Page images
PDF
EPUB

Kandy line alone it would have taken the old coach, travelling both ways twice daily and filled each time, several hundred years to carry the passengers who have passed between the ancient capitals and provinces in the past

[graphic]

quarter of a century. There was scarcely a Kandyan chief or priest who had ever seen, or, at any rate, stood by, the sea until the railway into the hill country was opened in 1867, whereas, for some time after the opening, the

VIEW ON THE MAHAVELIGANGA, AT GANGARUWA, NEAR KANDY.

interesting sight was often presented to Colombo residents of groups of Kandyans standing by the sea-shore in silent awe and admiration of the vast ocean stretched out before them and the wonderful vessels of all descriptions in Colombo harbour. The experience will probably be repeated next year in the case of grey-bearded Kandyans from the secluded glens of the Uva principality, while natives of the Southern Province will be enabled to travel by railway and see the Kandyan hill country for the first time..

In pointing out that the Dutch (equally with the Portuguese) constructed no roads, we must not forget that the former, true to their home experience, constructed and utilised a system of canals through the maritime provinces along the western and south-western coast. In this they were greatly aided by the backwaters, or lagoons, which are a feature on the Ceylon coast, formed through the mouths of the rivers becoming blocked up, and the waters finding an outlet to the sea at different points, often miles away from the line of the main stream. The canals handed over by the Dutch at first fell into comparative disuse, but within the last thirty years they have been fully repaired and utilised, and there are now about 175 miles of canal in the island.

With the construction of roads wheeled traffic became possible, and a large number of the Sinhalese speedily found very profitable employment, in connection with the planting industry mainly, as owners and drivers of bullock carts, of which there must be from 15,000 to 20,000 in the island, besides single bullock-hackeries for passenger traffic. In nothing is the increase of wealth among the natives more seen, in the Western, Central, and Southern Provinces, than in the number of horses and carriages now owned by them. Thirty-five to forty years ago to see a Ceylonese with a horse and conveyance of his own was rare indeed; now the number of Burghers, Sinhalese, and Tamils driving their own carriages, in the towns especially, is very remarkable. The greater number of the horses imported during the past thirty years-the imports during that time numbering 17,000-have certainly passed to the people of the country.

CHAPTER III.

SOCIAL PROGRESS IN THE CENTURY.

Population-Buildings-Postal and Telegraphic Services-Savings Banks -Banking and Currency-Police and Military Defence-Medical and Educational Achievements-Laws and Crime.

H

AVING thus described

more particularly the vast

change effected in British times by the construction of communications all over the island, we must touch briefly on the evidences of social progress given in our table (pages 9, 10).

The increase in population speaks for itself. It is very difficult, however, to arrive at a correct estimate of what the population was at the beginning of the century, as the Dutch could have no complete returns, not having any control over the Kandyan provinces. The first attempt at accurate numbering was in 1824, by Governor Barnes, and the result was a total of 851,440, or, making allowance for omissions due to the hiding of people through fear of taxation, etc., say about a million of both sexes and all ages. As regards the large estimate of the ancient population of Ceylon located in the northern, north-central, and eastern districts, now almost entirely deserted, we are by no means inclined, with the recollection of the famous essay on the "Populousness of Ancient Nations," to accept the estimates published by Sir Emerson Tennent and other enthusiastic writers. There can be no doubt, however, that a very considerable population found means of existence in and around the ancient capitals of Ceylon, and in the great Tank region of the north and east, a region which affords scope for a great, though gradual, extension of cultivation by both Sinhalese and

[graphic]

Tamils in the future. At present it must be remembered that fully two-thirds of the population are found in the south-western districts and mountain zone, occupying a good deal less than half the area of the island, and

SCENE ON THE NILWELLEGANGA: SOUTHERN PROVINCE.

« PreviousContinue »