Edible Products 



308 



[October, 1911. 



the system worked fairly in the Jaffna 

 Peninsula, and the agreements (which 

 were optional) as they expired, were 

 renewed for terms varying from 7 to 12 

 years (twelve times since 1834). But 

 that in the mainland districts it did 

 not work well, the people failed to pay, 

 and it ceased to be in operation in 1847, 

 but the recovery of the ai rears were not 

 completed till 1859. 



While this is interesting as bearing on 

 the efforts made to encourage the culti- 

 vation of paddy, unfortunately these 

 papers do not supply any statistics ot 

 extents cultivated or the probable crops, 

 except that the number of separate 

 holdings of paddy land entered on the 

 commutation registers of the Jaffna 

 Peninsula was 101,204, 



In the Western Province Mr. W. 

 Gibson (who died in 1839) was Govern- 

 ment Agent, and no information is avail- 

 able except that in 1855, the then Agent 

 ( Mr. C, P. Layard ) reported that in 

 the districts of Colombo, Kalutara and 

 Negombo, the area offered for commu- 

 tation between 1837-47 was 105,268 bush- 

 els, about 44,000 acres. These figures 

 shew advances of 14,000 acres on the 

 extent at the end of the Dutch regime, 

 as shewn by the last thombu of the 

 " Colombo Dessavony," which was sum- 

 marised by General de Muron for a 

 Committee which sat early in the cen- 

 tury. (General de Muron was the 

 Commandant of the Swiss Regiment in 

 the Dutch employ and surrendered at 

 the siege of Colombo. He passed into 

 the service of the Indian Government.) 



In the Eastern Province Mr. Blair 

 was the confirmed Government Agent, 

 but Mr. J. G. Forbes was acting (in 1835). 

 It is reported that the new system was 

 early introduced into the Batticaloa 

 district, so far back as 1832, when 

 without any regular assessment be- 

 ing made, the people were allowed to 

 commute at an average of what they 

 had paid in kind for the nine years 

 previous ; the second and third assess- 

 ments in 1840 and 1850 respectively were 

 based on this arrangement. In the latter 

 the extent of land under cultivation was 

 returned at 62,000 bushels (say 20,000 

 acres) assessed at Rs. 10,200, and the re- 

 venue for paddy commuted and uncom- 

 muted averages only Rs. 9,700 between 

 1850-5. Besides the commuted lands there 

 was a considerable cultivation of excess 

 land which yielded only a small revenue, 

 until the renting system was in 1856 re- 

 formed, and the revenue rose to Rs. 

 23,900 (av. 1856-59). 



A new era dawned for Batticaloa, 

 when Woodford Birch, who had served 

 &s office Assistant Agent »t Trinco- 



malie, was appointed to Batticaloa in 

 1856 ; but the development of the district 

 under his vigorous regime will come 

 under the third period of this history, 

 and I may close this by noting, that the 

 grain revenue of Batticaloa for 1857 was 

 only Rs. 19,359, though there was a good 

 N. B. at end of 1856, but a very dry 

 January. 



In the Southern Province in 1835 Mr. 

 Wilmot was Government Agent, and the 

 Province included Matara and Hamban- 

 tota Districts, as it does now, and Sabara- 

 gamuwa besides (Mr. W. Moir assistant), 

 as well as Aliport, to which Mr. Charles 

 P. Layard was posted on bis return, 

 married, from leave in May, 1835, and the 

 young couple had the unique experience 

 of having the thatch pulled off their 

 house by elephants. His predecessor 

 there was the well-known sportsman 

 Major Rogers, then posted to Badulla, 

 and who is said to have shot 2,000 

 elephants. A good riddance, too, as was 

 brought home to me when on circuit in 

 the Bintenne of the Eastern Province 

 in 1890, and some villagers complained of 

 the increase of elephants. "Pissudoduwa, 

 nonsense," said the old Ratemahatmaya, 

 who was, I believe, a gun-bearer in 

 his youth to the great sportsman — " non- 

 sense, if you get out of the way up a 

 tree, you can get down in two or three 

 %>eyas, but in Major Rogers' time, if you 

 got into a tree, the nekatha (lucky hour) 

 would not come for three weeks. Don't 

 talk nonsense, have you any true com- 

 plaint to make to the Agent ?" 



In Sabaragamuwa the period opened 

 badly and the grain rent only yielded Rs. 

 3,908 (in 1831) owing to the year being one 

 of failure agriculturally, though in ordi- 

 nary years there was apparently a surplus 

 of paddy, as the Government share, then 

 collected in Anmani, was sent away by 

 boat in compliance with requisitions of 

 the Commissary General to feed the 

 troops at Colombo. 



In 1831 it is interesting to note that 

 Government offered to accept payment 

 of the tax in cotton, then generally grown 

 in the Bintenne Chenas ; to this the 

 Agent replied the people required all the 

 cotton for their own usej but that the 

 villages in the low country between 

 Avisawella and Ratnapura were pre- 

 pared to pay their tax in arecanuts ! 



The commutation system was intro- 

 duced in 1833, and was accepted to some 

 extent, but by 1841 it had fallen into 

 arrear, and the farming system was 

 reverted to. 



The extent of land is stated to have 

 been in 1869 6,754 amunams, including 

 that held by Chiefs and other headmen, 



