Edible Products. 



3C 



[January, 1912. 



Under these circumstances the policy 

 of Government to encourage paddy 

 cultivation had heretofore met with 

 general approval, but with the advent 

 as Governor in 1883 of Sir Arthur Gordon 

 (now Lord Staumore) began what may 

 be termed the controversial era. The 

 new Governor's strong sympathies for 

 native interests had preceded him, and 

 at an early date he expressed the opinion 

 that it was " impossible to neglect irri- 

 gation without criminal disregard of the 

 obligations imposed upon us by our posi- 

 tion in Ceylon." He further intimated 

 his desire to meet the wants of the 

 paddy cultivator " before any but the 

 most necessary expenditure on other 

 objects is sanctioned." 



Consequently in 1887 there was further 

 legislation and a new departure, by the 

 definite setting aside for purposes of 

 irrigation of one-fourth of the revenue 

 derived from paddy. It was (to use Sir 

 W. Ridgeways's words) " a public recog- 

 nition of the duty owed by Government 

 as landlord to the cultivators as ten- 

 ants," and he might have added as their 

 debtor for the enormous sum contributed 

 for nearly one hundard years to the 

 Revenue of the island as rent, miscalled 

 in later times " grain tax." 



To administer the fund thus created 

 provision was made for a Central Irri- 

 gation Board, of which the Governor 

 was the President, and Provincial Boards 

 (consisting of the Government Agent 

 and the chief officers of the Works 

 and Survey in each Province) which 

 were to be the executive agency. Much 

 was expected (as Sir West Ridgeway 

 said in his closing address to the Council 

 in 1903) from these Provincial Boards, 

 but in his criticism of their shortcom- 

 ings sufficient allowance is not made for 

 the difficulties of their position. It was 

 in fact a repetition of the old task of 

 making bricks without straw. 



The C I, B. was most desirous to get 

 the money at their disposal spent, judi- 

 ciously if possible, but spent, and while 

 pressed for schemes, grudged outlay on 

 professional services, for which the P. I. 

 B's were expected to arrange with the 

 local works and survey officers. These 

 gentlemen did, as I can testify, co operate 

 most willingly so far as lay in their 

 power, but there was a paucity of men 

 and money to procure the necessary 

 surveys and other details. Hinc illse 

 lachrymae. Hardly any schemes were 

 properly investigated, estimates proved 

 insufficient and were carried out indif- 

 ferently, and owing to over-zeal a good 

 cause was exposed to adverse criticism 

 both in Council and elsewhere. 



Under these circumstances, and in 

 spite of these difficulties, the expen- 

 diture between 1884 and 1890 amounted 

 to Rs. 2,616,280 distributed amongst the 

 Provinces as follows : Rupees thou- 

 sands :— North- Central 840. Central (in- 

 cluding Uva) 448. Southern 382. Eastern 

 297. North- Western 137. Western (in- 

 cluding Subaragamuwa) 189. Northern 

 169, while establishment and charges not 

 apportioned against works figure for 

 only Rs. 5,545 during the seven years 

 as against Rs. 277,000 in 1904 alone. 



As these figures show, Sir A. Gordon 

 warmly took up Sir W. Gregory's 

 schemes for the rescue of Nuwara Kala- 

 wiya, where he found in Mr. Frank 

 Fisher (who had succeeded Mr. Dickson 

 as Agent, transferred to Kandy) an ener- 

 getic officer and a strong advocate of 

 irrigation. The revised system of com- 

 munal labour for the. execution of the 

 earthwork was working most success- 

 fully, and the cost to Government of 

 providing village sluices was reduced to 

 a comparatively small sum by a combin- 

 ation of Cement pipes invented by Mr. 

 Aleck Murray, Provincial Engineer. 

 But the new Governor was not content 

 with the slow rate of progress, and read- 

 ily concurred iu the ambitious proposals 

 which had been already made for pro- 

 viding an immense store of water by the 

 restoration of Kalawewa, and thereafter 

 the re-opening of the old Yoda-ela for 

 conveying the stored water to Anu- 

 radhapura itself and the tanks en route. 

 These works were accordingly carried 

 out at a cost of Rs. 710,000, and Sir A. 

 Gordon had the gratification of seeing 

 the great tank completed before leaving 

 the island. 



In the hopes of attracting settlers and 

 thus extending cultivation in parts of 

 the island where there was little or no 

 resident population, several colonization 

 schemes, such as Bodi-ela, Hambanga- 

 naawa, Okkampitiya, etc. were under- 

 taken and considerable outlay incurred 

 in parts of the Central Province, but 

 failed to secure any degree of success. 

 Similar schemes in Sabaragamuwa, 

 undertaken at the recommendation of 

 Mr. Wace, the Assistant Agent of the 

 district, were also disappointing though 

 there was some indigenous population. 



In the Southern Province the Walawe 

 works were started, but the unhealthi- 

 ness of the country knocked up several 

 of the officers sent to supervise the 

 works and caused difficulty in obtaining 

 the necessary labour. Finally, the pro- 

 gress made was due to the energy of Mr. 

 H. Ward, theD. E., who resided at Ham- 

 bantota and visited the works, rarely 

 passing more than a night in the mala* 



