system of multitudinous charges, mostly excessive, every intermediate handler of the goods gets more profit out of them than the actual producer. It is gratifying to observe, too, that the quality of Ceylon products is being preserved and improved, so that their quoted value abroad generally, nearly or quite, tops the market reports. This has long been the case with coffee Arabica, and now the newly cultivated Liberian berry finds so much favor in the United States that we hear of sales being effected at 182 cents per pound, wholesale, in New York, where I suspect most of that variety grown here will be sent hereafter. MANUFACTURES. There is no advance in manufactures, even the weaving of a few cotton fabrics, such as towels, table cloths, counterpanes, and handkerchiefs formerly carried on at Jaffna and Batticaloa to some extent, having now almost entirely ceased. Some jewelry is made, and the specialties in that line, though few, are noticeable, such as the gold and silver filigree work of Jaffna, and the Ratnapura solid silver work, intricately carved by hand. The tortoise-shell ornaments are also very beautiful, likewise the hand-carved ornamentation in ivory and ebony and other hard woods. Some rough pottery is made for domestic use, but the quality is very poor indeed, and the value marvelously small; a little lace is made by hand in the villages, and hawked about the streets of the towns, among tourist visitors; likewise some very substantial palm-leaf hats, well suited to the wants of rural Americans. Household furniture, good, bad, and indifferent, some positively elegant, is produced in quantities so far exceeding the demand as to render it always cheap and abundant. Formerly a few tools were made from the excellent iron ore in the interior, smelted by charcoal; but we seldom see such articles now, those implements having been supplanted and rendered cheap by over-abundant supplies from Birmingham of a quality "almost too poor for anything." Carriage-building is largely practiced, mostly by Portuguese creoles and the Cingalese, some of the vehicles being very good and not easily distinguishable, except by adepts, from those occasionally imported from England. In most cases, however, they are "fearfully and wonderfully made," and of such excessive weight and on such small octagonal wheels as renders them so cruelly burdensome to the horses that those poor creatures seldom outlast three or four years' service, notwithstanding the level character and excellent smooth condition of the roads. Harness is also made by the same class of people who build carriages. As a rule, however, the work is poorly conceived and badly done. Accordingly, much of that article is imported from England, some especially on private account, and very good, the balance mere rubbish. Much coopering of a coarse, strong character is done, both for domestic use and in making packages to contain the coffee, oil, arrack, plumbago, &c., forming the bulk of exports, and as about 90,000 tons of those articles alone are shipped annually, some idea of the magnitude of the cooperage industry is from that fact deducible. MINES. The iron mines are now almost completely neglected; but plumbago continues to be dug up in slightly increasing quantities, and the quality is fully maintained. The total output of the mines in 1882 was 13,200 tons, worth in currency here $1,302,330, or gold, $1,041,000; 6,000 tons, valued at $318,385, gold, went to the United States, and the moiety of the balance to Great Britain. The quantity sent to America in 1881 was 8,013 tons, valued in United States gold at $641,000, an indication, on comparison with the figures of 1882, of failing consumption in that direction and a demand for inferior qualities, which is quite a new phase with respect to our consumption of this article. I estimate the value of precious stones obtained in 1882 at $1,500,000, against nearly $3,000,000 in the previous year, a falling off of about one-half in value, owing, I think, to deficiency in quality and want of sufficient capital among the gemming community for the carrying on of their operations so largely as formerly. It appears also that some of the gems sent abroad in 1881 were considerably overrated, and that many of them, being found unsalable in Europe at their locally appraised worth, were either parted with at reduced prices or returned to the exporters. Accordingly there was in 1882 a considerable quantity of returned stones (not of the best quality) in the Ceylon market, the real value of which was so much locked-up capital to the owners, whose greed for high prices resulted in greatly diminished sales and a consequent scarcity of ready money in the industry. As mentioned in my previous reports, almost none of these stones appear in the list of exports, consequent to their being sent through the parcel-post, and none of them go to America, owing to the import duty there, which must always largely militate against their introduction. Besides, there is no parcel-post direct from Ceylon to America, and the Postal Union rules disallow the transmission of dutiable articles through ordinary mails. FISHERIES. There has been no improvement in the value and importance of the fisheries, and the pearling monopoly, owing to the immature age of the oysters, yielded nothing to the Government. COMMERCE. The commerce, as tabulated in accompanying forms shows both a slight increase in the total tonnage arriving and departing and in the amount of goods carried by them, the figures being tonnage of shipping inward, 1,693,393 tons, with cargo aggregating 378,535 tons, and outward shipping, 1,588,925 tons, with cargo aggregating 105,714 tons. The wide difference between the tonnage of craft and cargo being, as I have remarked in a previous report, owing to most of the shipping being steamers en route to and from other ports, and merely calling at Ceylon for passengers or coal, or to land and ship portions of their cargoes. As will be seen by the table aforesaid, the flags of about all the western nations were represented in this commerce, that of Great Britain and her colonies largely preponderating. The United States contributed four sailing vessels, aggregating 3,249 tons, three of which, aggregating 2,000, loaded for New York, a most unprecedented occurrence in our commercial annals. TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES. There were no imports direct from America in the calendar year 1882, accordingly none appear in the tabulated reports herewith, which are necessarily made out for that period. During the fiscal year to June 30, 1883, however, now under report, the bark Chattanooga arrived from New York direct with 12,000 cases of kerosene oil for Colombo, and the balance of her cargo for the Malabar coast, which event marks another new departure in our commercial routine, and as the venture of an enterprising American, as well as from ordinary considerations, will, it is to be hoped, prove sufficiently remunerative to encourage more extended efforts in this direction. Though there were no recorded imports from our country in 1882, at least $125,000 worth of sundry products are traceable to the United States; and the amount is probably fully $150,000. Even the latter sum, however, is considerably less than in 1881, when the influx of American goods here was exceptionally large. The principal item of these imports is kerosene, $57,300, and the next largest tobacco, $39,600, the balance consisting of naval stores, salt beef and pork, clocks, cotton drills, plated ware, canned meats and fruits, the latter especially having found sufficient favor here to nearly supersede the importation of British pie fruits in bottles. The exports to America were of the declared value of $767,821, gold, being a trifle less than in 1881. They are fully set forth in the inclosed form No. 130, and plumbago and cocoanut oil are the principal items. A novel feature in this trade is the increased shipments from Galle, which, from an insignificant amount in former years, now reach the sum of $65,643, and are increasing monthly, a circumstance owing mostly, I think, to the fact that Galle, having lost most of its coaling and transit trade through Colombo having become the mail port, the people there possessing large establishments have been forced to resort to and culti vate a more legitimate local commerce to keep up their revenues. AGGREGATE TRADE. The total of imports and exports from and to all countries is fully set forth in inclosed forms Nos. 127 and 128; it amounts in value to inward $23,311,815, and outward to $18,192,718,* and Tables A and B, also inclosed, show the quantities and values from and to different countries. REVENUE AND DEBT. The revenue was 12,161,570 rupees, and the expenditure 12,494,664 rupees. The total public debt is about $10,875,000, half of which is substantially on account of railroad extensions, which I fear cannot pay more than a moderate rate of interest upon so large a sum, the repayment or recouping of the cost of construction being therefore a problem, the solving of which may perplex future administrators. POPULATION AND LABOR. The population, according to an estimate of the registrar general, to the 30th June, 1883, was 2,768,154; of whom 3,259, say 2,180 males and 1,071 females, exclusive of the military, are Europeans. This is a proportion, to my mind, considerably beyond the real capacity of the *As a matter of fact, however, the exports nearly equal the imports, as though $1,749,753 for coals and coke are recorded as imported, no account is taken in the list of exports of at least $1,000,000 worth of same which is sold and delivered on board steamers. About $2,000,000 in specie is also taken privately to India by native dealers, and there will be another $1,000,000 for precious stones, in all $4,000,000 to be added to the $18,192,718 appearing in the customs accounts; total, $22,192,178. country, especially as too many of the Europeans are non-producers, and must be supported in luxury by toilers, who themselves are generally most miserably provided for. In fact, it is said that for several years past the coolies on many coffee estates have not been properly paid even the miserable pittance of 13 cents per diem they are popularly supposed to get, having merely been given enough rice to sustain life in return for their labor; the cash value of that rice, together with a small allowance for curry stuff, being about 40 cents a head per week; less, indeed, than some people living off of the produce of cooly labor spend upon a dog. Consequently the Tamil cooly population, upon which the European planter depends for the cultivation of his acres, is in a dreadfully depressed state, and the traveler of to-day, through some parts of the central province, has his sensibilities rudely shocked by the spectacle of a woe-begone laboring population almost famine stricken. The Nan-u-oya Railroad extension, commenced by Government in 1881, has happily alleviated somewhat the distress of these poor people, in that many of them find employment in its construction. Therefore, as are lief work only, in my judgment, was its undertaking excusable, for it passes through an already well-roaded district, which cannot begin to furnish sufficient traffic to make a railroad pay, and though susceptible of cheap extension into the more rich and prosperous regions of Ouva, is nevertheless, I think, a superfluity. FORESTS. There is nothing of general interest about forests to write in addition to what appears in my last year's report. The prospective report of Mr. Vincent, therein alluded to, however, has been published, and reputedly contains much information of great value to the local government, and of possible interest to scientists; accordingly, I am sending a copy of it to the Department per book packet. BOSTON FOREIGN EXHIBITION. I regret to report that, owing to a lack of sufficiently early and definite information here about the Boston exhibition of foreign products, this island will be but poorly represented there; whereas, had the projectors of that enterprise notified us in time, no doubt a large and interesting exhibit would have gone forward; even now several people have elected to send a few articles, but unless the show is kept open considerably longer than was originally intended, they can scarcely be expected to arrive in time. Mr. Commissioner Stimson, who was here lately, has had a considerable quantity intrusted to him, upon the strength of his credentials and an assurance from him that in the event of their being too late for Boston, they will be shown at future exhibitions to be held at New York or Cincinnati, and I take the occasion to remark that if there are to be exhibitions of this sort at one or both of those places in the near hereafter, the promoters should recollect that less than six months' notice, with full particulars to this country, will not suffice for the furnishing of a creditable representative exhibit, since the transit of goods alone from here to New York, per quickest route, occupies sixty days. UNITED STATES CONSULATE, Colombo, September 30, 1883. W. MOREY, Consul. |