September, 19il.] 



227 



Edible Products. 



These measures practically sounded 

 the knell of the grain tax. Complaints 

 of the new procedure soon arose, and 

 coupled with it, a movement for the 

 total abolition of the impost, now come 

 to be looked on not as a rent, but as a 

 tax — a tax on food. The subject was 

 fully enquired into by aSelectCommittee 

 of the Legislative Council, composed of 

 Messrs. O'Brien, Saunders, Moor and 

 Williams (officials), and Senewiratna, 

 Grinlinton and Panabokka (unofficHls) 

 with Mr. A. Ashmore as Secretary. 

 Though this strong Committee reported 

 against the abolition of the impost, and 

 their opinion was strongly backed by 

 the Governor, his successor came out, 

 it was believed, instructed to carry out 

 the abolition of the impost; and this 

 was eventually carried out with effect 

 from 1st January, 1893. 



In concluding this part of my review, 

 I must acknowledge my indebtedness 

 to the Report of this Committee (which 

 was, I believe, drawn up by the late Sir 

 A. Ashmore as Secretary) and its annex- 

 ures. Fortunately 1 had brought home 

 my copy and have found it most useful. 



All the foregoing 

 Legislation so far Provided, 

 it will be observed, solely for the due 

 collection of the Crown share of the crop 

 as Lord of the soil. Indeed, during the 

 final half of the XlXth Century, almost 

 the only other important action taken, 

 viz., the abolition of "Rajakariya " in 

 1882, though " actuated by the laud- 

 able desire to free the people from 

 oppression," was simply ruinous to the 

 interests of paddy cultivation. 



In 1840 Sir Emerson Tennent, the 

 Colonial Secretary, recognised the un- 

 satisfactory condition of the industry 

 and endeavoured to awaken an interest 

 in the matter. But he again raised the 

 bogie of ' oppression,' that of the 

 ' renter.' He succeeded in obtaining a 

 recommendation from a Committee for 

 the repair of tanks, etc, to share in the 

 proposed 'Ordinance Labour.' I rather 

 think this was included in the first 

 Ordinance passed, but it was disallowed 

 by Lord Grey, who laid down the princi- 

 ples on which he was willing to give help. 

 So nothing was done, and matters went 

 from bad to worse. 



The Turning Point. 

 In 1856 came the turning point in the 

 tide of the affairs of this branch of agri- 

 culture, when, under Sir H. Ward's ener- 

 getic rule, the first Paddy Cultivation 

 Ordinance was passed. The cardinal pro- 

 vision of this important measure was the 

 revival of the ancient village customs 

 relating to cultivation— whenever two- 

 thirds majority \ of the proprietors 



in any district so desired, their incor- 

 poration in written rules and the restor- 

 ation to the village councils of power to 

 compel their observance by fine. This 

 Ordinance was tentative in character 

 and its duration limited to five years- 

 from January, 1857. 



In 1861 it was renewed for another 

 five years, but the necessity of obtaining 

 the consent of so large a proportion of 

 those interested prevented its adoption 

 in some districts. In 1867 this Magna 

 Charta of the paddy cultivator was 

 permanently added to the Statute book, 

 with the proviso that the approval of a 

 simple majority of those interested 

 should be sufficient to secure its intro- 

 duction in any division ; its general 

 acceptance followed. 



As I will presently show, the develop- 

 ment and progress of paddy production 

 has been ever since most satisfactory, 

 and been of course furthered and ad- 

 vanced by expenditure on irrigation 

 initiated by Sir Henry Ward. 



The History op Irrigation 

 per se has been already so fully written 

 in the official manual, and the policy 

 so admirably reviewed in Sir West 

 Ridgeway's farewell address in 1903, that 

 it is unnecessary for me to go over the 

 same ground in detail, but to complete 

 this record it will be well to include a 

 short notice of the action taken by each 

 Governor. 



Sir Henry Ward (1857-8) spent money 

 in restoring irrigation works, without 

 requiring any special repayment or 

 water rate, depending on the increase 

 in the value of the Government share of 

 the crops and the sale of Crown land for 

 a return. 



Sir Hercides Robinson (1807) provided 

 for repayment in ten annual instalments 

 without interest, of all expenditure on 

 irrigation. 



Sir W. Gregory (1873) offered, as an 

 alternative, a payment of Re. 1 per 

 annum in perpetuity. He also in back- 

 ward districts authorised a limited ex- 

 penditure on the necessary masonry, 

 when the cultivators did the earth, 

 work required to restore a village tank. 



Sir Arthur Gordon (now Lord 

 Stanmore) provided by Ordinance for 

 the setting apart of one-fourth of the 

 "grain tax" for expenditure on irri- 

 gation, under the supervision of a Cen- 

 tral Irrigation Board. 



Sir Arthur Havetock (in 1892) abolishpd 

 the " grain tax," and in lieu of it charged 

 a sum of Rs. 200,000 on the general 

 revenue to be placed at the disposal of 

 the Central Irrigation Board. 



