Edible Products, 



508 



[June, 1912- 



the aid of irrigation had been met from 

 the current revenue of the island and 

 " Festina lente," a suitable description 

 of the action taken. But " in view of 

 a financial prosperity, unparalleled in 

 the history of the Colony " Sir W. Ridge- 

 way considered that the time had arriv- 

 ed, when in lieu of the annual contri- 

 bution of Rs. 200,000 to set aside a sum 

 of five millions of rupees for special 

 irrigation works, half provided by loan 

 and other half from savings in the hands 

 of the C. 1. B. and partly from current 

 revenue." 



To carry out this ' 1 ambitious program- 

 me" a separate Irrigation Department 

 was created in 1890 with Mr. H. T. S. 

 Ward as the first director and "that 

 experienced and capable officer Mr. 

 Parker as Chief Assistant." Of course 

 a large subordinate staff of Engineers, 

 Inspectors etc., had also to be provided, 

 so the outlay in established salaries 

 and allowances rose from Rs. 115,000 

 for four years (1896-99) to Rs. 777,000 

 during the next four. It is gratifying 

 to find that out of this increase due 

 provision was made for the cost of 

 supervision of the communal labour per- 

 formed by villagers themselves in the 

 repair of tanks. The annual value of 

 this is reported to be now Rs. 225,0C0 and 

 the cost of superintendnce Rs. 52,500, 

 chiefly in the North- Western Province 

 where d uring the four years (181*8-02) the 

 total quantity was over 672,000 cubes ; 

 in the North-Central 517,000, and in the 

 Northern 145,000. 



Concurrently by an ordinance amend- 

 ing the Irrigation ordinance previously 

 j in force, the Provincial Boards were 

 abolished and their advisory duties 

 transferred to the Government Agents, 

 the maximum irrigation rate which 

 could be imposed by the C. I. B. was 

 increased from Rs. l'l to Rs. 2 per acre 

 and the maximum maintenance rate from 

 10 to 50 cents per acre. The Crown was 

 further given a vote in proportion to 

 the area of crown land to be benefitted 

 at all meetings of proprietors held in 

 connection with irrigation schemes, and 

 the C, I, B. were given the right to deter* 



mine under what conditions new irri- 

 gation works should be undertaken. 



Mr. Ward, the recently retired Direc- 

 tor, has most oblieingly placed at my dis- 

 posal his reports for the six years 

 (1900-00) which fully post me up in what 

 has been accomplished since 1 left the 

 island. With his well-known energy, it 

 is no surprise to learn how fully the 

 new programme has been carried out, 

 aud accompanied by a professional ex- 

 amination of a large extent of the 

 northern portion of the island, which 

 has laid down the wonderful system of 

 irrigation carried out by "giants of 

 old" and finally exploded the idea 

 (which I regret is originally attributed 

 to Tumour in reference to Kalawewa) 

 that these large works were "stupendous 

 monuments of misapplied human la- 

 bour." 



Prom the figures given in these re- 

 ports 1 find that the total expenditure 

 in round numbers from 1896-06 was 

 Rs. 6,866,000 distributed as follows :— 



Construction of new works Rs. 3,088,000 

 Interim Maintenance of same 60>000 



Staff 1900-06 ... ... 1,516,000 



Surveys „ ... ... 145,000 



Miscellaneous ... ... 821,000 



Total Rs. 5,130,000 



Addition to former works ... 885,000 



Staff 1896-99 ... ... 115.000 



Maintenance older works ... 505,000 



Repairs, etc ... ... 736,000 



Rs. 6,866,000 



Of the above sum the utmost that can 

 be charged against what may be termed 

 the "old works" is Rs. 1,736,000 leaving 

 a balance of Rs. 5,130,000 which has been 

 expended in connection with works some 

 not completed and others so recently 

 finished as not to have perceptibly 

 affected the cultivation prior to 1906. 

 This sum should therefore be " carried 

 forward " in suspense as it were to await 

 the pecuuiary return of 3£ % relied on to 

 Government, aud a still further addition 

 to the food of the country. As the 

 author of this famous policy on retiring 

 left on record he had started and left 



