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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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TILTIC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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privilege the Government are unwilling to concede.

The only alternative will then be State-ownership of distilleries. Your Memorialists submit that if once this Colony embarks in a great outlay of capital in building these distilleries, no oppor- The very fact of tunity will ever be offered afterwards for private competition. State-ownership will be urged with considerable force and show of reason as an In addition to the, arguments which have argument in favour of continuing it. already been urged against this part of the excise scheme, your Memorialists venture to submit that the Ceylon Government, with its already over-worked, dilatory, and costly Public Works Department, are the least fitted to carry out such an under- taking. More than two years ago, the money necessary to set up a small distillery to serve as a model and as a school of instruction for excise officers was voted by the Government, but this distillery is not in working up to date. At this rate of pro- gress the distilleries necessary for the whole island will take more than 30 years for the Government to set up. But until all the distilleries are in operation, the proposed scheme of the Government to eliminate the arrack renter will not come into complete operation. Your Memorialists would remind you that one of the main reasons for the adoption of a reform is that the antiquated and demoralising system of renting or arrack farming should be abolished as speedily as possible, and the very fact that such a consummation will be indefinitely postponed if the Government set up their own distilleries would be a sufficient reason in itself to condemn the suggestion of Government ownership. The adoption of the English system of licensed dis- tilleries will obviate these difficulties and delays, and, amongst other benefits, an opportunity will be afforded for reviving the export trade in arrack to Southern India, which has been ruthlessly sacrificed owing to Government interference in the interests of the arrack renter by the levy of a crushing export duty in 1898.

14. During the consideration of the Excise Bill in the Legislative Council, the Colonial Secretary passed repeated pledges that, in the introduction of the system of separating the sale of toddy from arrack, the following conditions would be rigorously enforced :-

(a) that toddy taverns would only be established in localities where there was

a proved previous demand of a considerable extent;

(b) that no arrack renter would be suffered to acquire any interest, direct or

indirect, in the sale of toddy; and

(c) that individual taverns would be put up for sale separately so as to prevent any one man or combination of men from obtaining the monopoly of selling toddy over a wide area.

15. It was in virtue of these pledges that the Bill received the unanimous assent of the Legislative Council. But these pledges, so solemnly given, have not been kept under any one of the heads mentioned above. With regard to the first, not only did the Excise Officers act in violation of the promises of Government, but the statement made by one of the Excise Commissioners (Mr. Thurley) at an interview published in one of the daily papers after the expiration of his term of deputation in Ceylon, indicates that even the data on which a proper decision as to the existence of prior demand for toddy might be based were not available. According to Mr. Thurley it took the Government of Madras several years to collect the requisite evidence, and it was only after that evidence had been collected and analysed, that the toddy taverns were established in Madras. In Ceylon similar data would not have been available until the close of the present year. The allocation of the toddy shops in April last seems to have been settled, therefore, in a perfectly arbitrary, reckless, and specu- lative fashion. At the commencement, the establishment of over 1,800 shops was contemplated, but out of these only 1,073 were sold, as the rest did not attract the attention of speculators. Of the shops sold several have not yet been opened, as the licensees have discovered, to their cost, that they are not wanted, and their opening would result in a loss to them. In several instances the licences have been offered by Government for re-sale in default of payment of instalments of the rent The due, and such re-sales have resulted in failures to attract acceptable bids. case of the re-sale of seven areas in the Colombo district on the 24th November may be cited as an instance (vide Appendix 1).

16. In several instances, not only was there no previous demand for toddy, but there existed strong and at times unanimous opposition on the part of the inhabitants of the districts to the opening of toddy shops in their midst. The following may be cited as examples :-

(a) The Buddhist Memorial Committee represented to Government that they were in a position to prove that toddy taverns had been established in

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several places where there was no previous demand. pondence with Government they were prepared, if given an opportu- nity, to prove their contentions as regards two places-Botala and Pirisyala to start with. The request for an inquiry was refused. (b) Complaints have been made by Christian Missionaries, by Hindu and Buddhist Priests, and also by various residents and planters as to the opening of toddy shops in places where no such requirements existed.

(c) In several instances the Government have granted land for the purpose of having toddy taverns erected when the residents have combined to withhold land for such a purpose, or have ordered the headman to pro- vide sites for the tavern on their private property. In this manner the Government have forced drink on an unwilling people, and have per- mitted a belief to rise in the minds of the ignorant villagers that the Government of the Colony is linked to the liquor traffic-a belief which is calculated to alienate the sympathies of the people, to shake their confidence in the Government, and to undermine their loyalty. For instance, at Kalleliya, in the Hapitigama Korle, the Government made over a portion of the village burial ground for this purpose, and the licensee has paid Rs. 3 per mensem as ground rent. At Pambala, in the Chilaw District, the Assistant Government Agent allowed the tavern to be placed on a piece of land set apart as a road reservation. At Kalaga- dara and Kepittiwalana in the Hewagam Korle, Crown land has been granted. At Madampe, in the Chilaw District, for several months after the toddy license was sold no land was available for the erection of the toddy shop. But recently the Mohandiram of the District, apparently under instructions from the Government Agent, has-sur- rendered his private garden for such a use.

17. In selling the toddy taverns the Governinent Agents seem to have had only one object in view, i.e., revenue. The arrack renters in a great many districts have secured the most important toddy shops, and have thus defeated the cardinal object the Government professed to have in view in introducing the new system. In this connection, it may be mentioned that Mr. Victor Corea, of Chilaw, has supplied to Government detailed information in the form of an affidavit (Appendix 2) as to the manner in which the toddy shops sales were conducted at Chilaw, and how the arrack renter of the district secured several important toddy taverns, but up to date no action has been taken on this information.

18. The sales of toddy shops in the Province of Sabaragamuwa point to the fact that no attempt was made to sell the shops individually. Licences were sold in groups, and even when they were sold separately, one individual was permitted to purchase a whole group in the same district. The notice in the Gazette of the 30th August of the re-sale of toddy licences at Ratnapura states explicitly, "the the areas for sale Government Agent reserves to himself the right of putting up the arict over 100 in blocks of pattus or in one block for the whole korale." In toddy shops were sold, but the shops opened have not reached a third of that number. In one division, Kuruwita, the licensee was given the right of selling toddy over a particular area, with the proviso that he was to set up a number of shops in that area, to be determined afterwards by the revenue officer. This licensee has opened As he failed to carry three shops, but he has been called upon to open seven more.

out this order, a re-sale of the licence was ordered, but was withdrawn at the last moment. This dispute is still unsettled.

19. Your Memorialists in their appeals to the local Government strenuously opposed the creation of separate toddy taverns on several grounds. Two of the most important being that they would create a demand where no such demand previously existed, since toddy, much the cheaper of the two forms of country liquor, would exploit a lower stratum of society than arrack, and would lead to a greater amount of drunkenness, with its attendant evil-an increase of crime. These fears have When a toddy tavern is once established the been realised beyond expectation. number of palm trees tapped has increased month by month in several instances. At Munagama, in Raygam Korle, Mr. C. E. A. Dias, a proprietary rubber and cooo- nut planter of the district, reports that before the shop was opened there was no fermented toddy in the village, but since its establishment 80 trees were tapped at first, and now the number necessary has increased to 136. In the village of Dalugama the number of toddy trees tapped has increased from 50 to 150 (Appendix 3.)