1847.] 



Laccadive Islands. 



41 



The nature of the proposed change is not specified, but before 

 these paras, were written, Mr. Collector Cotton was aware of the 

 declared aversion of the Islanders to a change which would substi- 

 tute an assessment for the present system of monopoly. The senti- 

 ments of the principal inhabitants were taken by a deposition from 

 them in 1834, which was lost with the rest of the records in 1837, 

 and I cannot now cite their special reasons, but from conversation 

 which I had with them, there can be no doubt that they still prefer 

 the present system. Their reasons are probably a general dislike to 

 a change in an immemorial practice. For good or for evil, so radi» 

 cal a change as must take place, if the present monopoly is aban- 

 doned, cannot fall to excite at first sight dissatisfaction amongst the 

 conservative spirits of a small and exclusive native communily, 

 throughout which the influence of such a change must be extensively 

 felt. The weightiest objection, however, on their minds is no doubt 

 the fear of a heavy direct land assessment with its official interfer- 

 ence and its calculations and rules unbending to individual circum- 

 stances, in exchange for their present light contribution to the public 

 revenue; for it must be borne in mind that the coir produce of a tree 

 is not more than one-third of the gross produce, and if under the cir- 

 cumstances above detailed 45 per cent, of the market value of this 

 coir falls to Government, it is less than one-sixth of the gross pro- 

 duce. This contribution is paid in the most indirect way by the 

 sale of surplus produce, and payment in food, and so that Govern- 

 ment participates fully in any loss from deficiency of crops or even 

 from the idleness of the Islanders in manufacturing the coir, while 

 it bears exclusively any loss from enhanced prices of rice. 



Another objection would be the difficulty of paying a money as- 

 sessment — the total absence of money rents would indicate that the 

 Islanders are not ready to pay a money assessment. The ready and 

 steady market for their surplus produce which the present system 

 affords is certainly in some measure a boon, and as a reason for main- 

 taining the system, the Islanders press especially the difficulties and 

 disadvantages to which they must be exposed in the market, that 

 they would be obliged to find a market for 5 or 6 hundred candies of 

 coir within a few months, that they would have scarcely time to 

 watch the market, and being obliged to return to the group, where 

 they are shut up for so many montiis they would find difficully iu 

 recovering their debts. Possibly too much weight is given to these 

 considerations, urged by the Islanders with a different view, and 



