The Daily News TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 1904. PROGRESS OF CEYLON

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 77, 5 April 1904, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 1904. PROGRESS OF CEYLON

At a meeting held in London on February 9th, of the Royal Colonial Institute, I* John Ferguson gave an account.of the recent progress of Ceylon. The advance is the mors significant when we hear in mind the lristory of the island. Hnce after race has descended on its shore and that which has long been dominant is not aboriginal. The first known inhabitants were the Voddahs, a forest tribe, only Borne four thousand in number, who contest with the Australian blacks the reputation of being the most small-brain-ed and backward people in the world. The other race, the Slnkalwio-uf whom theeo ail- not far from two nnd-u-hn)f millions, or about throefifths of the total population—belong to Rhe same Caucasian stock as ourselves, and have held their own for nveit two thousand years against the crowds of PraMflliun Tamils und oth. er immigrants who settled in Northern and Eastern Ceylon. Thoy have retained tl'cir own language and customs. Thus, as Mr Ferguson remains, they are among the iuost> interesting of Oriental people, especially since thej were highly civilised and cnlturcd at a time when our forefathers in the United Kingdom were in a very primitive and bacftward eondition. The dark days of Ceylon began witk the arrival of the Portuguese, early in the sixteenth century, and the story of their dealings with the inhabitants is not a pleasant one. The Hutch ejected them in 1058, after about twenty yeans' fighting. Then the English acquired the islam! shortly before the close of the eighteenth century, and became itte recognised masters at the Peace o'f Amiens. Hut the native kiags were undisturbed in the mountain region until the oiifruges of one of their number led to war, and Hie general recognition of lit'itish rule. Since. Mien, witm some occasional trouble, thm ), as beni great progress, not the least important fact being iho increase of the population from less than a million, when the English acijuiied tho islund, to close on chree and threequarter m llions at the census o r 1001. Mr Ferguson, however, i.stricted himself almost wholly to events of the last eight years! corrisponding with the (J jvernoiship of Sir J. West, Ridgoway, a period of exceptional progress. * Me found two hundred and ninety-saven miles »i liailway when he arrived, ttnd left, either in working orler o.' very msar completion, five, hundred and 'sixtytwo miles. The good roads ulready existing have been improved . the Colombo harbour norks will do much to restore Ceylon to lis ancient position as the mart for goods brojgh* on the one hand from Europe, on the other from the Mulayi-.n Peninsula, the Eastern Archipelago, and even Far Cathay. Old tanks" have I *en restored, and niew irrigation channels opened—a work which haa been going on for many yeare, so that Ceylon in this respect will soon he even totter supplied than it was under Prakmma llahu, the groat tunkmaking king of the twelfth century. Hospjtals and othur public buildings havo heen erected, sanitation greatly improved, puhlic oilnctuion advanrvd, t*c wairtu lands and founts better looked after, and the success of the planting of tea t>as compensated for th« failure of oolfee. -AH this, and much mora, shows what British nule has done for Ceylon, and it is the more valuable because, the iala*<l had a uotaiWo past, which tyaa only a memory. Its kings, for fifteen hundred years, ending with tit) thirteenth etmtiurv, though somattltnes overcome by itjie Malalxtrs. ware indeed great mon, More than one writer on Ceylon has tloscrtbed Vhe marvellous rums 'that still remain half buried by vwge-tafflon, snoh as the rocjc hewn Temple of l)am,b|>ol the fontified crag of Sigiri, the fuge of the parricide King, and the stately ruins of Pollanarrua, which teptMy to the magnificence of the Kandyan Kings. Hut Temples and PalafceS, the delimit of the iloirarchs of old, -whether in India, Assyria orEgypt, arid but little to the well-be-ing of the people—indeed. ] m d the opposite effect in (he days of Solomon.