March  i,  1893.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST 
5^ 
COMPARATIVE  STATEMENT  OP  RAINFALL 
IN  THE  CACAO  DISTRICTS  OF  CEYLON. 
We  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Gordon  Reaves  for 
the  following  return  of  rainfall  in  the  principal 
cacao-growing  districts  of  Ceylon.  The  com- 
parison is  afforded  for  two  years  only,  a period 
rather  too  short  for  absolutely  safe  conclusions, 
but  there  is  enough  evidence  to  show  that  Palis- 
gama,  where — the  5,000  acres  grant  of  land  is 
situated, — has  as  much  and  as  well  distributed  a 
rainfall  as  the  Dumbarn  Valley  and  Matalo  town  : — 
1891. 
1892. 
Means. 
- 
■— H 
Name  of  estate 
O ® 
c3 
o SL 
c3 
o t 
and  District.  -g 
Cl 
*c3 
>-» 
6 * 
*c3 
Ps 
Ps 
Ph 
Rajawella, 
Dumb»ra  ..41'09 
For  10 
136 
ms. 
57-67 
153 
59-21 
120a 
Pallegama  village, 
East  Matale.  .89'56 
Matale  Town  . . — 
113 
159-21 
144 
134-38 
76-09 
1386 
130  c 
Dea  Ella, 
Madawalatenna  — 
— 
93-08 
162  d 
Remarks : 
a Means  for  22  years.  This  record  would  hold  good 
for  Pallikele  estate  which  adjoins. 
6 Approximate  mean  for  2 years.  Taking  the  rain- 
fall of  January  and  February  1891,  the  2 missing  records 
at  20"  on  as  many  days. 
c Mean  for  6i  years.  This  station  lies  halfway  be- 
tween the  estates  of  Berredewela,  Suduganga  N., 
Warriapola,  S. 
cl  This  record  is  for  8}  years  and  is  practically  the 
same  as  Kurunegala  town  which  shows  about  80 
inohes  on  165  days. 
NATIVE  EMIGRATION  FROM  CEYLON. 
It  is  a curious  fact,  as  once  more  made  evident 
by  our  correspondent  “B.’’  (see  page  578),  that  the 
Sinhalese— usually  regarded  as  among  the  most 
conservative  and  stay-at-home  people — are,  in  some 
parts  of  the  island,  very  ready  to  offer  themselves  as 
emigrants  to  other  lands.  Be  it  Queensland  or 
Central  Africa  for  which  plantation  labourers  are 
required,  it  seems  to  make  no  difference,  they 
are  ready  in  certain  districts  to  offer  themselves 
by  scores  and  hundreds  to  any  Emigration  Agent 
who  will  pay  their  passage,  promise  good  wages 
and  perhaps  (as  one  specially  inducing  cause  ?) 
who  will  give  them  an  advance  or  indenting 
bounty  before  departure  ? This  strange  fact  was 
first  realized  some  twelve  years  ago  when  a Ceylon 
planter,  Mr.  H.  St.  Geo.  Caulfeild,  engaged  a 
shipload  of  Sinhalese  to  proceed  to  Northern 
Queensland  to  supersede  or  supplement  Kanaka 
labour  on  the  sugar  plantations.  Both  official 
and  unofficial  observers  were  astonished  at  the 
readiness  with  which  the  Sinhalese  then  engaged 
themselves  to  cross  the  ocean  to  an  unknown 
land.  But  it  was  soon  discovered  that  a large 
proportion  of  these  were  adventurers  in  the  sense 
of  being  old  gaol-birds  ; and  the  late  Sir  John 
Douglas, — entering  into  the  humour  of  the  situa- 
tion, and  thinking  there  would  he  no  harm,  as 
there  was  no  law  to  prevent  such  emigration, 
in  relieving  the  island  of  a proportion  of  her 
criminal  class,— gave  Mr.  Caulfeild  the  hint  that 
he  had  better  expedite  departure  in  his  case,  as 
the  Government  was  hound  forthwith  to  pass 
an  ordinance  to  regulate  sucli  emigration.  Mr. 
Caulfeild’s  shipload  departed,  and  we  all  remember 
their  reception  and  conduct  in  Nothern  Queens- 
73 
land.  The  less  said  about  Sinhalese  there  to 
this  day,  the  better  ! Then  came  the  Ordinance 
No.  4 of  1882,  to  regulate  the  Emigration  of 
Native  labourers  from  this  island  under  Contract 
of  Service.  This  was  absolutely  necessary,  be- 
cause otherwise  the  Indian  authorities  would 
have  stopped  the  free  flow  of  Tamil  coolies  to 
Ceylon,  seeing  that  they  might  thence  he  taken 
beyond  seas  without  that  control  and  regulation 
which  are  insisted  on  in  respect  of  all  cooly 
emigration  save  to  Ceylon.  It  is,  therefore,  use- 
less for  any  agent  here  to  expect  to  engage 
Tamil  cooly  labourers,  save  under  regulations 
as  precise  as  those  of  the  Indian  Government. 
The  ordinance  of  1882  was,  of  course,  intended 
to  apply  more  particularly  to  Ceylon-born  labourers, 
whether  Sinhalese,  Tamil  or  of  other  native 
races,  and  no  contract  with  them  to  go  abroad 
can  he  allowed  unless  emigration  to  the  parti- 
cular place  or  country  has  been  previously  pro- 
claimed by  the  Governor  in  the  Gazette  as  lawful. 
Now',  we  are  not  aware  that  any  such  notifica- 
tion has  ever  appeared  up  to  this  date  ? There- 
fore, it  is  clear  that  no  emigration  to  East 
Africa  or  anywhere  else  can  take  place.  But 
perhaps  the  Government  at  this  moment  are 
considering,  under  “B.’s”  application,  the  pro- 
priety of  making  such  a notification  in  the 
Gazette.  If  so,  and  the  result  is  an  approval  of 
East  Africa,  then  it  will  he  lawful  to  enter  in- 
to contract  before  a Police  Magistrate  with 
Sinhalese  or  other  native  labourers  to  proceed 
thither. 
Thus  so  far  is  how  the  case  stands  ; but  now' 
we  have  to  consider  the  strange  readiness  of 
the  Sinhalese  in  some  districts  to  leave  their 
country.  One  organ  in  the  press  and  a certain 
section  who  are  never  done  declaiming  against 
the  British  administration  (which  has  done  so 
much  for  the  Ceylonese)  will,  of  course,  say 
“Oh,  such  readiness  is  because  the  people  are 
oppressed  and  have  not  enough  to  eat.”  The 
answer  to  this  is  afforded  beforehand  by  “ B ” 
who  testifies  that,  while  the  adjacent  planter, 
who  is  ready  to  pay  them  well  and  to  stand 
between  them  and  oppression,  cannot  get  the 
Sinhalese  to  pluck  his  tea  or  otherwise  work 
or  him,  yet  the  same  people  are  ready  in  large 
numbers  to  go  to  East  Africa  to  work  on  planta- 
tions ! The  only  explanation  that  occurs  to  us, 
besides  that  hinted  above, — the  desire  for  a 
bounty  sum  in  advance,  is  that  the  people  of 
this  island,  even  the  so-called  conservative 
Sinhalese,  are  getting  imbued  with  a love  of 
travel  and  adventure.  Why  not  ? The  inhabi- 
tants of  islands  (and  particularly  of  compara- 
tively small  ones)  are  always  among  the  readiest 
to  move,  to  cross  the  sea,  or  to  try  a new  life. 
Then,  the  Sinhalese  have  for  well-nigh  400  years 
been  overrun  by  successive  European  nations 
— by  the  Portuguese,  the  Dutch  and  the  English, 
all  teaching  them  so  many  object  lessons  about  the 
ease  witli  which  the  ocean  is  crossed  and  recrossed. 
While  in  these  modern  days,  first  atGalle  and  more 
recently  at  Colombo,  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  the  people  have  watched  the  regularity  of 
the  arrivals  and  departures  of  steamers  from  and 
to  Europe,  China,  Japan,  Australia,  &c.,  until 
these  and  other  names  have  become  familiar  in 
village  homes  not  simply  in  the  Colombo  district 
but  in  the  more  distant  Kegalla  and  Kurune- 
gala districts.  There  may  possibly  be  a simpler 
and  more  cogent  reason  than  we  have  hit  upon, 
but  we  must  await  its  elucidation  until  our 
correspondent  “ R.”  has  one  way  or  other  settled 
his  negotiation  with  the  Government. 
