October, -lOil.] 



307 



Edible Products. 



come the first Government Agent of the 

 new Central Province. In his previous 

 official capacity he had been responsible 

 for the collection of the Revenue, and 

 had no doubt looked specially into the 

 system adversely commented on by Colo- 

 nel Colebrooke. 



In elaborating an improved scheme 

 his reports show that while he sought to 

 secure the rights of the Crown, he gave 

 due consideration to the interests of the 

 cultivators. His first step was there- 

 fore to get rid of the middleman renter, 

 whose interest it was to squeeze out 

 as much as possible from the cultivators. 

 Content to work patiently and gradu- 

 ally, and knowing how suspicious 

 Easterns are of innovation, he began 

 by inducing the land owners to agree 

 to deliver at the Government stores a 

 moderate but fixed quantity of grain as 

 commutation for the share of their crops 

 due to the Crown. 



After a few years of this mode of 

 working, it was found possible to take 

 another step forward, and fix a money 

 value for the paddy, but leave it 

 optional to the cultivator to discharge 

 the obligation in grain or coin. At first 

 the rate was nine pence, though the 

 market value was a shilling per parah, 

 equal to 16 pence per bushel. 



This option was permitted until 1833, 

 by which time, while the agreements 

 still remained voluntary, it became pos- 

 sible to accept money only ; which was 

 of course much more convenient to 

 Government than storing the paddy in 

 stores, where the "wastage" was 

 always a matter of dispute, as shown by 

 the many pages taken up in Bertolacci's 

 book as to the rate to be allowed. 



In 1835 the revenue from paddy had 

 increased to £33,540 for the whole island. 



This able and trusted administrator 

 (Turnour) left the Province in 1839, to 

 act as Colonial Secretary during the 

 absence of Sir Philip Anstruther, who 

 had succeeded Mr. Rodney in 1833. On 

 Mr. Anstruther's return Mr, Turnour 

 went himself on leave, and, to the regret 

 of all, died at Naples in 1842, singularly 

 on the last day of Saka 1704 (10th 

 April, 1842). 



His memory is perpetuated by the 

 Turnour prize yearly competed for by 

 the educated youth of Ceylon. With 

 a knowledge of the preliminary care 

 bestowed by Mr. Turnour in the deve- 

 lopment of the commutation system and 

 its subsequent great success on a volun- 

 tary basis, it may, I think, be said in his 

 case that " past experience did attain to 

 something like prophetic strain." 



The papers within my reach give very 

 full statistical returns of the paddy land 

 in the Kandyan districts, the estimated 

 crops, the exemptions from taxation 

 and the Government share. Prom this I 

 gather that the entire extent of aswed- 

 dumized land in the Korales forming 

 the present Central Province (Kandy, 

 Matale and Nuwara Eliya) was about 

 58,800 acres, and estimated to give an 

 average crop of 1"06 million bushels of 

 paddy, inclusive of 435,000 bushels from 

 exempted lands held by temples and 

 headmen, and consequently not liable 

 to taxation. In Four Korales, then in 

 Mr. Tumour's charge as Revenue Com- 

 missioner, the figures are for land 18,760 

 acres, estimated to produce 450,000 

 bushels including 190,000 from exempted 

 lands. 



In Nuwara Kalawiya (also under the 

 same authority) the land was 5,176 

 amunams yielding on an average 283,000 

 bushels of paddy, including 18,000 from 

 exempted lands. 



Besides Mr. Tumour's district reports, 

 there is ample evidence that prepar- 

 ations were made for the introduction of 

 the new system of collection in other Pro- 

 vinces, and there are numerous letters 

 printed in the Sessional Paper from the 

 Government Agent of the Northern Pro- 

 vinces, Mr. Percival Acland Dyke, a 

 Devonshire gentleman, who began life 

 in the Royal Navy, served as a midship- 

 man in one of H. M. Ships on the East 

 India Station, and saw some active 

 service — as he informed me himself at 

 his own dinner table — which, he added, 

 had been the mess table of his ship. In 

 January, 1824, he was transferred to the 

 Ceylon Civil Service, and in six weeks' 

 time was sent to Jaffna as Assistant to 

 the Collector. With the 'exception of 

 about 2| years at Trincomalee, first as 

 Judge and then as Collector, and a short 

 spell very much against his wish as 

 acting Auditor-General in 1843, the re- 

 mainder of his long service was in the 

 Northern Province, from 1829 until his 

 death in 1868. During this long period 

 the only leave to Europe he took was 

 for a few months in 1861, returning 

 before it had expired, and taking over 

 his duties. He became on the change in 

 1832 Government Agent of the N.P., and 

 in introducing the new system of 

 commutation was, he records, met with 

 considerable opposition from the head- 

 men and the upper classes who had been 

 contented with the renting system. 

 However, the revenue returns show near- 

 ly f of the total grain revenue, for the 

 district in 1834 was collected on commu- 

 tation agreements in money, and & by 

 1839. Mr. Twynam reports later that 



