Edible Products, 



810 



[October. 1011. 



crops for the previous two years, and 

 also for the exempted lands of temples 

 and headmen which did not contribute 

 to the above sum, the crops were certain- 

 ly three-fourths and may have reached a 

 million of bushels; a result, doubtless, 

 due to the plentiful rainfall of the last 

 quarter of the previous year, which I 

 found by an old copy of Ferguson's 

 Directory (the Rector's property) was 

 87 inches with good S.W. and N.E. 

 monsoons, while the failures of both the 

 little and big S.W. monsoons of 1855 

 fully account for the very small culti- 

 vation (150 amunams) for Yala. 



In parting with this district it will be 

 of interest to give a derivation of the 

 name Kurunegala, for which 1 am in- 

 debted to Mr. Mooyaart, and which I do 

 not remember having ever heard while 

 in Ceylon, and which does not form one 

 of the several given by Pridham. It is 



so® Sco, which may be translated — "from 

 a race of dwarfish people came the name 

 Kurunegala." 



To Uva came Capt. Rogers of the 

 Ceylon Rifles on being relieved at 

 Aliport by Mr. C. P. Layard, and acted 

 as Assistant Agent (on a salary of £350 in 

 addition. 1 presume, to his military pay 

 as Commandant), and also discharged 

 the judicial duties on another £135 until 

 relieved by the appointment of W. G. 

 Forbes at end of 1842, but continued to be 

 Assistant Agent until his death in 1845. 

 Associated with him I find as Assistant 

 Colonial Surgeon Mr. Christopher Elliott, 

 father of the writer, who, finding the 

 duties uncongenial, resigned and went 

 to Colombo, and continued the practice 

 of his profession and journalism, until 

 appointed Principal Civil Medical Officer 

 in 1858. 



From the Uva Manual (White's) and 

 from a report by Mr. John Bailey in 1856 

 (published in the Sessional Papers) I 

 gather the following facts : Previous to 

 1832 the grain revenue of Badulla amount- 

 ed to only £539. The Commutation 

 system was early introduced into this 

 Division, and the revenue increased from 

 £858 to over £1,080. With regard to this 

 Turnour wrote to Rogers in 1836 that 

 the rate in Bintenne was too high, and 

 Walapone was too low, but it was done 

 advisedly owing to inaccessibility and 

 poor soil. He further urged on his 

 Asssistant not to attempt to enforce the 

 new Commutation, unless convinced of 

 its moderation. Under such sensible and. 

 considerate instructions, Rogers carried 

 out a fresh settlement in Badulla for 21 

 years, based on the value of paddy adopt- 

 ed for the previous assessment, 4 to 12 

 pence per bushel. In after years Bailey, 



when Assistant Agent, expressed regret 

 that the possibility of an increase in the 

 value of Paddy consequent on the deve- 

 lopment of the District had been over- 

 looked, and that the agreement was for 

 such a long period. 



Other settlements for the Aliport 

 Division had been carried out for shorter 

 periods, generally four years taking the 

 value of paddy at the old prices. So the 

 Badulla people got off very cheaply, 

 especially in the more remote portions 

 of Uva. But when these old settlements 

 expired, there was a heavy advance 

 which will be noticed elsewhere, but no 

 substantial addition was made till 1864. 



The total paddy land in 1854 in Uva 

 is reported to have been 33,000 acres, of 

 which say 7,800 was exempted from tax- 

 ation as property of temples and head- 

 men, and 2,400 were waste. 



Concurrently, with the introduction of 

 the new commutation, there was certain- 

 ly an increase of the grain revenue from 

 £25,000 (the average of the five years 

 prior to 1830) to £35,340 (average 1833-8) ; 

 while the average of the next five were 

 £36,677. But though the condition of 

 the cultivator was undoubtedly ameli- 

 orated by the considerate assessments, 

 especially in the Kandyan districts, there 

 was on the other hand a steady disorgan- 

 isation of the old communal co-oper- 

 ation so essential in paddy cultivation, 

 consequent on the unrestricted abolition 

 of rajakariya. There were those who 

 noted the adverse effect of this measure, 

 but these were more immediately appar- 

 ent in the deterioration of the thorough- 

 fares of the island, and then led to propo- 

 sals for a modified substitute applicable 

 to the upkeep of roads only, for which 

 funds from the general revenue were not 

 available, as the financial condition of the 

 Colony in the forties was far from satis- 

 factory. The revenue which had risen 

 from about£285,000 in 1826 to over £437,000 

 in 1833 fell to £322,369 in 1842, and the 

 expenditure had exceeded the income 

 by £95,600 in the six years 1837-42. 



Fortunately about this time European 

 capitalists interested in the cultivation 

 of sugar and coffee appeared on the 

 scene and created a demand for land, 

 the upset price of which was raised 

 (June, 1845) from five shillings to one 

 pound per acre. This added consider- 

 ably during the next two years to the 

 revenue, which rose to over £454,000; 

 but as sugar proved a failure and coffee 

 did not at first prove a success, the 

 revenue again proved insufficient, and 

 there was an excess of expenditure 

 during the four years (1846-9) of nearly 

 £186,000. 



