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OUR INTERESTED LIEUT, GOVERNOR. 
It is fortunate that we have at the initia- 
tion of such a scheme a Lieutenant-Governor 
whose career has testified to tl\e great 
interest he has always taken in Natural His- 
tory as well as in the other branches of science 
which ha has added to by his researches. 
With the coming Governor interested and the 
influential men named on the Committee the 
success of the starting of the scheme is assured. 
THE UPKEEP EXPENSES. 
The only doubt is whether, in a small island 
like Ceylon, the expenses necessary for the 
keeping up of a zoo could be adequately 
supported without a larger proportion of 
Government help as time goes on. 
AN APPEAL TO THE WEALTHY. 
Here, although we have a few men of 
means, the rich Rajahs to whom many of the 
Indian zoos are indebted for large portions 
of theii- income, are wanting. It therefore 
behoves all who are interested in the 
matter, both European and native, to realise 
their responsibilities and come forward with 
such help as will assure to the Colombo 
Zoological Gardens a permanent and lasting 
success. The Committee will have at disposal 
the knowledge and experience gained in other 
zoos, all over the world, and even now they 
hold some documents, notably a report on 
the Calcutta Zoo of 1898-99, full of the most 
valuable iuformaiion to any Society which 
intends starting a zoo on a successful basis. 
Let us hope that by this time next year the 
Colombo Zoological Gardens will be one of 
the sights of the East. 
THE DISSAWASHIP OF THE NORTH- 
WESTERN PROVINCE. 
REMINISCENCES OF DAYS THAT ARE NO 
MORE.— KANDYAN COSTUME. 
During the time of the Kandyaa Kings, the Seven 
Koralea had always a Disaawa, haviug been one of 
eleven principal diviaions or diaawoniea, into which 
the ancient Kingdom was divided. Xiie first J3is8awa, 
after the British occupation, was Karabawatawana, 
the elder. Both he and hia brother were Ratemahat- 
mayas. After their death, the name is extinct. Kam- 
buwatawana was, in addition to Diasawa, the first 
Kandyan Justice of the Peace of the Seven Korales 
and the first President of the Village Tribunal, when 
Gansabhawas were introduced to the district. He was 
a fine old Kandyan gentleman, and when a yonth of 
seventeen was in the Court of the last King of Kandy, 
Sri Wickrema Raja Sinha. He was a personal friend 
of the late Mr A M Ferguson, o.m.g , to whom he 
communicated the information in 1866, when bot?i 
these veterans were present at the kraal at Nelugolla 
the former as one of the chief organisers, and the 
latter as reporter to the "Oeylon Observer," that the 
(jrand old Kandyan Chieftain had taken part in 
twenty-one kraals under the British Government- 
twenty successful and one blank. Mr. Ferguson 
wrote:— "The Kandyan Monarch— greater than Maho- 
met (who went to the mountain, because the mountain 
would not come to him)— did not take the trouble of 
•going to the kraal," as the English Rajjurnvvos do. 
The elephants were actually driven on the esplanade 
and captured under the eye of the Monarch, as be 
eat Burronnded by his court in the octagon ; and mine 
ancient friend (who insisted on pledging me in a glata 
of London bottled etont I) states that the same 
custom was puraued in the time of Bishop Heber'8 
Bchool-fellow, the semi-Buddhistical Sir John D'Oyly 
The old Ratemahatmaya quite agreed with me that th 
presence of the Governor and his friends, howeve 
pleasant and interesting; to them, was an impediment 
to the kiaaling of the elephants; and he added that 
Lord Torriugton's kraal (the one described by Sir 
J E Tennent) did not succeed until his lordship's 
platform waa removed." The Dissawa was in the 
Court of the Kandyan King at the period of Mr. 
Ferguson's birth! 
After a long interregnum, Halpe, during the closing 
ye&rs of his official career, waa appointed iJiaaawa, 
and he did not live very long to enjoy the honour 
and dignity of the much-coveted title. Another 
pause ensued ; then came the present appointment 
which is unique. After representing his brethren 
in the Legislative Council the rank has been con- 
ferred on him, and he has been appointed not 
Dissawa of the Seven Korales only, as hia predeoeasors 
were, but Dissawa of the North-Western Province. 
This may appear an anomaly, for the N.-W. Pro- 
vince includes two divisions, Chilaw and Puttalam, 
which are not Kandyan, except a portion of the 
latter, namely Demalahatpattn, and in respect of 
these districts which are presided over by Muda- 
liyars and Muhandirams, Hnlugalla Dissawa may 
strictly speaking, to adopt a Biblical phraae, be not 
known in hia country ! Bowever, the honour seema 
to be greater than that enjoyed by his illnstriona 
predeeessora, in that the territorial limits of hia 
dissai:oni is made to cover a whole province, which it 
never did before, and we congratulate him on hia 
extended jurisdiction, and may he live long in health, 
happiness and prosperity to enjoy the well-merited rank. 
By a strange coincidence all the Dissawas of the 
Seven Korales were reputed " kraalers." 
Hulugala's appointment was recommended by Mr 
Burrows, and the selection is not only a good one 
but one thut would meet with univeraal favour in 
the eyes of all Kandyans outside the Province. It 
is said, perhaps facetiously, of Sir Harry Diaa, that 
when Sir William Gregory saw him riding he waa 
so struck with the splendid seat which the Sinhalese 
Knight kept, that he remarked " Well, if he could 
Bit so well on horseback, I have no doubt he would 
be able to keep as excellent a seat on the bench 
of the Supreme Court," and the next Gazette aaw 
the appointment of Barrister Dias as a Puisne 
Justice. Could the same sort of feeling have 
actuated Mr Burrows in his recommendation of hia 
protegi ? Here's the Government Agent's description 
of the present Dissawa in 1886, when he never ex- 
pected to act in his present office, much less to be 
instrumental in securing the honour in question for 
Hulugala :— " We are not long in finding ourselves 
in the presence of the captain of the hunt. He is 
a fine brawny specimen of a Sinhalese gentleman, 
and on great occasions, when he is attending a 
Government lev(e for instance or welcoming a new 
revenue officer, is a very smart bedizened person- 
age indeed. At present his costume is rather 
adapted to circumstances than remarkable for 
abundance. A handkerchief round his hsad, the sus- 
picions of a cloth round his loins, sandals on his feet, 
and the rest- as nature made it, with the exception 
of a huge meerschaum pipe, from which he is enjoying 
a few final puffs; while near him stai ds a trusty 
henchman with his Winchester repeater and hia double- 
barreled express." 
Be it said to the credit of Hulugala, he weara hia 
Kandyan dress at all times, and this brings me to the 
very apposile remarks made by Sir West Ridgeway on 
the necessity of the Kandyans adhering to their national 
costume. Aa pointed out by a looal writer in a 
recent work : — 
" But it is really pitiful to behold a transformation 
scene which is of frequent occurrence in the Kandyan 
districts. At one moment there appeara a highlander 
in all time panoply of Kandyan state; in tho finest 
embroidered moalin swelled out by a number of tuppoti 
put on one over the other; hia ahouldera widened in 
appearance by a jacket stuffed and puffed out into 
