204 



JOURNAL^ E.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. DL 



In the latter part of this note, Mr. Saunders seems to have 

 lost sight of the policy announced by Sir W. H. Gregory's 

 Government in 1873, viz., that lands containing plumbago 

 were to be leased, not sold, so as to prevent anything like 

 a monopoly. It is lands which have been proved not to 

 contain the mineral in any quantity, or which have been 

 exhausted, we understood, that are sold. It maybe, however, 

 that only large lots of plumbago land were intended not to 

 be sold, the prohibition not extending to one-acre lots. [See 

 appendix No. 14.] 



The merit of the system, provided the rent-royalty is 

 moderate, is that the lessee of the land pays only and 

 just in proportion to the productiveness of the land he 

 has leased, payment being accepted in money or in 

 kind. At the end of each year the lease can be either 

 renewed or abandoned, and plumbago lands which have 

 been for a certain time abandoned, and which evidently do 

 not contain appreciable quantities of the metal, are sold on 

 the terms applied to ordinary Crown lands. Copies of an 

 application to dig, and of a lease granted by the Government 

 Agent of the Western Province, are appended to this paper. 

 From the terms of the lease it will be seen that timber for 

 props, &c, can be obtained by the lessee from Crown land at 

 a fair cost, and that roads, paths, &c, can be used for pur- 

 poses of the mine. The effect of the different systems in 

 operation in the Western and Southern Provinces becomes 

 apparent from a glance at the table of plumbago revenue con- 

 tributed by each, which is given as an appendix to this 

 paper. Previously to 1881 the contributions of the two 

 Provinces, apart from Customs collections, was pretty equal, 

 but while in 1883 the plumbago revenue (mainly rent-royalty) 

 of the Western Province was no less than Rs. 3,987, that 

 of the Southern Province, derived solely from 74 licenses to 

 dig issued at Rs. 10 each (no rent being charged), was 

 only Rs. 740. 



Exaggerated figures have sometimes appeared in the Blue 

 Books, as representing the total number of plumbago mines 

 in Ceylon, from the inclusion of large numbers of abandoned 

 pits. Many such pits are doubtless subsequently worked, so 

 that it is difficult to get even an approximate estimate of 

 the mines existing in Ceylon, and such information, if 



