CO882-(8-9) — Page 634

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O. 882

9 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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their allies are living in an extremely comfortable habitation, out of which they do not wish to be evicted. Now, I shall have more to say upon the subject of taverns a few minutes later. I pass for the moment back to the statement of Dr. Fernando, the statement with regard to arrack distilled from jaggery. I must read his own words, so that I may not be betrayed into doing him any injustice :-

The attempt to introduce the Madras system has set in with a serious attempt to distil a spurious, adulterated liquor, which is not arrack, but consists of a low type of rum. '

Now, with all due deference to Dr Fernando, that is impossible. His accu- sation falls to the ground, because it states something which is impossible. A spurious, adulterated liquor never came, because it never could come, out of any pot- still that is used for the production of potable spirits. Adulteration, as surely we must all know, must be due to a subsequent process, and can have nothing to do with any base from which any spirit is distilled. The spirit which emerges from a pot-still is not pure spirit, it is not even pure spirit and water. It is not intended that it should be. It is intended to bave associated with it certain qualities which are derived from the base which is used for that distillation; and in the absence of faulty fermentation and bad distilling, the spirit which results from jaggery, when used as a base, compares-I say it on very good authority-compares favourably with the spirit which is produced from toddy in Ceylon, always given the fact that fermenta- tion is skilfully conducted and that the distillation is not faulty. Dr. Fernando, you will notice, not contented with stating that there emerges from a still a spurious, adulterated spirit, states that it is not arrack. I am not in a position to say what Dr. Fernando had in his mind when he made that statement, but if he had taken the trouble to look at the law of this Colony which deals with the question, he would have seen that arrack is defined as the spirit distilled from any pro- To the best of my knowledge duct of the coconut, or any description of palm."

and belief, and with due deference to the opinions of Dr. Fernando, jaggery is, I conceive, a product of the palm, and in these circumstances I do not under- stand what Dr. Fernando means when he tells us that the spirit in question is not arrack. He also apparently labours under some illusion to the effect that, while arrack distilled from jaggery emerges from the pot-still already a spurious, adulterated spirit, the arrack that is distilled from coconut toddy is incapable of adulteration. That I can only say is apparent, because I cannot think that is what he really means, and yet, curiously enough, that is what his words seem undoubtedly to imply. On the strength of this Dr. Fernando makes two charges. He charges the Government with distilling a spurious, adulterated liquor, which is not arrack, as a first step in the introduction of the Madras system of excise. How he connects the distillation to which he refers with the Madras system of excise, or what his conception of the Madras system of excise is, or how he can possibly think that is the first step towards the adoption or adaptation of that system, I must leave Dr. Fernando personally to explain in the newspapers, because it altogether passes the limit of my own comprehension. But, as the matter has been raised, I think it only right to inform Honourable Members exactly how the Government stands in this matter. Some months ago we were approached by the gentleman who possesses the still to which, I am told, Dr. Fernando refers. when he speaks of a still which is producing a spurious, adulterated spirit, which is not arrack, and is a low form of rum. The gentleman in question is Mr. R. E. S. de Soysa, who holds a rent, and who came to us, and informed us that a dead set had been made against him by local distillers, and that he did not see how he could carry on his rent, unless per- mission were given him by Government to erect a distillery in his own coconut topes, where he could use his own coconuts for the manufacture of toddy. He went to see Mr. Thurley, and asked him whether he could help him, merely as a friend, to point out which site in his coconut topes he thought would make a suitable place on which to build a distillery; and Mr. Thurley very kindly gave him the information and the advice he required. Subsequently I have been informed-my authority is Dr. Fer- nando-that Mr. de Soysa, instead of using his own coconuts, or rather his own toddy from his own coconut trees, has been using jaggery imported from Madras, and I am Weigel I think the gentleman's name is, told that with the help of a Mr.

who is aiding him in this matter, that he is producing a spirit which has excited a good deal of local prejudice. The point which is of interest and importance to this Council is that not only has the distillation of that spirit nothing in the wide world to do with the introduction of the Madras excise system, but that Government

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had nothing whatsoever to do with authorising the use of jaggery; and under the existing old and bad Ordinance, which it is our sole object to-day to replace with something better, having granted a licence to distil during the period of the renter's term, Government has no more power than the man in the moon to restrict Mr. de Soysa or anybody else from using jaggery or any other base, including, if he likes, sugar cane.

For the rest I must leave Dr. Fernando and Mr. R. E. S. de Soysa to fight out between them the question of the spurious, adulterated liquor. But I will pass on to another point. Dr. Fernando said that Government is acting in the manner he alleges with the intention of bringing about "the gradual extinction of coconut palm arrack by permitting distillation of a spirit out of imported materials." In other words, he says that this policy consists of encouraging foreign products to the exclusion and destruction of a local industry which has gone on for centuries." And, again," Our chief objection to this practice is that such a course will completely ruin one of the most specialised products of the coconut palm." Now, I have explained to you who was the real culprit, and that the Government had nothing to do with it, and had no power to control or prevent the operations of Mr. de Soysa. And here I should like to draw your attention once again to paragraph 54 of the Commissioner's Report, a document about which a great deal has been spoken and written, but which I am sometimes tempted to question whether some of our most earnest critics have read with the care which was advisable. In paragraph 54 it is stated-

"A principle which has been kept in view throughout has been to depart as little as possible from existing conditions; to interfere as little as possible with existing occupations, habits, and customs of the people."

Now, the second charge which Dr. Fernando made is quite as flimsy as the grounds upon which it rests. During the process of transformation from the renting to the contract supply system, the industries connected with the production and preparation of arrack will in no way suffer. They will be more efficiently regulated, I hope, than in the past, but they will not suffer. It is partly to avoid an unneces- sary, violent, or sudden dislocation of local industries that Government proposes to introduce the change gradually; and when the change is completed no such dislocation is again to be apprehended. Your distiller will be able to become a contract supplier. Your distiller will still afford a market for the toddy drawn from the coconut trees locally grown; and there is no reason to believe that any of the persons who are engaged at the present moment in toddy-drawing or in any of the work which is connected with it will be thrown out of employment or disturbed; and more than that, so long as arrack can be distilled from toddy drawn from palm trees grown in this Island this will be done, provided that those concerned in the production of the toddy required as the base from which the arrack is distilled, and those controlling this industry, maintain a reasonable business attitude. I think it must be within the knowledge of Honourable Members that during 1910, and again during 1911, the arrack renters have had to approach Government and to point out that the pro- ducers of local toddy had run the price up to so high a figure that the renters would have to face bankruptcy unless Government could come to their relief; and in both these years it has been necessary, as Honourable Members are aware, to import arrack from Madras in order to prevent a corner being effected in Ceylon arrack. Now, when Government assumes full responsibility for the distillation of all arrack in this Colony, it will extend the same measure of protection to the contract supplier which it has extended in the past to the renter; that is to say, we shall always deal with local We shall not go elsewhere merely because suppliers so long as they are reasonable. the base of distillation is slightly cheaper. We shall be prepared to give a fair and reasonable price based on the average of local prices in past years; but any attempt at extortion will be very promptly and very resolutely dealt with. The matter, in other words, lies in the hands of the owners of coconut trees. If their industries suffer, or are totally ruined" as Dr. Fernando says-that, of course, is impossible, but I quote his words-if a coconut tree is not tapped for toddy, it grows coconuts, and at the present time coconuts are a valuable commodity, and it is only a question of which way it suits you to get your profit but if the industry were to suffer, or were to be " totally ruined," as Dr. Fernando apprehends, it would not be the result of the act of Government, but it would be entirely due to the owners of coconut trees having attempted to make, not a legitimate profit, but an illegitimate profit out of their fellow-countrymen, the general taxpayers of this Island. Now, Dr. Fernando wants a definition of arrack which is to place the contract supplier of the future, and,

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