THE EUTURE. 
bles, and it has even been asserted, no 'doubt with 
truth, that this want has been the origin of some of 
the diseases of the country, induced or produced after 
a long residence. It was not only as was often sup- 
posed the tough beef and the curry and rice that pro- 
duced dyspepsia and other complaints, it was also a 
total want of or an i^’peguLir or insufficient sujiply of 
vegetable diet. When we look back on tlie changes 
that have taken place during the last thirty ^ears, 
changes wdiich, if the^^ had been predicted to that 
generation, would have been received with shouts of 
laughter and scorn, as the emanations of a madman, 
may we nut look forwa,rcl and speculate on changes 
which ^iiay take place in the thirty years to come. 
They are possible, just as possible as wdiat has already 
been realiz d. We may see the wdiole upper valley 
of Piindaliioy a planted in coffee"^'; no doubt the trees 
will be very luxuriant in leave?, and we t ope they 
will also have abundant crops, but we will never see, 
wbat may be, but mot in our time, comfortable bunga- 
lows with tall chin neys, standing at the ba>e of tlie 
forest-clad mountains which bonnet the Wilson's Bunga- 
low Plains, sending forth blue curling smoke, plainly 
perceptible at a great distance off, against the dark 
background /)i forest ; the interior and eternal surround- 
ings of these bimgaiows present all the appea,rance of 
an Australian settler’s locality, only with, this eliffer- 
euce— the Uva Railway sfation I Only fancy, green 
peas, cabbages, potatoes, fine fat beef, pork, ami mutton, 
just down by train from the Uva farm. Yes, fancy 
this advertisement appearing in the Ceylon Observer of 
19U5. Y^ou, Mr. Editor, who like myself have s^en such 
changes, do you think it impossible? The fellow 
who said it ” may live (I hope lie will, for lie is but 
a young man) to see a'li this, or even more. If he 
does, and a memory of olden time passes like a dream 
through h:s mind, perhaps he will call to mind ‘'Thirty 
Years Ago.” He may then be writing similar remini- 
scences of the present time, under the ^ame title, for 
he himself will then have become “Thirty YYars. Ago,” 
and the writer of this will have been, not be, “the 
fellow wdro said it.” What a difference the two brief 
words, was and is^ make. He was the fellow who said 
it! I cannot, never will, see wBat may be thirty years 
hence. I can never comment on the thirty years to 
come, after they are gone, as has been done, and hope 
may still continue, on thirty years ago ; only, seeing 
what has been done in the past, scarcely any limit can 
be affixed to what may result in the. future. 
Having closed the last chapter with a few' lines of 
poetry, addressed to young planters, or rather advice 
*If not, with tea and cinchona. — Ed. 
