April, 1912.] 



315 



Edible Products. 



minor suggestions were calculated to 

 improve the working of the Ordinance, 

 it must be admitted the Committee failed 

 to find a remedy for cases of individual 

 hardship or exceptional circumstances, 

 calling for summary and immediate 

 action without reference to Government. 



It is surprising no notice was taken 

 nor information obtained as to the pro- 

 cedure in India in regard to the rents 

 of land held under periodically revised 

 commutations (there called settlements) 

 in regard to which considerable discre- 

 tion as to remissions is left to the Dis- 

 trict Officer* as " the man on the spot " 

 best able to judge. The suggestion that 

 this precedent should be followed in 

 Ceylon as a suitable mode of meeting 

 cases of individual hardship was made 

 by Mr. Fisher, and tbe writer (S.P. XVII 

 of 1890, p. 47 and 67), but was not even 

 noticed in the report. As regards coercive 

 measures the Committee recommended 

 that the right to cultivate a default- 

 ing holding for a limited period should 

 be legalised, and pointed out that though 

 unfortunately spoken of as " sales," the 

 action taken heretofore was practically 

 only forfeiture ot the right to cultivate 

 (subject to certain obligations!) which 

 had always followed on default (as 

 already explained) and transfer to 

 another, alike under Native, Dutch or 

 English rule.t In the Madras Presidency 



* I recently learnt from an Indian Civilian 

 that a Collector could remit up to ■ 10 % of the 

 gross liability, and for any further relief beyond 

 this, the authority of Government had to be 

 obtained. In a recent valedictory notice of an 

 Indian Civilian, it is said " he introduced new 

 principles of supension and remission of 

 land revenue collection in times of scarcity 

 largely transformed the spirit in which the dues 

 of Government are collected." 



t These " services" were not always the same, 

 thus in Matara four " Wallekaddes," including 

 the best paddy lands in the district, were known 

 as the Bathgams and had to supply rice for the 

 King's use, while another twelve villages still 

 known as the Angurugams had to supply 

 charcoal. 



t See Circular of 1st September, 1812, to all 

 Collectors, 



the Government deals directly with the 

 ryots, and holding in default is, I under- 

 stand, summarily given to the first appli- 

 cant ; but in Ceylon " the rent" had been 

 misnamed " grain tax," and a proce- 

 dure provided by law for seizure and 

 transfer in default, which came to be 

 referred to as "eviction," a term con- 

 veying to English minds a turning out 

 from a home, ignorant of the fact that no 

 one in Ceylon lives in or on his paddy 

 field. * 



From the returns given, I find that the 

 actual number of " sales " for non-pay- 

 ment of the compulsory commutation 

 between-1878-88 averaged 1,500 per annum, 

 with an area of 1,400 acres, out of a total 

 holding of 300,000 parcels containing 

 383,000 acres. Out of this an extent of 

 1,021 acres was redeemed by the cultiv- 

 ation after sale ; 4,710 acres were res- 

 tored at the Jubilee, and some arrange- 

 ment regarding the restoration and re- 

 demption of the rest bought in on be- 

 half of the Crown (8,800 acres or 2 % of the 

 total taxed area) would have probably 

 been made at the next revisions, as they 

 were mostly lands of small value only 

 occasionally cultivated, and which would 

 have been made liable in future to crop 

 commutation. The number of lands of 

 any value sold was very small indeed, 

 and for many of these default was pur- 

 posely made for a variety of reasons, e,g„ 

 to defraud mortgages and to get rid of 

 small shareholders. 



The assertion of the Committee, that 

 the rent had been continually reduced 

 during the occupation of the island by 

 the British, was vehemently challenged, 

 and, though it and subsequently Mr. 

 O'Brien correctly ascribed the advance 

 in the revenue from grain to the in- 

 crease in production, as well as the 

 admitted rise in the selling price of 

 paddy, neither furnished any figures in 

 support of this view. Indeed, both erred 

 in considering the Government returns 

 useless and unreliable, whereas, as I trust 

 I have shewn, they only required a little 



* One of the speakers at the Cobden Sooiety 

 meeting spoke of a " family sold out of its home 

 for a tax of about Us.2," 



