October, 1911.] 



309 



Edtble Products. 



and 2,512 held by Temples. Mr. Wace 

 in his report (1889) regretted he was 

 unable to find the figures for the lands 

 included in the first registers of 1833 in 

 the Ratnapura Kachcheri. Strange to 

 say, I have had the good fortune to find 

 them in a Devonshire rectory ! where 

 lives the Rev. H. Mooyaart, m.a., once a 

 well-known Ceylon civilian, but now 

 the highly respected Rector of Up 

 Lowman, and in his 80bh year, but I am 

 glad to say hale and hearty and as fluent 

 as ever in his Sinhalese. He recently 

 permitted me to peruse his report as 

 Assistant Agent of Sabaragamuwa for 

 the year 1857, and in which I found the 

 missing figures ! which are as follows, 

 — liable to tax 11,128 amunams, exempt 

 as temple property 3,016, making a total 

 of 14,145. 



The Seven Korales, though attached to 

 the Kandyan Province until 1832, receive 

 no mention in Mr. Tumour's leports, and 

 there is no information regarding it in 

 the Sessional Paper I have found so 

 useful in this notice — probably because 

 apparently the commutation system did 

 not prove suitable or acceptable, in 

 consequence of the vicissitudes to which 

 paddy growing in that pait of the 

 island is liable, and earlier possibly 

 on account of the unsettled state of 

 the country, as the old Government 

 Almanacs (from which I made copious 

 extracts early in my career) disclose that 

 the Assistant Agent of the district as late 

 as 1838 was a military officer, Capt. W. 

 Timbrace, on a salary of £250, and the 

 D. J. was a Capt., E. Macpherson, 

 apparently in addition to their military 

 duties and pay. 



In his Eleven years in Ceylon, Forbes 

 who visited the station, records: - 

 "Kurunegala is one of those places which 

 lie on the track of elephants in passing 

 across country, and although no obvious 

 reason can be seen to justify this pre- 

 ference of this particular line, yet they 

 adhere to it withuncommon perseverance, 

 the formation of seven or eight roads con- 

 verging at this place, which owes its 

 existence of late years to the military 

 station and headquarters of the revenue 

 and judicial officers of the district being 

 established here, is insufficient to induce 

 the elephants to abandon their former 

 route, and they continue to pass through 

 this large village to the great annoyance 

 of its inhabitants. Their pertinacity 

 does not abate, although their numbers 

 have been considerably diminished, for 

 the lata Agent, as well as his pre- 

 decessors, was a keen shot and a success- 

 ful one. He killed nine in one afternoon, 

 the greatest number known to have 

 been bagged by a single sportsman," 



I find the name of Dr. Luke Kelly as 

 stationed here in 1835 as Assistant 

 Colonial Surgeon ; he was one of those 

 medical men brought out by Government 

 to strengthen the civil side of the 

 "Vaccine Establishment" as it was 

 called, which was under the control of the 

 Military Priucipal Medical Officer (Dr. 

 Poster). He was the father of Mr. 

 Lilly Kelly, well known of late years 

 as an estate proprietor and planters' 

 member of Council in the nineties. 



Another was Dr. Grant who was 

 stationed at Ratnapura, and the third 

 was Mr. Christopher Elliot who was 

 stationed at Badulla. The latter resign- 

 ed after a short service, but the other 

 twc were subsequently transferred to 

 the Army Medical Service. 



In 1838 a regular civilian was appointed 

 to Kurunegala as Assistant Agent and 

 District Judge, but the Seven Korales re- 

 mained under the control of the Colombo 

 Government Agent until 1845, when the 

 districts of Kurunegala, Puttalam and 

 Chilaw were separated to form the 

 North-Western Province. The Agent 

 was, however, located at Puttalam, salt 

 being evidently of more importance than 

 paddy or population, until June, 1856, 

 when the headquarters of the Proviuce 

 were moved to Kurunegala — the capital 

 of all Ceylon during the time of the four 

 kings who succeeded Prakramabahu III. 



About this province the information 

 I have been able to gather is very 

 meagre. Pridham's enquiries went to 

 show that the northern portion of 

 Wanni Hat Pattu was, about 1845, 

 "little better than a desert from the 

 ruined state of most of its numerous 

 tanks." To the Devonshire Rectory I 

 am again indebted for reliable statistics, 

 as the worthy Rector's Colonial life in- 

 cluded two years (1854-6) of service as 

 Assistant Agent of Kurunegala. His re- 

 port for 1855 is most interesting reading, 

 and in the body reference is made to a 

 complete return of the paddy land in 

 each village and other cognate inform- 

 ation, which would be most useful for my 

 present purpose ; but alas ! though there 

 are copies of several other returns, this 

 one is missing. But luckily there are 

 figures in the report itself which 

 show that the area cultivated for 

 both Maha and Yala of the five years 

 between 1850 and 1855, ranged from 2,173 

 amunams (including 701 for Yala) to 

 5,469 (in 1855, including only 67 for Yala) ; 

 and the average was 3,000 amunams, 

 say 9,000 acres at most, inclusive of 771 

 amunams (say 2,300 acres) for Yala alone. 



The revenue for 1855 was £5,611, and 

 making allowance for a probable increase 

 in the price of paddy s owing to short. 



