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on carriages let for hire, to which extent the Gover- nor decided in favour of the tax of this nature proposed by Sir E. Tennent, of which the expediency had been questioned by the Committee; and lastly,

A levy of 38. or six days' labour from every adult New Papers, p. 113. male in the island, with the view of relieving the road department from expense. This department had been hitherto exclusively supported by annual votes out of the general revenue, and had been exclusively and directly administered by officers of the general Government. It was now arranged Ditto, p. 113. partly with a view to give the new road-tax a more popular character, partly to carry out the design of Committee for the introduction of municipal insti- tutions, that the contributions to be realized under the new Road Ordinance, as that imposing the new road-tax was called, whether in money or labour, should be exclusively appropriated to roads under

the superintendence of Committees, assisted by a

a native officer elected by household suffrage. A Ditto, p. 133.

tax on dogs was also imposed nearly simultaneously

with the other taxes, in the shape of a license cost- ing 18. per annum for each animal. But this was rather a police arrangement than a financial mea- the Governor reporting his object in adopting

sure,

it to be the checking of the nuisance arising from

an excessive number of dogs, especially in towns.

A

great effort was at the same time resolved upon by

the Governor to reduce expenditure, and had so far

succeeded by the middle of 1848 that there was ex- Ditto, p. 233.

hibited in the accounts of the half-year then ended a reduction of expenditure of 20,4351. chiefly in esta blishments as compared with the expenditure of the first half-year of 1847.* Application was also made to the Home Government for a loan from the Imperial Treasury or for sanction to raise one on the spot, as

it appeared early in 1848 that nothing but such

a resource could enable the local Government to Governor's despatch, dated April

14, 1848.

meet its engagements during the course of that year Ditto, p. 99, &c.

as the revenue continued to fall off in many branches owing to the cessation of land sales, the continued

Against this there was tó be set off a decrease of revenue to

the amount of 3,5741. A surplus of receipt over expenditure was exhibited on the first half-year of 1848, of 14,5947., but upwards of 22,0001, of receipts were arrears of former years, so that the balance of the finances though nearly was not quite restored at Midsummer 1848. (See p. 233, New Papers.)

New Papers, pp. 335 and 337.

Ditto p. 36; also see p.

Ditto pp. 342 to 345.

302.

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depression of the planting and mercantile interests, and the consequently reduced influx and employ- ment of coolies and reduced consumption of the various articles yielding revenue.

It was finally agreed by the Home Government to advance from the Home Treasury a moderate sum (about 13,000) to meet the immediate demands upon the Colonial Agent in this country, whom the Colonial Government had found it difficult to supply with funds; but it was explained that if the Colonial Government should be unable to repay this advance within a few months out of the current revenue, or should require a further loan, then that the advance must be repaid, and the sums otherwise necessary must be provided, by a loan to be raised in the local money market by the Colonial Government on the best terms obtainable.

The systematic land-tax proposed by the Com- mittee was postponed indefinitely by the local Government, owing to the very complicated nature of the preliminary inquiries which were found to be necessary. But the Surveyor-General was called on to report, and information was collected with a view to some systematic plan or other being ulti- mately adopted and carried out.

It was in the nature of the taxes taken off by Lord Torrington, that the relief was more immediately and directly felt by the Europeans, the merchants and planters and owners of large estates, rather than by the natives, while it was in the nature of the new taxes imposed by him that their pressure fell directly upon the mass of the native population. The com- parative depression of the owners of local capital, the comparative prosperity of the labouring classes, the difficulties with which the former were contend- ing, the ease with which the latter were finding a subsistence, as well as the general principles on which taxation should be distributed in a society situated like Ceylon, fully warranted these measures in the opinion of Lord Torrington and of Lord Grey, who entirely concurred in their spirit, and continued to do so after events had rendered it necessary to revert to them with a closer scrutiny. (See Lord Grey's despatch dated 24th October, 1848, in which the reasons in favour of this financial policy are fully stated.)

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