No. 58.— 1907.] 



PROCEEDINGS. 



141 



he can only continue at Sigiriya and restore one or two ruins 

 at Polonnaruwa ; but if this annual vote were increased, say, to 

 Rs. 25,000 or even Rs. 20,000 for the next few years, the necessary 

 work of restoration could be got through at an accelerated pace 

 at Polonnaruwa, at Anuradhapura, and at some other places, 

 before the invaluable experience, gained in the past score of years 

 by the present Commissioner, is lost to us. I sincerely trust that 

 Sir Henry Blake may be able to make this provision in His 

 Excellency's next Supply Bill as a truly wise and economical as well 

 as most desirable mode of forestalling what must be regarded as 

 inevitable expenditure at some time or other. 



I began by congratulating you on an increased roll of members, 

 213 as compared with 407 for Bengal; but when we realize how 

 much more of useful work the Society could do (in getting 

 further translations or annotated editions of old works, or 

 reprinting past Journals now out of print , and in printing papers 

 bearing on Ceylon in other Society's transactions) if funds were 

 only available, and when I mention to you that the Bengal 

 Society had a credit, balance a few weeks ago, of more than ten 

 times the amount in our hands in Ceylon, I would plead for 

 further support to our Society. I think, for instance, that every 

 intelligent Member of the Public Service of a certain status (as well 

 as of the general community) ought to belong to the Society, with 

 a view to learning as much as possible of the history of the people 

 and of the land we live in, and so securing that sympathetic insight 

 and local knowledge which cannot fail to re-act beneficially in 

 many ways on the discharge of public duties. 



13. Mr. Haewaed next read the following Paper by Mr. F. 

 Lewis on " Nuwara-gala : Eastern Province." Printed copies 

 of the Paper with illustrations were distributed to the audience. 



