THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
835 
June  1,  1896.J 
estates  Iabourer.s  had  their  wages  set  hack  a few 
years.  Now  that  sounds  very  dreadful,  hut  there 
the  food  is  really  the  only  nece.ssity  of  life 
which  our  Tamil  lahourers  have  ; they  live  iu- 
perpetual  suiinner,  their  children  do  not  require 
any  shoes,  and  food  and  fooil  alone  is  the  only 
thing  really  nece.ssary  to  their  existence.  Any 
surplus  money  they  use  for  arrack  or  melt  down 
into  ornaments  for  their  wives  and  daughters  or 
other  female  connections.  I know  many  cases 
thus  in  which  wages  not  being  settled  for  2 
years  was  a mei’e  ligure  of  speech.  They  prac- 
tically received  4-otli  of  their  pay  in  food  and 
advances  for  dry  llsh  and  curry  stuffs.  I)e[)ression 
set  in  and  we  were  obliged  to  control  onr  ex- 
pendilure,  and  the  manager  called  his  men 
together  and  said  he  could  not  keep  them  at 
work  for  more  than  3 or  4 days  in  the  week, 
would  they  like  to  go?  and  they  said  “ no,  you 
give  us  food  and  we  will  stay  here  till  good 
times  come  hack.”  Then  Mr.  Clarence  might 
have  referred  to  English  proprietors  who  went 
hack  to  Ceylon  and  put  their  shoulders  to  the 
wheel  and  did  their  very  utmost  to  meet  their 
respon-sibilities  to  the  lahourers,  and  in  99  cases 
out  of  a hundred,  the  Tamil  lahourers  did  not  suffer 
at  all.  Mr.  Clarence  congratulates  the  planters  on 
certain  things  and  one  of  them  is  that  the  immigra- 
tion of  Tamil  labour  was  resumed  and  the  labour  re- 
lations on  the,  whole  became  once  more  fciidtj 
satisfactory.  Now  I dwell  on  these  words  because 
in  no  country  in  the  world  have  we  sucli  a 
perfect  labourer  as  the  Tamil  cooly  and  more 
pleasant  labour  relations  than  they  are  now  on 
the  Tea  Cardens  of  Ceylon.  Then  we  are  told 
about  the  prolits  which  go  to  the  English  and 
the  Indian  coolies  and  not  the  natives  of  Ceylon. 
If  Mr.  Clarence  went  back,  he  would  find  that 
a very  small  portion  of  the  llritish  Capital  has 
ever  come  back  to  India,  and  that  Indian  natives 
circulate  their  wealth  through  the  island  and 
spend  it  in  the  development  of  other  natise  in- 
dustries ! So  much  has  it  been  the  case  that 
very  little  British  Capital  returned  home  that  I 
remember  the  common  old  riddle  used  to  be 
“ Why  are  the  Kandian  hills  like  Westminster 
Abbey  ?”  Answer.  Because  they  are  the  graves 
of  so  many  Ibitish  sovereigns!  * * * 
Mr.'  d.  Feiigu.sON  Lord  Loch,  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen, — I must  ex])ressmy  hearty  iippreciation 
of  the  able  way  in  which  the  learned  lecturer  has 
endeavoured  to  compress  into  so  sm.all  a space,  so 
reailable,  useful  and  suggestive  .account  of  one  hun- 
dred years  of  British  rule  in  Ceylon.  As  a 
journalist  and  bookmaker  in  Ceylon  myself,  I 
know  the  dilliculties  attending  such  an  effort.  It 
Avas  to  be  expected  that  as  lawyer,  judge  and 
e.x-editor,  Mr.  Clarence  should  be  strongest  and 
most  suggestive  in  re.spect  of  legislation  and  ad- 
ministration of  justice.  But  under  otiier  head- 
ings his  paper  calls  for  criticism  and  though  neither 
judge  nor  planter,  I inust  confess  there  was 
reason  for  much  that  was  so  elo(piently  expressed 
by  Mr.  Shand  ; for,  I cannot  but  take  excep- 
tion to  the  ])icture  presented  of  the  general 
])rogress  of  the  island  and  its  people  ami  of  the 
inlluence  on  the  latter  of  the  planting  enterprise. 
No  doubt  to  anyone  going  to  Ceylon  now, — or 
even  so  far  back  as  the  first  year  (1873)  of  Mr. 
Clarence’s  arrival, — it  is  not  easy  to  realize  the 
marvellous  change  which  has  been  effected  in 
large  di.stricts  if  not  several  provinces  solely 
through  the  planting  enterprise.  In  one  i.airt  the 
lecturer  quoting  from  the  history  of  the  early 
part  of  the  century  admits  much  by  .stating 
there  were  no  towns  in  the  interior  of  the 
island.  Now-a-days  the  visitor  travelling  by  rail 
and  admirable  roads  past  tOAvns  and  villages  from 
the  sea  coast  to  Kandy,  Matale,  Nuwara  Eliya, 
Badulla,  and  finding  the  planters  working  ajjart 
in  their  own  districts,  might  suppose  the 
native  towns  and  villages  and  indeed  much 
culti\ation  to  have  been  always  there  ; whereas 
the  fact  is  that  nearly  all  we  lind  of  towns  and 
villages  in  the  Central  and  Uva,  much  of  the 
Western  and  Sabaragamuwa  and  even  Southern 
I’roA  inces— where  two-thirds  of  the  population  are 
concentrated — is  the  outcome  of  the  influence  of,  ■ 
and  the  ca])ital  and  prosperity  introduced  by, 
planting.  The  best  way  of  proving  this  is  by 
(luoting  evidence  much  older  than  that  of  Mr. 
Clarence : the  celebrated  Orientalist  and  Mis- 
sionary Spence  Hardy  worked  from  1825  to  1845 
in  Ceylon  .and  the.i  left  and  returned  in  1863. 
He  was  a true  friend  of  the  natives  if  ever  there 
Avas  one  : he  Avorked  in  the  Western,  North- 
Eastern,  Central  and  Southern  Provinces.  He 
Avrote  the  charming  .Jubilee  Memorials  of  his 
Mission  in  1863  ; and  Avhat  did  he  say  of  the 
change  in  the  condition  of  the  natives  : — 
“ Were  some  Sinhalese  appiihami  to  arise  who 
had  gone  tlown  to  the  grave  50  year's  ago,  and 
from  that  time  remained  unconscious,  he  Avould 
not  kuoAV  his  own  land  or  people  and  Avhen  told 
Avhere  he  was,  he  Avould  scarcely  believe  his  eyes, 
and  would  have  same  difficulty  with  his  ears 
Jmoking  at  his  own  countrymen,  he  Avould  say 
that  in  his  time  both  the  head  and  feet  Avere 
always  nncovered,  but  that  now  in  the  tOAvns  they 
coA'er  both,  or  perhaps  he  Avould  think  that  the 
youths  Avhom  he  saw  with  shoes  and  stockings 
Avere  of  some  other  nation.  He  Avonld  be  aston- 
ished at  the  heedlessness  Avith  Avhich  appoos 
and  naidas  roll  along  in  their  bullock  bandies, 
passing  even  the  carriage  of  the  Avhite  man, 
Avhenever  they  are  able,  by  dint  of  tail-pulling 
or  hard  bloAVS.  He  would  perhaps  complain 
of  the  hard  road,  as  Ave  have  bearil  a gentleman 
from  Kalpitiya  do,  and  say  that  soft  sand  Avas 
much  better.  He  would  wonder  Avhere  all  the 
tiles  came  from  for  so  many  houses,  and  Avould 
think  that  the  high  caste  families  must  have 
multi|)lied  amazingly  for  them  to  require  so  many 
stately  mansions.  In  the  bazaar  he  Avould  stare 
at  the  policemen  and  the  potatoes  and  the  loaves 
of  bread  and  a hundred  other  things  no  bazaar 
ever  sarv  in  his  day.  He  Avould  listen  incredu- 
lously Avhen  told  that  there  is  no  rajakariya  or 
forced  labour  and  no  fish  tax,  that  there  are  no 
slaves  ami  that  you  can  cut  down  a cinnamon 
tree  in  your  own  g,arden  without  having  to  ])ay  a 
heavy  fine.”  My  lamented  senior,  the  late  Hr.  A. 
M.  Ferguson,  landed  in  Ceylon  in  1837;  and  I often 
heard  him  speak  of  the  utter  want  of  trade 
and  life  in  Colombo  Avith  only  a sailing  ship  or 
tAvo  in  the  harbour,  and  the  absence  of  trade, 
and  industry  or  comfort  throughout  the  island 
orcr  a great  part  of  Avhich  he  travelled 
in  the  “forties.”  Then  Ave  have  noAV  returned 
colonists  like  Mr.  M.  H.  Thomas  avIio  recall  their 
lirst  ride  North  of  Kandy  in  the  “ fifties”  by  a 
route  Avithout  road,  bridges  over  rivers  village  life 
or  cultivation,  Avhere  noAv  there  is  alongside  a 
first-class  road,  one  long  roAv  of  villages  and  con- 
tinuous native  cultivation,  all  fostered  through  the 
influence  of  the  Planting  Enterprise.  In  my  oAvn 
case  I had  the  honour,  as  journalist  and 
reporter,  to  accompany  Sir  Hercules  Robinson 
Avhen  our  Governor,  on  his  first  tour  through 
Uva,  and  the  change  in  the  condition  of  that 
Principality  or  Province  now  and  as  it  Avas  30 
years  ago,  bcnelittiug  both  Sinhalese  and  Tamil 
people  alike,  may  be  all  put  down  to  the  intro- 
duction lirst  of  coffee  and  tea.  It  is  .absurd  to 
suppose  that  only  the  people  (coolies  and 
Sinlialese  artilicers  and  servants)  beneliti 
