CO882-(8-9) — Page 647

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

LICO. 882

Now, if the Let us then assume that there are going to be 15 or 20 distilleries cust of those distilleries is to be Rs. 100,000 each, that will run into two millions of thrones In the Madras Presidency I have ascertained that distilleries are not I may be constructed by the Government, nor are they worked by the Government

ny honourable friend must correct me if I ain, and I shall be glad to he wrong

If there are no Government corrected un that point with regard to the distilleries distilleries in Madras established at a cost of so many millions of rupees, it is I think, clear that it must be for good reasons that the Madras Government has not established

What does the Ceylon Government propose to do! its own distilleries Sir, that it is going to establish distilleries at its own expense, and pass on the distilleries to private parties. Now, if that be so, Sir, at once a difficulty arises. And Have we the nien in Ceylon drawn from the class of present distillers who are able to work the distilleries constructed by the Government upon scientific lines! if there are not many of the class from which the distillers are drawn who could. take these establishments on a lease, then I wish to know whether the Government are prepared to do all the distillery work which they find it impossible to be done by local distilleries! I have no information upon that point either, but now we are pretending to adopt the Madras excise system without adopting the best part of it, namely, central distilleries run by contract suppliers.

In another important respect the excise system proposed is different from the Madras system. It is certainly true that in Madras it has been found that dis tilling arrack from palm toddy has not succeeded. In the Godavery district and the Kistna district and the Malabar district distillation from palm toddy was being prosecuted, but the Government of Madras has found it impossible to keep up that In the Kistna. Godavery, and Malabar districts it has been system of distillation abandoned. Now, Sir, it is important to know what the reasons were for aban- doning it I think it was due to the difficulty of separating the trees that are producing toddy for arrack purposes from the trees that are producing toddy for In view of this difficulty the Madras Government has the consumption as food.

We have here given up its system of distillation from toddy in those districts. toddy drawn for jaggery, and Your Excellency has already told us through the Colonial Secretary that there shall be no interference with the jaggery industry. Then, where does the analogy between the Madras system and the Ceylon system come in?

We have no information, as I have already said, upon this part of the Without, then, the informa- question, but it is also a vital part of the subject. tion upon these two important points, we are asked to give up the renting system which gives us certain revenue, without any difficulty, and to support another system, the particulars of which have not been furnished by the Government for the infor- Government says "We are now ready for the mation of Honourable Members. excise scheme, and Honourable Members must be prepared to accept it at present.'

Now, Sir, I have a great stake in the welfare of this country, and am anxious that there should be no bungling in the management of this question, that we should not rush into any scheme about which we have still no complete information. At the time that Your Excellency went before the Secretary of State in 1908, I believe Your Excellency said that you had fully considered the excise system, and con- demned the renting system; but at that time Your Excellency had no details about the working of the system, not even the Report of the Excise Commissioners, nor Lord Crewe said · any information about the working of the distillery system. "I am disposed to concur with you, but let the opinions of the Honourable Members of the Legislative Council be taken on the subject, and then I shall know better about it." Thereupon the Legislative Council committed itself to an expression of opinion in favour of the excise system, about the details of which it was very much in the same state of ignorance that the Government was, and its resolution was sent Mr. Harcourt said: "In view of the expression of to the Secretary of State. opinion on the part of Your Excellency and the Legislative Council, I concur with About a year the recommendation that the excise system should be adopted." afterwards. Your Excellency placed some information before the Legislative Council But it has been admitted in the Addresses that you delivered in 1911 and 1912.

by my honourable friend the Colonial Secretary that a full statement in regard to the abolition of the renting system and the institution of a new excise system could not be made earlier than yesterday. I honed, Sir, for information upon the vital parts of the question, namely, the nature of the Excise Department, the correlation of its officers, the distribution of work among them, and the distilleries which were to supplant the present unsatisfactory net-work of stills, but I was not lucky enough to get that information, and I say that to introduce an excise system without full

knowledge of the particulars of the Excise Department and the distillery system to be adopted in al. its details would be like acting the play of Hamlet without Hamlet in it Now, Sir, in passing these criticismis. I have evoked the anger of Your Excellency and of my honourable friend the Colonial Secretary

The Honourable the COLONIAL SECRETARY The Honourable Member has not aroused my anger by passing any criticism.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR Neither has the Honourable Member evoked my anger, only a sense of pity.

The Honourable the CEYLONESE MEMBER Very well, Sir, it is very pleasing to hear that you did not get angry You may rest assured that nothing that I said was intended to evoke your anger, nor the sense of a violation of a duty, but I was speaking, Sir, of the vast complications which may arise hereafter, and for which we of the present day will be held responsible. When speaking about the evils of the renting system, we should take care not to rush in the establishment of a new excise system. I say, be cautious, gather more information about the nature of the Excise Department needed for the controlling of the system, and make up your mind leisurely and calmly about the distillery system which is needed for Ceylon, and then come to the Legislative Council for the advice of the Unofficial Members; and then, in the exercise of their privilege, they will be able to give you the advice which the subject deserves.

Sir, with regard to illicit sale, that is also an important part of the question. 1. for one, have no hesitation in condemning the present illicit sale which is going on in all parts of the country

The Honourable the COLONIAL SECRETARY: Hear, hear!

two taverns.

The Honourable the CEYLONESE MEMBER: And that every possible attempt ought to be made to suppress the illicit sales, both for the sake of the people and for the loss of revenue which takes place by such sales. Now, the illicit sale takes place under cover of the distilleries and under cover of the taverns The distilleries are all in the maritime parts between Panadure and Dondra Head; and I have been assured by competent men who live in the neighbourhood of the distilleries, and who, occupying responsible positions in life, are truc in regard to what they say, and they say that the illicit sale in the case of these stills is very little indeed, because no more than one, two, or three bottles can be smuggled out of the dis- tilleries, and that, too, for purposes of consumption in the same neighbourhood. The principal place where illicit sale occurs is in the outlying districts between Usually one tavern is distant from another by about four to eight miles. It happens that respectable people who do not wish to be seen in taverns are yet anxious to have a supply of arrack for their own use. To help them the tavern keepers on either side send out a supply of arrack from their taverns to be sold illicitly. In that way there is a large supply of illicit sale going on through- out the country. Undoubtedly it must be stopped. The great remedy which is suggested by the Government in respect of these illicit sales is, "Let us take the illicit sale going on in the country as a measure of a legitimate want in the country." Now, Sir, my honourable friend who represents the European urban population has struck the correct note when he said that that principle was radically wrong. The illicit sale cannot be measured as a standard of legitimate demand. His illus- tration was apt to the system; and it would be well for the Government to ponder over his remarks. We do not long to buy anything unless we have a great and continuous want for it; but certainly we may be tempted to buy if anything that is pleasing, shining, or good in some way is constantly thrust upon us. My honourable friend says it is like the newspaper; a man has a half-penny in his pocket, and he keeps turning it over in his pocket and wants to know on what he may spend it. Then comes a newsvendor and puts a newspaper before him, and says,

Will you have it; only a half-penny, a half-penny"; and out goes the half-penny. We know another example of this temptation in shops. When we are at home we put away many a desire to buy new things. But if by any chance we go into a shop, we feel at once our imperfections in the form of desires, and they create a demand which insists upon being satisfied. We want this and that, and we go out of the shop poorer than when we went into it, knowing very well that the one hundred rupees which we have spent on that occasion could have been better laid out on an object of charity or some other worthy end. Even so is the position of a villager as to the establishment of a tavern in his village. It is considered wrong to drink intoxicating liquor, and therefore when a man wants to take drink, he takes it on the sly, and then from that first effort comes a habit of drinking which ends in

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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