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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON;. 



[Vol. IX. 



the district of Sabaragamuwa, although the existence of the 

 mineral must, surely, have been revealed to the gem-diggers 

 who have for ages been engaged in searching for the sapphires 

 and rubies for which the region around "the city of gems" 

 (Ratnapura) is so famous. After adverting to gold, the 

 report of 1868 stated : " A more remunerative speculation 

 than gold-digging has sprung up during the year, viz., the 

 digging of plumbago or graphite, which has been found in 

 a very pure form and in some abundance in nearly every 

 division of the district." In the report for 1869 disappoint- 

 ment was expressed that the demand was not brisker, but 

 strong adverse reasons were suggested in the case of so 

 bulky an article " in the distance from and costliness of the 

 carriage to the stores in Colombo." As regards Kurunegala, 

 too, the report for 1875 speaks of plumbago being found 

 at Mipitiya, about 18 miles north-west of the capital of the 

 Province, as if the discovery had only recently been made. 



Under the rules now in force royalty is levied on 

 plumbago, the produce of all lands, private or public, all 

 special exemptions being abolished, but of course the owners 

 of private lands are not bound to apply or pay for licenses 

 to dig, nor is any plumbago or its money value in the shape 

 of rent exacted from them, only the royalty collected at the 

 Customs. A vivid idea will be formed of the extent to which 

 Government — that is, the public — were formerly cheated 

 under the system of collecting the royalty at the pit's mouth, 

 when it is mentioned that while cwt. 226,000 were exported 

 in 1869, the royalty recovered was only Bs. 16,000, against 

 Rs. 65,000 on cwt, 263,000 in 1883, the rate in the latter 

 year being only one-third of that in the former.* The 

 extreme rate of 30s. per ton in 1869 evidently proved an 

 irresistible temptation to diggers and headmen, and the 

 royalty recovered was only one-tenth of the sum which 



* How striking is the illustration here afforded of the value of 

 indirect (and especially Customs) taxation, rather than a direct levy in 

 the case of Orientals. £To greater fiscal boon could probably be 

 conferred on the people of India and Ceylon than — if it were possible — ■ 

 the collection of all Government dues through the Customs Department, 

 so saving an amount of oppression on the one hand, and of bribery and 

 corruption on the other, of which European administrators never get 

 more than a faint idea. 



