October, 1911.] 



811 



EdibUt Product*. 



Sir Emerson Tennent, who I belie\e 

 was considered a financial expert, was 

 appointed Colonial Secretary and arrived 

 in the island in November, 1845. The 

 condition of the finances of course occu- 

 pied his early attention, and in October, 

 1846, was published his report on the 

 Colonial revenue, with suggestions for 

 securing an increase therein. 



Concurrently Mr. Philip Wodehouse, 

 Government Agent of the Western Pro- 

 vince, made the proposal that every male 

 inhabitant of the island between the 

 ages of 18 and 55 years should be declared 

 liable to contribute six days' labour, free 

 of payment to the formation and upkeep 

 of the roads of the island, with the 

 option of commuting the liability to a 

 money payment. Sir Emerson Tennent 

 desired that a portion of this labour 

 should be applied to the repair of tanks, 

 but this was vetoed by the Secretary of 

 State, and the Ordinance as finally passed 

 in 1848 restricted the application of the 

 labour to roads. 



In his financial report Sir E- Tennent 

 gave figures of the revenue from paddy 

 and fine grain, and pointed out that 

 " while the cultivation of every other 

 description of produce has been making 

 advances, the production of corn is abso- 

 lutely stationary." This he attributed 

 to the renter and the'farming system, and 

 suggested the substitution of a general 

 land tax in lieu of this and other imposts 

 which he thought it desirable to abolish. 

 Nothing came, fortunately, of this pro- 

 posal, but in the inference he drew from 

 a comparison of the year's revenue 

 figures, he much understated the case, as 

 he did not take into consideration the 

 increase in the price of paddy in the 

 period reviewed. 



It would have been more satisfactoiy 

 to base an enquiry as to the extent of 

 this retrogression by reference to the 

 Agricultural returns in the Blue Books 

 of the period, but they are not available. 

 They had been removed from the Library 

 of the Colonial Office in London to the 

 Public Records Office, but on applying 

 there they could not be found. I am 

 consequently obliged to deduce the 

 probable production of the period from 

 the available data in my possession, 

 chiefly the actual recoveries on account 

 of the Government share and the current 

 prices of paddy. 



On these points the records show that 



(a) The annual average revenue from 

 paddy was as follows : — 



(b) The average price of paddy per 

 bushel for the whole island was equi- 

 valent in the thirties to about 40 cents of 

 a rupee present currency, but had risen 

 to at least 45 cents by 1844 ; was over 55 

 cents in the early fifties ; and 75 cents 

 by 1858. 



At the same time due allowance has to 

 be made for the fact that the voluntary 

 commutation of the Central Province 

 and Badulla, etc., remained at the low 

 value for paddy fixed in the thirties 

 until after 1850. 



Prom the foregoing data and other 

 collateral information scattered through 

 the papers at my disposal, I am inclined 

 to estimate the annual average produc- 

 tion of paddy in the island up to 1855 

 as follows : — 



say 3b millions of bushels. 



>J 4 4 1> » „ 



4 



„ 3 „ „ 



Prior to 1830 

 Between 1833-9 

 Between 1840-5 

 Between 1846-55 



Prior to 1830 

 From 1833-8 

 Prom 1839-44 

 Prom 1845-56 



(say) 



£25,000 

 £35,340 

 £36,677 

 £39,70C 



The provision of what was henceforth 

 known as " Ordinance labour" remedied 

 the loss entailed on road making by the 

 abolition of rajakariya, but no similar 

 provision was made in the interests of 

 agriculture, and consequently tanks and 

 other works of irrigation were neglected 

 and change and decay was all round. 

 Chief amongst these losses was the des- 

 truction of the great Urubokkadam 

 erected by the Dutch, and which was 

 destroyed in 1837, owing to the silting 

 up of the canal intended to carry off the 

 impounded water to the Giruwa Pattu, 

 a work which had been formerly done by 

 rajakariya, but no provision was made 

 for this work of necessity on its abolition. 

 Another serious loss was the destruction 

 of the Kirema dam (which had been 

 restored by Sir Edward Barnes in 1828), 

 from similar negligence. In the Batti- 

 coloa District the Dutch had constructed 

 large works, which had (Mr. Birch 

 reported in 1856) 11 been kept in perfect 

 order till the abolition of compulsory 

 labour prevented the people being called 

 out, and though once or twice tempor- 

 arily repaired by a few enterprising 

 cultivators, had atlast fallen into perfect 

 decay and are now utterly useless." He 

 estimated that consequent on this an 

 extent of over 60,000 acres had been 

 abandoned. 



It is not necessary to quote fuller 

 details, it was the same everywhere. 

 The Secretary of State had intimated 

 his readiness to authorise outlay in irri- 

 gation works from the general revenue 

 in return for taxation on the fields bene- 

 fited. But there were no funds avail- 

 able, and the other measures enacted 

 with a view of increasing the revenue 



