Miscellaneous. 



182 



people generally will continue as heretofore sunk in ignorance and debt, and 

 follow the primitive methods of their forefathers ; and educated young 

 men will neglect agriculture, and turn their attention to something more practi- 

 cable, until the problem of Capital is solved for them once for all. 



Leaving aside the case of educated young men, let us look into the condition 

 of the ordinary farmers and landlords of the country, men who are the backbone 

 of society, men, without whom no Government can exist. Isolated from the rest 

 of the world, ignorant alike of business-methods and modern systems of cultivation, 

 exploited by usurers and fleeced by native headmen, their lot is indeed a pitiable 

 one. The great majority of them are heavily indebted, and indeed it seems a solemn 

 mockery to preach to them the manifold benefits of Western agriculture, to 

 recommend to them the introduction of new ploughs and other implements of 

 agriculture, the employment of artificial manures to fertilize their lands, and 

 superior class of cattle to improve their existing breed, or to insist on the 

 necessity of adopting proper methods of drainage and cultivation, without first 

 helping them to obtain the indispensable Capital at cheap l'ates of interest. 



According to statistics supplied by the Registrar-General the total value of 

 registered mortgages for the year 1903 is more than Rs. 23,000,000, and it may 

 be safely assumed that the unregistered mortgages are of equal value, and 

 their sum total gives a fair idea of the indebtedness of landlords and farmers, 

 who have lands to give as security. What debt there is on the security of movables 

 and promissory notes it is impossible to say in the absence of statistics, but there is 

 every reason to believe that indebtedness on those securities is an equally large 

 amount- So then the total indebtedness of people who own movable or immovable 

 property in Ceylon may be laid at the lowest calculation at about Rs. 80,000,000. 

 From enquiry in different parts of the country and from the cases that come before 

 the Courts, I have ascertained that the fate of interest on loans given on the security 

 of movables and promissory notes is between 18 and 60 per cent, according to the 

 status and credit of the borrowers. What industry or cultivation is there capable 

 of leaving a margin of profit after paying such usurious rates of interest ? 



1 have been induced to prepare this paper in the hope that the Agricultural 

 Society of Ceylon which has come into existence under the auspicious patronage of 

 His Excellency the Governor, will devise some method of solving this problem, 

 —the rock on which many a promising association has stranded before this. If the 

 present Agricultural Society of Ceylon is to go on in its career of usefulness, if there 

 is to be permanence and continuity in its efforts to improve the methods of cultiva- 

 tion, if it is to be hereafter something more than a debating society, experience has 

 shewn that it should tackle the problem at once and place it on a firm footing for 

 ever. The native, though proverbially a conservative man, is yet a shrewd man, 

 and he is eminently practical. Once shew him that tangible and profitable results 

 can be obtained by the methods advocated by the Agricultural Association, and 

 that this Society will help him to get money necessary for the improved methods 

 of cultivation on easy terms and at cheap rates of interest, his faith will be 

 quickened, and agriculture in Ceylon will receive an impetus which it never had 

 since the days of the ancient Kings of Ceylon. The problem is, however, not an 

 insoluble one, for there are other countries which were situated in a position 

 similar to ours at some period of their national progress, but which have worked 

 out the matter for themselves with conspicuous success. There is no reason, there- 

 fore, why the Agricultural Society which enjoys such exalted patronage, and 

 which counts among its members almost all the high officers of the Government — 

 the pick of the Civil Service— and a considerable number of the leading inhabitants 

 of the Island interested in agriculture, should not solve the problem for Ceylon with 

 equal success. It will be interesting therefore to see how this problem has been 

 solved in other countries. 



