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JOUKNAL, K.A.S. (CEYLOK). 



[Vol. IX. 



considerable proportion (already noticed) of extraneous 

 matter to Colombo, there to be hammered, cut with small 

 axes, picked, sifted, and washed out. 



Still, with all its drawbacks, the plumbago enterprise 

 is valuable to the country not only for the revenue it yields, 

 but for the generally remunerative employment it has 

 given to many thousands of the population (from 10,000 to 

 20,000 men, women, and children, probably, including 

 cartmen and carpenters), especially since the period when 

 the collapse of the once great coffee interest led to so 

 much distress in the country. The Kurunegala Adminis- 

 tration Report of 1873 stated that in that district alone 

 the plumbago industry had given employment to some 

 5,000 persons. The Galle report for 1872 estimated that 

 each mine required from two to eight or ten miners, and even 

 up to fifty or sixty, at high wages. The Kurunegala report 

 for 1875 mentioned that all the plumbago which had been 

 dug, the figure being given at 2,567 tons, had been removed 

 by rail, coming on the railway at Polgahawela of course. 

 As the principal mines are 18 miles from Kurunegala with 

 12 miles additional to the railway, the expense of cartage 

 for so heavy an article must be very considerable. We 

 cannot be surprised, therefore, to hear that at a period when 

 the plumbago industry was at the height of its prosperity, 

 Mr. De Mel and other mine owners had almost concluded 

 an arrangement with Messrs. John Walker & Co. for a light 

 railway line from the mine region to the Government rail- 

 way. Depression in prices caused this design to fall through, 

 but the day cannot be far distant when Kurunegala at least 

 will be connected with the Government railway system 

 at Polgahawela, forty-five miles from Colombo. The Western 

 Province plumbago found in the Pasdun Korale (a korale 

 which is famous for the quality as well as the quantity of 

 ore it produces) does not come on the railway at Kalutara. 

 Once it is loaded in boats it comes by water all the way to 

 Colombo, 



A return furnished by Mr. Pearce shows that nearly one- 

 half of all the plumbago exported from Ceylon comes on 

 the railway at various points, mainly at Polgahawela, 

 the quantity so carried in 1882 being no less than 

 5,642 tons. Small quantities come from points so distant as 



