Edible Products. 



504 



[December, 1911. 



service in Nuwarakalawiya) early in 

 the fifties as Assistant Agent at Matale 

 (1858-61) co-operated heartily in working 

 the Ordinance. It was under his aus- 

 pices the writer undertook his first 

 essay in irrigation by improving the 

 9mall tank at Dambulla and providing it 

 with a masonry overfall, which increased 

 the storage considerably. 



In the Giruwe Pattu benefit accrued 

 from the restoration of the Urubokka 

 and Kirema Dams, for turning the 

 upper waters of the Matara river into 

 the less favoured valleys. These works 

 certainly helped the cultivation as 

 intended, but no separate figures of the 

 increase of revenue in the village served 

 seems to have been published. A sub- 

 stantial and early return was however 

 secured by the high prices paid for 

 the Government Crown fields benefited, 

 and Avhich sold at an average of £15, 

 indeed some went as high as £45 per 

 acre. By the way this credit has never 

 been shown in any of the C. I. B. 

 returns as against the Rs. 86,000 spent 

 on the works. 



In the North- Western Province where, 

 as already stated, irrigation districts 

 had been proclaimed, the development 

 of cultivation was most remarkable, 

 especially in the Seven Korales where it 

 rose from 15,500 acres in 1855 to over 

 60,000 in 1865, both years favourable to 

 cultivation ; an advance which, I may 

 add, was maintained and indeed im- 

 proved on, before any expenditure on 

 irrigation was incurred in the district, 

 or the restoration of the village tanks 

 taken in hand by Government ; but 

 the introduction of the Ordinance un- 

 doubtedly had its influence, as well as 

 the transfer of the head quarters of the 

 Agency from Puttalam to Kurunegala 

 in June, 1856, in securing this rapid 

 development. 



There is, it seems to me, a lesson to 

 be learnt and a moral to be drawn from 

 the facts set out in this part to which 

 I desire to call special attention. It 

 has been already mentioned that Sir 

 Emerson Tennant in 1845 spoke of a 



was specially reappointed to the service in a 

 position analogous to that which he occupied 

 previous to his resignation. His first office on 

 return was as P. M. of Matara where he 

 promptly dealt with some Moors who, in a riot, 

 called out the English Raj was over, as, in 

 view of the mutiny then prevailing, Sir H. Ward 

 had despatched the English regiment in the 

 island to India. "Perhaps so," said Brodie, 

 " but meanwhile you will do one month's hard 

 labour," which quite extinguished any dis- 

 loyalty which may have existed. He too had 

 to retire on account of ill-health in 1864. 



parlous condition of paddy cultivation, 

 and made certain proposals ; but there 

 were no funds to carry out the repair 

 of the Irrigation works he rightly de- 

 sired, and his Western remedy was 

 additional taxation, which led to 

 trouble and fiasco; whereas Woodhouse's 

 modernized adaptation of Rajakariya 

 for roads succeeded. Similarly though 

 Bailey may have, as he says, not sketch- 

 ed anything new or original, it was his 

 adpatation of the old customs to present 

 circumstances which secured gratifying 

 results, and the rescue of an import- 

 ant agricultural interest, probably from 

 extinction. I would these two import- 

 ant lessons in legislation and judicious 

 government were more borne in mind, 

 and more frequently followed in lieu of 

 the more usual effort to rule on princi- 

 ples suitable in Western lands, but 

 often ill-adapted for Eastern people. 



In May, 1858, Bailey, who had married 

 Sir Henry Ward's daughter, was made 

 Principal Assistant Colonial Secretary 

 as were his three predecessors Bray- 

 brooke, Raudon Power and Kenneth 

 Mackenzie, as Badulla was then consid- 

 ered the most important assistant 

 agency ot the island. Power and Bray- 

 brooke both became Agents of the 

 Central Province, and so no doubt 

 would Bailey, but that unfortunately 

 his health broke down, and he had to 

 go on leave and subsequently retire on 

 a small pension (£363) on the 16th May, 

 1863, but only lived for a few years in 

 England, where he held an Inspector- 

 ship of Factories. 



Bailey's services have on various occa- 

 sions been duly acknowledged in print 

 officially and otherwise and most deserv- 

 edly, for undoubtedly of the present 

 flourishing condition of paddy cultiv- 

 ation it may truthfully be said or 

 sung : — 



" T'is he chalked forth the way, 

 Which brought us hither.' 



The expenditure on irrigation during 

 Sir Henry Ward's regime was Rs.480,000, 

 and the principal works executed were 

 the Urubokka and Kirema dams and 

 channels, and the Deviturre dam* (Rs. 

 66,000) all in the Southern Province ; and 

 in the Eastern Province, Ambarai and 

 Ericaman tanks and the foundations 

 of the Sengapadi dam on the Pattipolla 

 aar. The latter group were restor- 

 ations of works carried out over a hun- 



* This work was undertaken to keep the floods 

 of the Giog ganga out of a large tract of fields, 

 but no provision was made for the drainage 

 of the direct rainfall, hence it proved useless. 



