Jan. I. 1894.J THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
445 
it must be a source of great gratifica' ion that you 
have 1 een permitted, as Head of the Pablic Worlis 
Department, to complete the second great liue of 
communication between the Maritime Ciipital and 
the Mountain Zone. We hope that its completion 
through to BaduUa may also take place under your 
auspices, unless •well-deserved promotion should 
necessitate your removal' from the Roads Depart- 
ment. Bat in any case your name must long be 
remembered in connection with the Happootella and 
numerous other Roads, in the Island. 
We feel some delicacy in presenting an address 
to yon ; but we do so in the hope that our motives 
may not be misconstrued, springing as they do from 
pure regard for the unblemished public and private 
character of a zealous and able public officer who 
has so long and faithfully served this Colony. 
Trusting this may prove our excuse for intruding. 
We remain with sincere respect, Sir, 
Your Obedient Servants, 
J. MORRICE 
J. RUDD 
James Badenoch 
William WtBSTER 
Ahthuk Sinclair 
A. C. Milne 
W. MURKAY 
John Stuart 
Jdhn Bagra 
John Fenn 
D. J. MacGhegor 
D. MacGeegor 
Francis P. Murray 
Edward J. Astley 
J. Benxison 
G. Whaiuon Brown 
George Barron 
John Fbaser 
Edwin Knowles 
A. S. Bubneit 
J. Oliver 
J. Harper 
d. l. soutter 
Geo : Smith 
Heney Don 
E. Geigson 
J. Mitchell 
James Allen 
A MacPhail 
G. W. Murray 
Thos : Ogilvie Kielloh 
H. O. TlESENlSS 
F. F. B. Childers 
R. MacEnneey 
James Imlah 
James Beemner 
Chas : Brown 
R. SIKES 
Frank Sikes 
N. Orchard 
T. N. Orchard 
Jno : At\vell 
AViLLiAM Henderson 
William Imlah 
D. 0. Carson 
George P. Drummond 
J. W . AVright 
G. Vandehstraaten 
E. Joseph 
In his reply, Major Skinner wrote : — 
Hambantotte, 29th January, 1866. 
Dear Sir,— I had yesterday the pleasure of receiving 
your letter of the 26th instant, enclosing me on behalf 
of the gentlemen who sii;ned it, a letter from Planters 
and other Residents in the di^-tricts, of Happootella, 
Saffragam, and Badoola proper, and in wnich you 
were kind enough to explain why it had not been 
transmitted to me at an earlier date. 
May I beg the favour of you^ to convey to the gentle- 
men who have subscribed to the kind and flattering 
terms expressed towards me in their letter, my grr.te- 
ful thanks for their, I fear, too high appreciation of 
the services I have been enabled to render to their 
districts. The expression of such kindness of feeling, 
and of approbation of my public conduct would have 
been most gratifying to me at any time ;— but circum- 
stances render such sympathy specially acceptable at 
the present moment. 
In my opinion it would be difficult to over-rate the 
importance las well to the interests of the native popu- 
lation of Saffragam, as to European enterpri/,e) of tlie 
Bappontclla Trunk Road ; and it is a sui.ject of great 
congratulation to nie, tliat I ha\e been permitted to 
carry it out so i.ir as it has at present reac .ed with, I 
trust, some prospect of its progiessive improvement 
bfcing unchecked until it ia completed to Badulla. 
There are several circumstances of interest, and, I 
think, of instruction con ecte'l witli the construction 
of the Happootu la lioad. The estima e lor that po - 
tion from i'alluiiiaduhi to BallangotUlc (l5 milesj was 
i;i8,6i4— it was the lowest of several trained by able 
officers, about the liino the cost of work was being 
warmly discussed with reference to the Estimates of 
the late Ceylon Railway Company — which I ventured 
to denounce as extravagant. In the inquiry which 
was instituted by a Sub Committee of the Legislative 
Council, my testimony as to the previous cost of work 
in the Colony was questioned — not that I was sup- 
posed CO intend willfully to mislead the public, but 
that I laboured under self-delusion on the subject. In 
adopting the lowest estimate I informed the officer who 
framed it, that I should talie the work under my own 
direction, and make it practically test the accuracy, or 
the fallacy of my views as to the actual cost at which 
its various departments could be executed. At the 
beginning of 1SG3 I drove the late Sir Charles IMac- 
Carthy to Ballangodde, and had the satisfaction of 
shewing him that instead of the estimated amount of 
£1S,611 having been expended on the road he had so 
much admired, its cost was only ±'9,163 — when he was 
good enough to yield to my importunities to be permit- 
ted to carry it on for 13^ miles further, with the 
balance of £9,481 saved on the estimate. This is a 
striking instance of the value and importance of 
economy — but for it, in this case, I believe your car- 
riage road would not, at the present moment, have been 
extended a yard beyond the Ballangodde Bridge ; and 
it should satisfy the Government and the public, that 
it does not necessarily follow, that because liberal 
means are granted for the execution of works, the De- 
partment should lavishly and wastefully expend them. 
It also shows how much may be done by means of 
Native talent and energy — there has not been an 
European employed upon the Happootella road from 
its commencement to the present time- 
My early association with the Kandy Road has been 
kindly alluded to. This reminds me that it was said by 
no mean authority at the time, that the far-seeing 
statesman by whom it was designed and executed, 
deserved to be impeached for his extravagance in 
making it. When Sir Edward Barnes heard of this 
speech, he simply replied, " Ceylon's future will 
determine that point" — the "future" of Saffragam, 
Happootella, and Badoola will, I trust, in a propor- 
tionate degree, prove the wisdom of that expenditure 
which has given to those districts an outlet without 
which success or improvement would have at least 
remained most problematical. 
It must. I think, be clear to all — but those who are 
wilfully blind— that without good means of communi- 
cation, it is inipossihh for any Coft'ee district in the 
present day, to struggle long with the difficulties 
which are inevitable in new localities — and as the 
success of districts is cf as much importance to the 
general prosperity of the Colony, as the individual 
undertaking can be to each person concerned in it, — I 
trust that the policy of giving the utmost practicable 
aid to new districts, may not again be questioned. 
It has been my best reward for the labours I have 
gone through, — frequently under great discourage- 
ments — to have observed, that the progress and pros- 
Verity of this Colony has followed with unvarying 
certainty upon the opening up of its communications, 
on which the greater part of my life has been engaged. 
It is by their preservation in a state of efiioiency, :ind 
by their extension alone, that that prosperity can 
be maintained, or its resources further developed ; 
and it ought to be a source of great congratulation to 
all interested in Ceylon's welfare, to feel that so far as 
t' e most painstaking, untiring energy, and sound 
judgment now brought to bear upon the subject, can 
ensure the judicious appropriation of means to works 
of improvement — there is little left to wish for. This 
auspicious state of things makes me wish I were cap- 
able of a few more years of good active work, that I 
might have the privilege of conducting the useful 
works which are now being initiated. 
While repeating the assurance of my high apprecia- 
tion of the kind feeling which has' been expressed 
towards myself, I beg to be allowed to avail myself of 
this opportunity of recording my sincere thanks for 
the kind manner in which, I am awajre, the Happooli'lla 
district has shown its estimate of the value of the 
services of native officers, Wollftpoole, Commanding 
the 5th, and Sherman commanding Iho 8lh Uivtiiou 
