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الكرة

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PLEC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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Rs 4,700,000, and from an administrator's point of view it is essential to find out once for all, if it is possible to do so, how much of the revenue goes into other hands than the public exchequer. I estimate from information I have received from different sources that as much as three millions of rupees are diverted from That is a practical problem indeed, the public exchequer by the renting system. and I think the thanks of the Colony are due to Your Excellency and to your I have no doubt that if advisers for sitting assiduously over this question, and devising methods by which so much money can be diverted into the public exchequer

Now, great pains have a system could be found out by which three millions of rupees can be gained for the public exchequer, we should all try and support it. been taken to find out whether a system superior to the renting system is to be found or not, and the choice of the Government has fallen upon the excise system; and it remains to be seen whether the excise system is the panacea which it is hoped it will be. 1, Sir, would be very glad if it answers the question.

Now, the success of the excise system in the Madras Presidency is due entirely to its completeness, and to the effective manning of the department which is neces- Unless the Government are prepared to formulate sary to control the whole system.

a complete department, and to place at the head of it a most skilful officer upon a pay consistent with the importance of the office, I feel from my knowledge of Now, Sir, I desire things existing in India and elsewhere that the proposed excise system, instead The Govern- of being a blessing to this country, will bring nothing but harm. to have upon this question a lot of information from the Government.

They admit that they ment have told us that they were not prepared to face the Legislative Council of Ceylon carlier than now because of want of information. went to the Secretary of State with information of a kind, and managed to persuade Lord Crewe to give his support under certain conditions. They say that they also succeeded in obtaining the assent of Mr. Harcourt to this scheme to the excise scheme. But when I go over the papers from the beginning to the end I see there I look in is a complete absence of information upon the very vitals of the question - -the What is the size of the depart- nature of the department with which you propose to work the system. vain for information on this part of the subject.

Into how many How many officers will there be in the Excise Department? What Iment to l

How do they stand correlated?

What about the distilleries, without are their respective duties divisions are you going to divide the Island? which an Excise Department cannot stand? Has any Honourable Member of this Council read any paper connected with the working of the excise system in the He occupies a place on Madras Presidency? It is a huge department, and the Chief Commissioner of the Department is paid as much as Rs. 3,275 a month. the Board of Revenue, together with the Commissioners of Finance, Land Settle- ment, and so on, and this Board of Revenue is carried on under the ægis of the Governor and his Executive Council. Consider, Sir, the importance of the super- vision of the complicated department by the Excise Commissioner. Your Excel- lency admits that the work to be done in the department will be as complicated What sort of man are we going to have as it will be far-reaching in its effects. in Ceylon as the Chief Excise Commissioner? An officer analogous to the Chief Excise Commissioner of Madras? Are you going to pay anything like Rs. 3,275 a month to him because he is a civilian of the highest importance, and a civilian considered to be fit to enter the Executive Council, and becomes even the Governor of the Madras Presidency. There are two persons at the present time, if I remember rightly. Sir Harvey Thompson and Mr. Hammick, who have been Governors of the Madras Presidency, after being Excise Commissioners. chief excise officer you choose should have a clear grasp of this important branch of revenue, and he must have very superior abilities. I do not think it right to draft off from the Civil Service a person occupying a post in the Second Class to administer the affairs of an important department, which brings into the coffers of the public revenue as much as Rs. 5,000,000, one-eighth of the revenue of Ceylon. Now, Sir, this civilian, the Chief Excise Commissioner in Madras, is a man grown old in the service of India, is a man who has risen by force of his intellect and executive capacity to this high position. It seems to me that by the experience afforded to us by India that an officer of the Second Class of the Civil Service receiving a pay of perhaps Rs. 10,000 a year-

The

The Honourable the COLONIAL Secretary: Might I remind the Honourable Member that Mr. Horsburgh is an officer of the First Class?

The Honourable the CEYLONESE MEMBER: Very well, Sir, First Class. I thank my honourable friend for that correction.

But, Sir, among an officer of the

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What is needed is a officers of the First Class there are different orders of men. man whose mental calibre is on a par with that of my honourable friend the Colonial If such Secretary, or on a par with that of the Excise Commissioner in Madras. an officer cannot be found, I think, Sir, there is every chance of this excise scheme going astray. It is insisted by the authorities who have written upon the Excise Department that there must be the brightest intellect and the keenest activity dis

If you played in the chair of the Chief Excise Commissioner to make it a success. do not have such a man, you will be sorry for it in the end. Economy in this respect will never do, and the revenue from arrack and toddy, which is so necessary for Ceylon, will be endangered thereby. But that is not the only thing. The Chief Excise Commissioner is not the sum and substance of the Excise Department. Sir, I have not had from the Government any description whatever of the new Excise Department. Now, the Presidency of Madras is divided for the purposes of the Excise Department into three large divisions, each under a Deputy Commissioner, one of whom is a Civil Servant qualifying for the office of Chief Excise Commis- sioner, and even for that of Governor of the Madras Presidency. These divisions are divided into subdivisions, each under an Assistant Commissioner, who draws from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1.000. Each subdivision again is divided into circles, and each circle is placed under an Inspector drawing a salary of from Rs. 250 to Rs. 450: and each circle is divided into ranges, each under a Sub-Inspector drawing a salary of from Rs. 30 to Rs. 70. When the circle is large, there is an Assistant Inspector of Rs. 125 to Rs. 175. So that a man, as the present system is worked, has an opportunity of rising from a salary of Rs. 125 to Rs. 1,400; and at present there is a Deputy Commissioner drawing a salary of Rs. 1,400, who is none other than & native gentleman, Kristnaswamy Iyengar Rao Bahadur. He rose from the small salary of Rs. 25; and there is an Assistant Commissionership which is now held by a Muhammadan gentleman, and he rose from a clerkship in the Post Office. Now, Sir, the majority of the Inspectors on Rs. 250 to Rs. 400 are natives. Thus, Sir, you will see how important it is to offer inducements enough for gentlemen to be honest and trustworthy in this difficult department. If you make your pay low, if you put in a man who will readily yield to temptation, the scheme is bound to be a failure. That is well recognised in India. Up to the present date all that we have done in regard to the Excise Department, so far as my inquiries go, is to send out about 20 Sub-Inspectors on the poor salary of Rs. 50 to Rs. 70 a month for gathering information.

How is it possible for us, Sir, members of the Legislative Council, to help you in the difficult task of administering the Government of Ceylon without the needed information? I ask: " Will you tell me what your conception is of the Excise Department? What is the proposal to be? What is the distribution of work What inducements are you going to hold out in regard to its numerous officers?

And I receive but one to keep them away from corruption and indolence?

Is this not true, really? Is answer: "We are as much in the dark as you are.' this not the present situation of the members of the Legislative Council? You say "Let us set up an Excise Department. Let us knock down the renting system, which is bringing us a revenue, as Honourable Members know, without any effort on our part. Let us knock it on the head and institute an Excise Department." say you are past masters in the art of government, and we are mere neophytes. We are willing to learn at your feet. But if we raise the question, will you tell "That is a question we us what is the nature of your department to be? You say have yet to consider." I say, Sir, that the principle of the Madras Presidency is well ascertained to be that unless the executive government is formulated in all its details in the best possible manner, and unless it is officered and supervised in the most efficient manner, it is bound to fall. If the Government had given me the information I want, my responsibility this day would have been easy. Having a full sense of responsibility, both to man and God, and having been forced into am bound to look into this matter this chair by the wishes of my countrymen, from all points of view. But go where I may, I cannot get any information about My heart the Excise Department. So what am I to do under the circumstances? aches. I am all in a tremor for the safety of the arrack revenue.

Then I ask, Sir, whether the Government have considered and settled another

You say

"Abolish the important point round which the whole system moves.

But the renting system hinges on a system renting system. Well and good.

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of out-stills. From Panadure to Dondra Head we have as many as 240 stills, con- tributing each its mite to the maintenance of the renting system; that is to say. supplying the renter with the stores necessary for the sale of arrack, and so bringing

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