of the proceedings must. I believe, have been relieved by the statement that I made on March 17 last year. They would naturally, therefore, have felt secure, and have been content not to cry out until they were hurt. But do not let us forget, Sir, that there are certain people in this Colony who had already been hurt, who were hurt from the first moment that the word “reform was authoritatively whispered by an official mouthpiece of Government: and that those persons could not afford to suffer the opposition to die down, and could not afford to await, as Honourable Members have been content to await, the full exposition of Government on this important subject. Illogically enough, those who had hitherto execrated the Report, now clamoured for the Report, the whole Report, and nothing but the Report, They desired, so to speak, to nail the ear of Government to that Report, and begged s not to think that we could wrench ourselves away from it. We had no desire to do anything of the sort. The Report, of which I wish to speak with the very greatest respect, is in my opinion a most able and a most instructive document, and I very earnestly commend a real and patient study of it to all those who are interested in this question. And now, Sir, passing from the question of the opposition which has been raised, and noting only that many of those who have not been able to restrain their patience up to this moment have placed themselves in the unfortunate position of riflemen who have emptied their magazines firing at the butts before even the targets were set up, I propose to pass on to the proposals of Government. I earnestly request the attention of Honourable Members to what I am about to say, which embodies the proposals which Government now confidently place before them for consideration and discussion. I will take. in the first instance, the proposals of Government with regard to foreign liquor, that is to say, liquor imported from

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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We propose it the ampotation stand in future be more ethath supervised We propose that the duty should be raised in such a way as to prevent cheap foreign liquor from underselling wholesome country liquors. We propose so to his die nummum Strength as to prevent undue dilution, and thereby untain competition with country spatit We propose to prevent adulteration, and We propose to supervise all bottling operations, and all operations concerned with We the breaking down and manipulation of spirits imported from without. propose to subject foreign liquior to a rigid analysis, which will be conducted by a special otherr and staff in a spertal exotse laboratory attached to the Department of the Government Analyst, under the immediate control of the Excise Comnis- We also propose altogether to rearrange the existing licensing system with regard to foreign liquor i do not propast at this moment to trouble you with the details of this matter, as it is a question better worked out in Select Committee, when I will be alde to place all these details before you, but I may mention that, instead of the seven overlapping hectives that are at present in force, there will In future be no less than sixteen, that the classification of the licences will be scientific, that overlapping will be entirely done away with, that bars, for instance, will be efficiently taxed, and that hotels, eating houses, de, where liquor is sold for consumption on the premises, will also be more efficiently supervised than they have ever been in the past. I may add that it is proposed that the liquor shop licences should be sold by auction or by tender to approved persons, that the premises used as liquor shops will have to be examined and approved; that the quantity of liqueer that may be sold from any licensed liquor shop to any single individual at any one transaction will be limited to one reputed quart, and that that may later undergo even greater diminution. Now, the object of Government We want to restrict as much as possible on making these proposals is as follows the consumption of cheap foreign liquor We want to regulate absolutely the manipulation of all foreign liquor, which after it is brought into this country, is watered down for local sale and consumption. We propose to regulate and adequately to tax the consumption of all foreign liquor imported into the Colony, and thereby to discourage its use as far as possible by reducing the profits at present made in the business, and by enhancing its price We also hope thereby to check the con- sumption of cheap or injurious foreign liquor among the native population of Ceylon. The above proposals, which relate solely to foreign liquor, will, 1 anticipate, meet with general approval They will, of course, be very distasteful to the people who at the present moment are conducting the business of importing cheap foreign liquors and of manipulating them in Ceylon. They will be unpopular, because those people will find their methods very closely supervised, because they will be more heavily taxed than has ever been the case in the past, because the price of their liquor will be put up; and because the income which they derive from the sale will be materially diminished They are, however, comparatively few, and their loss will, to a certain extent, be the gain of the purveyor of country liquor; but it will be immeasurably I do not wish to weary you more the gain of the native population of this Colony with figures more than 1 can possibly avoid, but I think few people at the present moment have any conception of the extent to which the consumption of cheap foreign liquor is spreading throughout this Colony. The imports of gin have increased by 130 per cent in quantity and by 160 per cent. in value during the past decade; while imports of brandy and whisky have increased by 50 per cent and 20 per cent. respectively. The imports of gin for 1910-1911 were valued at Rs. 871,000, and showed an increase of 29 per cent, over the importation of the preceding year. That, Sir, was the reason why, even if we had not found ourselves, as we now do find our- selves, in the position to make a full exposition of our policy to Council on this date. it had been proposed by Your Excellency and your advisers that the foreign liquor I think portion of our proposals should be proceeded with in any circumstance. Honourable Members will agree that the few figures I have given are sufficient to convince the Council of the magnitude of the evil with which we have to contend, I now come to a matter and the absolute necessity for urgency in dealing with it.

which affects a very much larger number of persons in the way of trade, and that is the question of the regulation of the manufacture, sale, and consumption of country liquor throughout the Colouy; and that can hardly fail to interest a very large Now, the first step which number of people in the direction of their pockets. Government has taken is the separation of arrack and toddy: and it cannot be insisted upon too strongly that the first most necessary and essential step in securing the control of the manufacture, distribution, sale, and ultimately the consumption,

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of country liquor in this Colony is the complete separation of toddy from arrack It is a purely administrative measure, one which Government is empowered to take under the existing law, and which requires no further legislative authority from Honourable Members, but the Legislature having recorded a unanimous vote con- demning the present system and endorsing in general terms the substitution for it of a reformed system on the lines of that in force in Madras, and the separation of toddy from arrack being absolutely essential, and I may say the first initial step towards The adoption of that system, it remained for Government to lose no time as soon as its policy was ready, cut and dried, for presentation to this Council, to insist upon the Separation in question Let me state'as shortly as I can the reasons why the separa- tion of arrack from toddy and toddy from arrack is essential. At present, as you are The sale and consumption of aware, arrack rents are sold to the highest bidders toddy for all practical purposes is ignored--what we sell are the arrack rents-- though a profit from the sale of fermented toddy is made in many parts of the Island. By some renters toddy is offered for sale in the arrack taverns. right to sell toddy is under det to various persons

By some renters the By some renters a more or less half hearted attempt at repression of the sale of toddy is carried on; that is to say, nobody is allowed to sell it who has not paid his footing to the renter, and naturally any one who does is liable to be harassed by renters' peons and by occasional prose- cutions. But all this means that the sale and consumption of toddy is at the present Now, it is notorious to moment altogether unregulated throughout this Colony. everybody that in the Central Province, for instance, vast quantities of toddy are annually consumed. I do not know whether Honourable Members realise that not a drop of toddy, fermented toddy, at the present moment can be manufactured or consumed in any part of the Central Province without a breach of the law. But the law gives us no machinery with which to deal with that, and it is only if the Bill which is presented to you to-day comes into force that that machinery will gradually come into being. When I was sitting four years ago as Chairman of the Labour Commission, a great deal of evidence came before us-which will be remembered by my honourable friend Mr. Rosling and my honourable friend Mr. Kanagasabai, who were then associated with me on that Commission-which showed how great was the illicit consumption of toddy throughout the planting districts of the Central Province; and there was even one case in evidence before us where the arrack renter had on conviction paid the fine of the illicit purveyor of toddy, which will give Honourable Members some inkling as to how far the present system acts in any way as a pre- ventative, and how far arrack renters are making a profit, an unrecognised and secret profit, out of toddy drinking in the Colony. Now, there is one point which we have got to recognize, and that is, that it is quite impossible to repress or suppress the consumption of toddy in Ceylon. It is impossible, because the consumption of that liquor is an ingrained habit which people have been addicted to for generations; also because toddy is so easily procurable by anybody who possesses one or more coconut trees, and is therefore so accessible to all persons who desire to indulge their taste for it. It is undesirable to prohibit the consumption of toddy; also. I have already stated, it is impossible. It is also undesirable to attempt it, because, to begin with, it is a much less potent spirit, and therefore much less harmful, than arrack, and because, as Mr Kanagasabai told the Council on April 7, 1909, toddy forms an important food-stuff of the people in many parts of Ceylon, and the use of it cannot, therefore, with justice to the inhabitants of those portions of the Colony, be suppressed. There remains then. Sir, only to regulate it; to regulate the manu- This, I sub- facture, the sale, and eventually the consumption, of fermented toddy.

mit. Sir, cannot be done by continuing any longer to ignore its existence. It can That is only be effected by recognizing toddy in precisely the same way as arrack. the initial step. This measure is, of course, highly unpopular among arrack renters, because for the first time they will have to forgo all illegitimate profits from the sale of licit or illicit toddy; because the less harmful and potent of the two liquors will, for the first time in the history of this Colony, be given a fair chance of competing on an equal footing with the more harmful and more potent liquor, arrack. The immedi- ate result of the action of Government in deciding to separate arrack from toddy has been an attempt at combination among renters. That was anticipated, and if it proceeds we are fully prepared to deal with it. Lower bids for arrack rents have also been made for many of the Provinces, and have had to be accepted, it being recog- nised that in the past the arrack renter has made a certain profit out of toddy, which in future he will be forced to forgo. In addition to this, interested persons have raised a bowl of execration against Government and against its individual

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