5^9 
THE NEW GEMMING ORDINANCE. 
We call attention to a letter (page 576) which 
strongly condemns the new draft Ordinance and the 
Government for bringing forward such a measure at 
this time of allothers. The occasion is felt to be most 
inopportune and the measure itself appears to be 
unworkable, impracticable of application, apart from 
its impolioy and even injustice. Now, in thefirst place 
there is no greater evil committed in the name of 
legislation and law than the placing of enactments 
on the statute-book which, on the face of them) 
are not expected to be worked or capable of 
application. The praotice is one of the best possible 
means of educating the people to despise both the 
aw and the Govtrnmen and to cause neglect not 
simply of necessary demands under the particular 
measure which cannot be adequately enforoed, but in 
regard to other and obviously more imperative 
obligations. If there is one direction more than 
another in which the Ceylon Government has failed 
— completely failed — to maintain or enforce its autho. 
rity or collect its legal dues in the past, it is in respeo t 
of the so-called lioenses which all Gem prospectors 
and diggers have been bound to take out before 
commencing their operations. Hundreds if not thou- 
sands of natives have for years deliberately scorned 
and certainly never paid— these dues to Govern- 
ment. Even Europeans have been known to carry 
in gemming operations without any license— in some 
cases ignorant of the need of such restriction 
(so little has been made of it even in Sabara- 
gamuwa) and in other oases through the difficulty of 
getting such a document in reply to application ! At 
the time of the "gold rush" in 18tfl, regulations 
were hastily framed and in answer to the con- 
dition of a ten-rupee license being requisite for 
prospecting, a leading commercial house sent in the 
amount ; but to this day no license has ever reached 
the hands of that firm, and not even the courtesy 
of an acknowledgment. If, therefore, there was 
room for reform at all at this juncture, it was in 
the direction of trying for the first time to en- 
force the comparatively simple and equitable 
regulations of 1881 and certainly until it was 
demonstrated that the new industry under Euro- 
pean auspices was to be a success — until capital and 
maobinery had secured returns, and until re- 
sulting dividends showed that wealth was being 
extracted from the colony, — it is the height of 
folly, perfect midsummer madness, for the Ueylon 
Government to put forth a measure which in its 
pretensions is calculated to stop the European 
gemming enterprise in its very inception, to drive 
away the men who have begun to take an in- 
terest in the industry and to strongly discourage 
a single British capitalist from investing his 
money in a country where the Government have, 
at the very first hint of suoh possible investment, 
made such unr< asonable demands. 
We trust it is not too late for the Govern- 
ment to abandon this obnoxious measure. To 
endeavour to extract a large percentage of the gross 
proceeds from gemmers, or gem digging Companies, 
is not only wellnigh, if not altogether impractic- 
able ; but it indicates great ignorance of the true 
direotion in whioh the Government can fairly 
oxpeot the revenue to be benefitted. Surely Mr. 
73 
Wace and his superiors are not bi nd to the 
indirect, but very real advantages which would 
accrue to his proviace and to the general revenue 
— the Customs especially — from the initiation of a 
Gemming industry by European Companies ? Apart 
from the proceeds of licenses or even a modeiate 
levy per acre taken up by each Company, there 
is the very considerable outlay in stamps for every 
transfer and agreement made by such Companies. 
We are convinced that for the Government in 
addition to try and get a hold of a bhare of the 
proceeds in gems — or to hold such a claim in 
terrorem over the heads of any intending inv su rs, 
is most unwise and impolitic, to say nothing of 
the injustice. For the last ninety years of British 
rule, we suppose, the natives have been extracting 
precious stones out of Crown land without even 
the shadow of a shade of such claim being 
made— at the very most a small license 
being levied — and that only collected in the case 0f 
units out of hundreds if not thousands of digg. rs. But 
now that European enterprise and skill are to be 
applied, the brilliant idea oo« urs to Mr. Wace — for 
surely neither the Attorney-General nor any other 
member of the Executive is guilty of the foolish- 
ness — of proposing an impracticable partnership in 
results. The inference would 3eem to be that the 
Ceylon Government would prefer to allow the 
Gemming country to be dealt with by natives in 
the future as duiing the past, and to see all 
European piospeetors, experts and Limited Com- 
panies and their agents clear out of the place. If 
this be the explanation, far better to preface the 
new Ordinance with such explanatory clause, to 
run, " Whereas it is considered desirable to chnke 
off any attempt on the part of London or Paris 
capitalists to develope the gem fields of Ceylon, Ba 
it enacted " : — 
♦ 
BECHE-DE-MEB IN CEILON. 
Last Gazette oontains, in addition to what we have 
quoted respecting Mines, a draft of Ordinance to 
consolidate and amend the laws respecting the 
collection, curing, storing and exporting of chanks 
and beehe-de-mer. It is of a very stringent nature, 
requiring licenses for which fees are to be charged 
while royalties are to be levied on chanks exported. 
The penalties for fishing without license, or for infrac- 
tion of conditions, include imprisonment, simple or 
rigorous up to six months, with forefeiture of boats, 
carts, &c. Apart from the object of obtaining a 
fair revenue from the articles named, the main de- 
sign, probably is the protection of pearl banks, and 
no doubt it is mainly with reference to this fruitful 
source of revenue that youths under 18 preparing 
to become divers by profession, can be exempted from 
license and penalties. 
GEAFTING ON CUTTINGS. 
This matter is touched upon in the October number 
of the Garten and Blumenzeitmuj , its advantages over 
the grafting of rooted plants with scions in a state of 
rest, and the good results of the method as employed 
by the French Vine growers in grafting European varie- 
ties of the Vine on American tttocks being alluded to. 
It is well kuown that grafts unite with less loss in the 
case of some species of plant? when th y are placed on 
unrooted cuttings; the routing of the latter and the 
uuiou of graft and stock taking place simultadeomly . 
It in the method commonly pursued with Oorrea varie- 
ti« s, usiug C. alba a* the stuck; with Clem-itis on C. 
vitalba, and with Ampelopsis Veitchi on the common 
Yiryiuian Creeper. Examples are given of grafting 
weeping Elder on stroug one-vear-old matured shoots 
or suckers of the common Elder. These should be 
ohoson of at least 6 to 7i- feet in length, out across 
