NO. 37.— 1888.] INDUSTRIES OF CEYLON. 



345 



" The castes do not intermarry, and neither wealth nor Euro- 

 pean influence has had any effect in breaking down caste 

 distinctions." 



Europeans may inveigh against the poor native, who in 

 his deepest needs refuses to violate his order and sacrifice 

 his social status and that of his posterity by working for hire, 

 but it is a feeling which operates as strongly in our own 

 community as amongst Asiatics, though not bearing the same 

 opprobrious name. An English gentleman will not descend 

 to any employment which, according to the accepted creed, 

 would degrade him and lower his social status. It cannot 

 therefore be expected of the ignorant natives who have 

 inherited for many generations the ideas of the race, to do 

 for themselves what even Christian teaching has not effected 

 for the European. Naturally the invidious feelings inspired 

 by caste distinctions are the strongest in the higher grades, 

 who enjoy the superiority caste confers. They, therefore, 

 whose example alone could break down the caste barriers, 

 are they who most strenuously uphold them. 



Of the numerous writers who have employed their pens in 

 descriptions of this Island, very few have considered the con- 

 ditions essential to the success and development of industrial 

 enterprise. All of them, without exception, have been deeply 

 impressed with the apparent capabilities and resources of the 

 soil and climate, as these are manifested in the luxuriant 

 growth and great variety of its vegetable products ; and have 

 therefore been surprised at and have remarked upon the 

 backward condition of its industries, the undeveloped state 

 of its apparently inexhaustible sources of wealth, and the 

 low status of the rural inhabitants. Such a discrepancy 

 between the actual condition of the country and its apparent 

 capabilities required explanation, and nearly all have 

 considered that the apathy of the people afforded a satis- 

 factory solution of the matter, and have taken it for granted. 



Though this very simple reason may seem to suffice for the 

 mere purpose of accounting for the existing state of the 

 country, it will be seen from the foregoing remarks that it, 



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