No, 31.— 1885.] 



PLUMBAGO. 



199 



ore to such an extent in Ceylon as to produce temptations 

 to cheating, which the native headmen, whose business it 

 was to weigh the output and collect the royalty at the pit's 

 mouth, were unable to resist. These estimable servants of 

 Government cheated the diggers out of bribes by threatening 

 to report them as having surreptitiously removed plumbago 

 on which royalty had not been paid, and they impartially 

 cheated Government by accepting bribes to largely under- 

 report the quantities really dug and removed. The Customs 

 figures enabled the Government authorities to appreciate the 

 vast extent to which the demoralizing system had gone, and 

 so in 1873 legislation was initiated, the main object of which 

 was the collection of the royalty at the custom-house — a 

 mode in itself far preferable to the direct system of collection 

 previously in force, and securing every sixpence of royalty 

 due because, practically, every hundredweight dug is exported, 

 the quantity as yet used in local foundries or for any local 

 purpose being quite insignificant. I believe a few crucibles 

 for gold and silversmiths' use are locally made, and the 

 result of inquiries made by Mr. W. P. Eanesinghe, at my 

 request, is that Ceylon potters occasionally employ the 

 mineral for giving a glaze to pottery,, as is the practice in 

 India. 



The mercantile community strove hard in 1873 to make 

 out a case for the entire abandonment of the royalty, but 

 the Press supported Sir William Gregory's Government in 

 resisting the pressure brought to bear in this direction, only 

 that the Observer strongly urged a rate so low as Ks. 5 per 

 ton, which after four years' experience of Rs. 10 per ton, 

 under which exports declined, was conceded in 1877. 

 Under this rate, which is still in force, the exports more 

 than trebled in the six years between 1878 and 1883. 



As Government in making grants of land has always 

 reserved royalties on minerals and metals, of course the 

 plumbago dug from private lands paid royalty when 

 exported equally with that taken from rented Crown lands. 

 There was a singular exception in the case of some plumbago 

 lands sold in the district of Kurunegala without any reserve, 

 which lands subsequently gave unprecedented yields of very 

 fine plumbago. When it was determined to levy royalty 

 on all plumbago exported, the Kurunegala purchasers 



