No. 31.— 1885.1 



PLUMBAGO. 



207 



Nawalapitiya, 87 miles, and Matale91 miles from Colombo, 

 Most of the plumbago dug in the Southern Province, and 

 perhaps some from places ranked in the Western Province, 

 are shipped at Galle. Of the total exports from the Island, 

 an average of 12,000 tons annually for the past five years, 

 less than one-tenth goes from Galle ; the rest enters into 

 the export trade of Colombo. 



To show the vicissitudes of the plumbago enterprise, 

 I may quote from the Sabaragamuwa report of 1873 to the 

 effect that plumbago, which formerly sold at Rs. 200 per 

 ton, then realized only Es.90, while the working expenses had 

 considerably increased in consequence of the enhanced prices 

 of labour. It will be remembered that 1873 was the year 

 in which the change was made to the collection of royalty 

 at the Custom-house, in anticipation of which the great 

 manufactories in Britain and America had provided them- 

 selves with stocks of the mineral. Hence a fall in exports 

 and prices. Eleven years subsequently, in 1883, Ceylon 

 sent away her largest export of plumbago, but the depression 

 had even then set in, which led to greatly reduced ship- 

 ments in 1884. In the one matter of cask-making, however, 

 the increase in the export of plumbago during the past 

 five years must have largely filled up the void created 

 by the decrease in coffee. Hora, one of our most inferior 

 timbers, can be utilized for plumbago casks, and as the 

 casks are uniformly made to hold a quantity somewhat over 

 a quarter of a ton (5 J cwt. nett), an average of 45,000 casks 

 per annum for the past five years, or a total in the quinquen- 

 nium of 225,000, must have given, in their manufacture, 

 remunerative employment to a considerable number of 

 carpenters who had previously been largely dependent on 

 cask-making for cofTee. 



But to revert to the subject of plumbago mines. They 

 seem to have been until a comparatively recent period, 

 practically confined to the Western and Southern Provinces, 

 the quantity of plumbago dug in the Central Province 

 being insignificant, and the industry now so wonderfully 

 successful in the North- Western Province being apparently 

 of quite recent origin. In a memorandum furnished to me 

 by Mr. C. Dickman, Assistant Auditor-General, I find the 

 remark that no collections on account of plumbago were made 



