January, 1912.] 



28 



Edible Products. 



figures quoted in Colebrooke's report 

 (£20,911 averaged 1827-8 and 9). 



It was to meet this unsatisfactory 

 condition that an effort was made in 

 1833 to extend to the maritime districts 

 the system of voluntary commutations 

 which was proving: so successful in the 

 Kandyan district under Turnout's foster- 

 ing care. Rut the option was accepted 

 to a very limited extent, and as 

 the new judicial system (to quote 

 Mr. Dyke again) " prevented Collectors 

 taking any steps against a cultiv- 

 ator attempting fraud, except by 

 the tedious process of a civil action 

 before the Civil Court, it was doubtful if 

 th« revenues could be managed without 

 suffering a great falling off." He conse- 

 quently recommended compulsory com- 

 mutation and the abolition of the rent- 

 ing system ; but this was not adopted, 

 and ultimately"* in 1840 an Ordinance 

 was passed for regulating the renting 

 system, and defining the relations of 

 renters and cultivators. This law also 

 prossribed a summary procedure for 

 dealing with defaulters by the existing 

 District Court, a power subsequently 

 transferred to the Police Court on their 

 establishment (1845). Under this Ordin- 

 ance fines could be inflicted, and if not 

 paid or recovered by distraint, the 

 defaulter was liable to imprisonment 

 as for other penalties imposed by the 

 Court. 



The number of " renters' cases" before 

 the Court eventually rose to thousands, 

 and entailed much labour on the clerical 

 staff, but were nearly all " settled," and 

 a very small percentage indeed ever 

 came to trial. 



This Ordinance, however, did not apply 

 to commutation agreements, and the 

 only means of enforcing their payment 

 continued to be by action in the Civil 

 Courts, and in the result large arrears 

 accumulated between 1841 and 1853 in 

 Sabaragamuwa and Ke^aile, and ied to 

 reversion to renting. This was, how- 

 ever, not the case in the {Central Pro- 

 vince, with its more favourable climatic 

 conditions and the very reasonable long 

 termed assessments up to 1860. Bat 

 when the increases already indicated 

 took place, a more ready method of 

 enforcing payment was rendered neces- 

 sary, and the Ordinance 57 of 1866 

 was passed, giving Government Agents 

 power of summary distraint and sale of 

 the land in default and of such movable 

 property only as may be on the laud in 

 respect of which the tax was due. 



Cha'petr VII. 

 The Fourth Period, 1872—90, 

 covers the development and progress 

 of paddy cultivation subsequent to the 



policy resumed by Sir H. Robinson of 

 spending a portion of the revenue on 

 irrigation works. 



Though the history of irrigation has 

 been already written pretty fully per se, 

 in pursuing the object of this compil- 

 ation, it is not possible to avoid some 

 repetition of it, and the addition of 

 cognate details within the writer's 

 personal observation and recollection. 



On Sir Hercules Robinson's arrival, 

 the indefatigable Birch (on whom it 

 may be said had fallen the mantle of 

 Bnley retired) sought out the new 

 Governor and induced him to make his 

 first tour in Sabaragamuwa (of which 

 Birch was then Assistant Agent). It was 

 said at the tim6 that, on hearing of this 

 intention, a high official who had enjoy- 

 ed the previous Governor's confidence, 

 warned Sir Hercules that Birch was not 

 a safe adviser. However. H. E. returned 

 from his trip with a different opinion 

 of his cicerone, highly impressed with 

 the necessity for a progressive irri- 

 gation policy, and sect Birch back to 

 the Eastern Province as Government 

 Agent in 1867. 



But notwithstanding the admitted 

 success of the Batticaloa Works, Sir 

 Hercules was apparently not prepared 

 to trust, as Sir H. Ward had done, 

 to the increase in the Government 

 share of the crops or the sale of 

 Crown land benefited as providing the 

 pecuniary return to the revenue, which 

 Earl Grey had some years previ- 

 ously laid down should be a condition 

 of expenditure on irrigation. Conse- 

 quently a Committee of Council was 

 appointed to enquire into the subject, 

 which, reporting in 1867, recommended 

 that the repair of any existing village 

 tank which could be done for £100 should 

 be undertaken by Government without 

 requiring repayment; but that where 

 mote expensive works were provided 

 a water rate of Rs. 3 per acre should be 

 levied. The Governor approved of 

 neither suggestion, but proposed a 

 scheme of his own, under which, where 

 the proprietors required Government 

 aid, it should be granted on condition 

 that the whole expenditure, which he 

 anticipated would in very few cases 

 exceed £1 an acre, should be repaid in 

 ten annual instalments without interest. 



To this proposal the Legislative Coun- 

 cil agreed and the requisite act was 

 passed ; but the terms did not prove 

 generally acceptable, and very little 

 action was taken except in Batticaloa 

 and Matara. In the former, Woodford 

 Birch, who had just become Government 

 Agent, by his former valuable work in 

 the district when Assistant Agent, had 



