No. 57. 1906.] 



PROCEEDINGS. 



69 



In his Presidential Address Mr. Ferguson alludes to Polon- 

 naruwa and the work that is being done there. Undoubtedly an 

 immense amount of excellent work is being done at Polonnaruwa 

 under the supervision of Mr. H. C. P. Bell. The excavations of 

 the ruins have been suspended for a short time for the express 

 purpose of enabling the Archaeological Commissioner to make 

 up his notes and bring his literary work up to the present time. 

 It was impossible for him to continue the compilations of his 

 work and at the same time carry on excavations, considering 

 how extremely close personal supervision must be maintained 

 by the archaeologist over the work of excavation. 



I was at Polonnaruwa not long ago, and while looking for one 

 of the ruins, we lost ourselves in the woods. We wandered 

 about for four hours and traversed several miles, and during the 

 whole of that time we never took our feet off bricks which 

 formed part of the buildings of the ancient city. That city 

 must have extended over many miles, for, wherever we went, 

 wherever we turned, we always found bricks, evidence that the 

 place had been built over in the years gone by. 



Mr. Ferguson has mentioned the zoological collection here- 

 Well, ladies and gentlemen, there is a great difference between 

 the very interesting collection in question and a really well- 

 equipped zoological garden. But, in order to establish a 

 zoological garden, one has to enter upon a very large expendi- 

 ture. The matter was fully gone into last year and the year 

 before. We found that the expenditure would be very great ; 

 and there were strong objections from many people against 

 a large zoological garden being established in the vicinity. On 

 the whole, I came to the conclusion that the present collection 

 had better be left to the tender care of Dr. Willey to extend 

 in due course, rather than to take his pets and place them in a 

 zoological garden, where they might perhaps not be cared for 

 and looked after as well as they are at the Museum. 



There is one matter which struck me when Mr. Ferguson referred 

 to the various directions in which Ceylon is advancing at the 

 present moment. I was reminded of an interesting fact, a fact 

 which is very complimentary to the Colony and its reputation for 

 progress. To-day I had a letter from the Government of a 

 Southern Colony. The letter informs me that they had come to 

 the conclusion to help education there by giving two important 

 scholarships on the results of their annual examinations ; and 

 having considered what was best to be done with those scholar- 

 ships, they came to the conclusion that the soundest education for 

 the boys would be to send them to the Technical College in Ceylon, 

 and they asked me to give them information regarding the work 

 of the Technical College, the fees, &c. The fact that such a 

 decision has been arrived at by the Government of a Southern 

 Colony is, I think, a very great compliment to this Island ; and also, 

 to a certain extent, an answer to some of the objections which 

 people make from time to time against the work of the Ceylon 

 Technical College. 



