Edible Products. 



406 



[May, 1912. 



representations. Thus backed, they 

 naturally received more ready credence 

 as they went to support the views 

 already formed, though they only re- 

 ferred to action taken in a very small 

 proportion of the entire acreage and 

 under a system of voluntary com- 

 mutation, carried out by over-worked 

 district officials ; and which had been 

 superseded by a special Ordinance, in- 

 tended to guard against such irregul- 

 arities, worked by. selected officials, 

 whose work had secured a tangible reduc- 

 tion in demand, and had met with 

 approval, even by the " opposition." 



Another point on which the Governor 

 laid much stress in his Despatch was an 

 allegation by Mr. Ashmore in a report 

 on the revision of the Udukinde Division 

 in Uva that one cause of the high 

 assessment previously made, was that to 

 the officers responsible therefor who 

 "thought the amunam was the equiva- 

 lent of two acres, not one," the assess- 

 ments seemed fair.* 



This mistaken view Mr. Ashmore 

 stated was held both by the first Com- 

 missioner under 11 of 1878, and by Mr. 

 John Bailey as shewn in his review cf 

 1858 printed in S. P. XVII. of 1890. But 

 I find on reference to this document, 

 not only does it not contain any such 

 expression of opinion, but that Bailey 

 wrote in another report on Irrigation 

 proposals, which is to be found printed 



* He was authorised to re-assess the divi- 

 sion by special agreement with individual 

 landlords, fixing the price of paddy at the 

 average of the past four years of depression 

 and to "reduce the estimates of the Govern- 

 ment share though within the law but too 

 heavy for the people to bear." Acting on 

 these exceptional terms, it is not surprising 

 he reduced the assessment from a total of 

 Rs. 29,130 to Rs. 17,136, but there was no 

 proof that the last assessment made under 

 the Ordinance of 1878 was excessive, especi- 

 ally as it only differed to the extent of 2 cents 

 per acre from that of the adjoining division 

 of Yatakinda. This re-assessment and reduction, 

 it may be remarked, followed a record crop 

 in Badulla District in 1889 of 99L000 B.P. 

 off 40,000 acres. 



in Sir H, Ward's collected speeches as 

 follows :— ; 



" I have measured and assembled cul- 

 tivators to estimate the extent in amu- 

 nams, and the result was :— 



In Udukinda one acre equalled two 

 amunams." 



Nor do the published returns disclose 

 that the Grain Commissioner held the 

 erroneous view, for in the usual returns 

 he gives the incidence of the annual 

 Commutation fixed in Udukinda atRs. 4 

 per acre, as against Rs. 3'58 per amunam, 

 figures which intimate that the amu- 

 nam was slightly less than an acre ! 

 To this may be added the fact that 

 the amount of seed used for a given 

 acreage varies, frequently even as re- 

 gards adjoining holdings, so that com- 

 mutation assessments are necessarily 

 bassd on the sowing extent (and fold 

 of yield) even when the surveyed ex- 

 tent is known, as I found in Battiealoa*. 

 Indeed, it is only in the statistical 

 summary of results that any reference 

 is made to "acreage," in stating the 

 incidence of the annual tax per acre, 

 taking it at the probable average equiv- 

 alent of the district. 



There are other contentious pointa 

 in Mr, Ashmore's report, but there is 

 no use in now discussing them. 



Sir A. Havelock could only look at 

 the dark side of the position and per- 

 sistently ignored the lighter shades ; 

 indeed, he went so far as to assert that 

 the " noxious influence of the paddy tax 

 had some share in reducing the natural 

 increase of population in Ceylon," basing 

 this view chiefly on an alleged decrease 

 of the population especially in Ma tale. 

 Of course in ignorance that the acreage 

 under paddy in that district had in- 

 creased in 1887 by at least 388 amu- 

 nams, say 760 acres since 1878 (when 

 it was commuted under the old system) 

 besides any further addition during the 

 previous seven years. In Uva regarding 



* Surveyors only give the total area of a 

 holding from which deductions have to be 

 made to ascertain the sowing extent, e.g., for 

 the niyaras or ridges. 



