Prt G.G.R. the chaahyille THE CEYLON JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL STUDIES Vol. 3 January — June 1960 No. 1 CONTENTS I. H. VANDENDRIESEN Some trends in the economic history of Ceylon in the “modern” period J. E. Javasuniva Some studies of early school leaving in Ceylon S. ARASARATNAM Reverend Philippus Baldacus — his pastoral work in Ceylon, 1656 — 1665 Sirim& WICKREMASINGHE Ceylon’s relations with South-East Asia with special reference to Burma Sint GUNASINGHE A Sinhalese contribution to the development of the Buddha image P. E. E. Fernando India Office Land Grant of King Kirti Srt Rajasimha D. M. KANNANGARA Formative influences in Ceylon’s banking development H. A. 1. Goonetitexe A bibliography of the Veddah: the Ceylon aboriginal Book Reviews Annual Subscription Rs. 6-00. Single Copy Rs. 3-00. Published twice a year by the Ceylon Historical and Social Studies Publications Board osTHE CEYLON JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL STUDIES EDITORIAL ADVISORS J.E, JAYASURIYA, M.A., (Lond.), A. B. Ps. $, Professor of Education, K, KULARATNAM, M.A , Ph. D. (Lond.), Docteur De L’Universite (Sciences) (Paris), Dip. Genimotogy, A.G. A. (Lond.), Dip. Geog, (Madras). Professor of Geography, W. J. F. LABROOY, B. A. (Lond.) Acting Head of the Department of History, T. NADARAJA, M. A. (Cantab). Barrister at Law , Professor of Law, S. PARANAVITANA, C, B. E., Ph. D. (Leiden), Hon. D. Litt. (Ceylon). Research Professor of Archaeology, EDITORS R. PIERIS, B, A. (Cey )., B. Sc., Ph., D. (Lond.)., formerly Head of the Department of Sociology, S. ARASARATNAM, B. A. (Coy), Ph. D. (Lond.). Lecturer in History, MANAGING EDITOR H, A. I. GOONETILEKE, B. A., Dip. Lib. (Lond.), Dip. Lib. (Madras), A.L.A. The Library, UNIVERSITY OF CEYLON, PERADENIYA. The Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies is published twice a year by The Ceylon Historical and Social Studies Publications Board. ‘The months of publication are June and December, and copies will be sent post-free to subscribers, The Journal is intended to cover the entire range of the social sciences —economics, political science, law, archaeology, history, geography, sociology, social psychology and anthropology. ‘The articles will relate mainly, but not exclusively, to Ceylon. ‘Articles, books for review, and editorial and business communications should be addressed to H. A. I. Goonetileke, Upper Hantane, University Park, Peradeniya, Ceylon. Remittances should be made payable to The Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies. Rates of subscription (inclusive of postage): Annoal—Rupees six; Twelve shillings six pence; U. S. Two dollars. Single copies— Rupees Three; Six shillings three pence; U. S. One dollar A trade discount of 20% is allowed to booksellers, All payments from foreign countries must be made by International money order, cheques payable in Ceylon currency, or with 1sh., 6d, or $0.25 cents added for collection charges. Se ae fcom THE CEYLON A JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL STUDIES Vol. 3 January - June 1960 No. 1 EDITORS RALPH PIERIS S. ARASARATNAM MANAGING EDITOR H. A. I. Goonericexe Printed at the Sithumina Printers, Kandy for The Ceylon Historical and Social Studies Publications BoardTHE CEYLON JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL STUDIES Vol, 3 I. H. VANDENDRIESEN J. E. Javasurrya S. ARASARATNAM Sirmma WICKREMASINGHE Sint GUNASINGHE P. E, E. FERNANDO. D. M. KANNANGARA H. A. I. GoonetiteKE D. P. SincHAL January - June 1960 No. CONTENTS Page Some trends in the economic history of Ceylon in the ‘modern’ period. i Some studies of early school leaving in Ceylon. 18 Reverend Philippus Baldaeus - his pastoral work in Ceylon, 1656-1665. 27 Ceylon’s relations with South-East Asia, with special reference to Burma. 38 A Sinhalese contribution to the development of the Buddha image. 59 India Office Land Grant of King Kirti Sct Rajasimha. 72 Formative influences in Ceylon’s banking development. 82 A bibliography of the Veddah : the Ceylon aboriginal. 96 BOOK REVIEWS The Annexation of Upper Burma, reviewed by S. Arasaratnam 107 G.Duncan Mrrcnete Sociology: the study of social systems, reviewed by G, Obeyesekere 108NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS I. H. VANDENRIESEN, B.A. (Cey.), Ph. D. (Lond.), Lecturer in Economic History, University of Ceylon. J. E. JAYASURIYA, M.A. (Lond.), A.B. Ps. S., Professor of Education, University of Ceylon. S, ARASARATNAM, B.A. (Cey,), Ph.D. (Lond.), Lecturer in History, University of Ceylon. SIRIMA WICKREMASINGHA, B.A. (Cey.), Ph, D, (Lond.), Lecturer in History, University of Ceylon. SIRI GUNASINGHE, B.A. (Cey.),Docteur de L’Universite (Paris), Lecturer in Sanskrit , University of Ceylon. P. E, E. FERNANDO, B.A., Ph. D. (Lond.), Lecturer in Sinhalese, University of Ceylon, D, M. KANNANGARA, B. Com., Ph.D, (Melbourne), Bank Supervision Department, Central Bank of Ceylon, H. A, I, GOONETILEKE, B.A.,, Dip. Lib. (Lond.), A.L.A., Assistant Librarian, University of Ceylon, G. OBEYESEKERE, B.A., (Cey.), M.A. (Washington), Assistant Lecturer in Sociology, University of Ceylon,SOME TRENDS IN THE’ECONOMIC HISTORY OF CEYLON IN THE ‘MODERN’ PERIOD. I, H. VANDEN DRIESEN. The Economic History of Ceylon has still to be written, written that is, in comprehensive and coherent form, tracing the thread of economic develop. ment from primitive times to the present day. The researches of innumerable students over the past half-century, however, have built up such a fund of valuable literature, that it is fast becoming possible for one to paint a broad picture of the Island’s economic history in modern times, True, the canvas is a large one, and the strokes of the brush, broad and sometimes tentative, Yet they appear to be adequate enough to portray the general lines of deve~ lopment with a fair degree of accuracy. One fact immediately becomes clear. Namely, that the dividing lines of political history, — the categorization into Dutch, Portuguese and British petiods?, has little relevance to the course of economic growth. The political historian has tended to identify the beginnings of Western rule with the dawn of the modern era, but few chroniclers of economic affairs are likely to agree with him. Effective Portuguese and Dutch sovereignty rarely extended beyond twenty miles of the Western coast, (if we exclude the region of scanty rainfallalong the Eastern sea-board, where population was sparse and agriculture comparatively undeveloped). They were content moreover within this area, to allow the machinery of Government which they found on their arrival, to continue without serious change or interference. The old feudal economy thus remained largely unchanged, and in the economic sense the years 1505 = 1796, notwithstanding the presence of the European powers, belongs properly to the realms of medieval economic history. 1, Portuguese influence in Ceylon was first felt in 1505 when Don Lorenco de Almeida established a fort and trading station at Colombo. This developed into (a) indirect rule of the maritime provinces in 1551, when a Portuguese puppet was placed on the throne, and (b) direct rule of these regions in 1597 when sovereignty was invested in the King of Portugal. The Dutch East India Company ousted the Portuguese in 1658 and exercised control over more or less the same areas until they were in turn replaced by their British counterparts in 1798. 2. $. G. Perera, “A History of Ceylon” — The Portuguese and Dutch perio P. E. Pieris, “Ceylon and the Hollanders”; P.E, Pieris, “The Dutch Power in Ceylon”; P. E. Pieris, “Ceylon and the Portuguese’’;2 I H. VANDEN DRIESEN For the first few years of British rule, administrators confined themselves to collecting revenue and farmigg out taxes in the maritime areas in much the same way as their predecessors. Such innovations as they introduced applied mainly to details of administrative procedure and routine, and did not affect the objects of government or the realms of economic policy. No fundamental changes were immediately wrought even when British power was extended to cover the entire island in 1815, and as late as the end of the third decade of the roth century, Ceylon’s economy was in the basic sense, still overwhelmingly feudal in nature.2 Into this context came the plantation, with all the suddeness of a revolu- tion. Bringing with it new modes of economic behaviour and a host of concepts foreign to the prevailing economic system, it ate quickly into the foundations of the existing structure. Capitalism had arrived, and it is with its advent that the Island’s modern economic history takes its start. A virile com- mercial agriculture soon displaced in importance the old pursuits of the people and within the short space of a few years, coffee had made itself responsible for almost a third of the government's income.? ‘The stake was large enough to render it the state’s most favoured child, In the years that followed the problems of the planter came to be regarded as synonymous with those of the country, and in the quest to solve them,-an undertaking to which the government lent its energetic support, much that was old was swept away and much that was new introduced with startling rapidity. Thus did Ceylon dance to the coffee growers’ tune for the greater part of the roth century. In the process a new economic structure began slowly to evolve. The factors of production, — land, labour and capital, took ona new meaning, roads, railways and ports appeared where there had been none before, political affairs were invested with a novel significance and class in the modern sense of the term began its slow growth. Along with these developments a money economy emerged, bringing with it a consciousness of prices, profit, wages, rent and C. R. de Silva, “Ceylon under the British occupation - 1796-1833"; Mills, “Ceylon under the British”. 2. 1 Vanden Driesen, “Coffee cultivation in Ceylon’ in ‘The Ceylon Historical Journal, II Guly 1953), pp. 31-61; and TIT (October 1953) pp. 156-172. Extensive coffee cultivation began in 1837. By 1843 ofa total revenue of £383, 118 a sumof £111,575 was gathered from sources connected with coffee. 3. 1. Vanden Driesen.— ‘Some aspects of the development of the Coffe planting Indus- try in Ceylon - 1823 - 1885" — an unpublished thesis submitted to the London School of Economics November 1954.THE ECONOMIC AISTORY OF CEYLON 3 credit, and starting off a variety of socio - economic events, the like of which the indigenous population had not encountergd in the past.t_ The Trade Cycle was one of these. Appearing for the first time (1846 - 49) in a country where responsibility for the vagaries of trade had hitherto been attributed to drought, disease and warfare, its strange impersonality and apparent independence of man’s control proved a terrible and novel experience. With a slow but inexorable power, the new forces undermined the foundations of the established economic order. The instrument of penetration,- coffee culture, embraced acre upon acre with the advance of the century, and by 1875 none could doubt that capitalism had been firmly rooted.? ‘True itis, that barely ten years later, King coffee’s reign was over, his end brought on by the insidious progress of a fungoid disease. But while he yet lay on his death-bed, the old monarch could take pride in the thought that the new economic design he had created would live on. For the end of coffee did not induce a collapse of the plantation system. The course that capitalism had taken had so entrenched it, that all that was necessary for its survival was the substitution of other commercial crops in place of the old. ‘The new products merely took over the edifice which their predecessor had created, and in the years that followed, -indeed right down to the present day, plantation agricul- ture and the cultivation of cash crops have exerted a predominant influence on the course of Ceylon’s economic development.* Here then is the first rough draft. The framework to which some details must be added, if it is to be even that merely general outline we are attempting to draw. For if the picture is to be adequate, one must at least adduce reasons for coffée’s sudden coming, indicate the main channels along which its influence flowed to erode the ancient feudal structure, and describe the results of its impact upon the country’s people. Much of this fortunately, can be done. Prior to 1834, coffee cultivation was not unknown in Ceylon,- but it was merely a minot crop haphazardly 1, R. Pieris —*Society and Ideology in Ceylon during a Time of Troubles. 1795 - 1850"- University of Ceylon Review, 1X (July, 1951), 171 - 185, IX (October, 1951), 266-279; X Ganuary, 1952), 79 - 102. 2. The area under coffee in 1875 was approximately 249,000 acres. — See the Ceylon Blue Book. 3. I Vanden Driesen. op. cit. pp. 69 - 83. 4. §, Rajaratnam.— ‘The development of Plantation Agriculture in Ceylon.” 1889 - 1931” in “Itihasaya” Vol. I, No. I.4 1. H. VANDEN DRIESEN grown in the little gardens surrounding the peasants’ homes, with a total out- put of a few thousand hundredweights per annum.1 There was little reason then to expect any radical increase in this figure. The best techniques of coffee- growing were unknown, even amongst the commercially-minded English businessmen in the colony; demand abroad stood at an_ unstimulating level, and in any case, the West India interest was strong enough to secure from the British cabinet, a tariff favourable to the import of the coffee grown on their slave worked plantations. The outlook could not possibly have been blacker 2 Yet, within three years,-by 1837, the stumbling blocks to coffee’s progress in Ceylon were completely removed. An English immigrant, Mr. R. B. Tytler brought with him knowledge of the advanced methods of cultivation practised in Jamaica; world demand for the beverage showed a prodigious increase; import duties on Ceylon and West Indian coffee were equalised, and the abolition of slavery led to the decline of the industry in Jamaica, Dominica and Guiana. The expanding market, dwindling competi tion and the introduction of the new techniques sufficed to engender an immediate interest in the potentialities of large scale cultivation. An ever increasing stream of investors ftom abroad poured into the Island, and by 1840 the tide had reached proportions large enough for contemporaries to bestow upon it the title of “the coffee mania”. i Itis from this point in history that the decay of the medieval economy becomes most apparent. The new generation of planters found themselves conftonted by an array of problems the solution of which was vital to the future of their investments. Complexities of tenure, the scarcity of land due 1. J.E, Tennent. (1860)— “Ceylon” Vol. IL. pp. 226 . 227, A Bertolacci - “Agricultural Commercial and Financial Interests of Ceylon.” p. 156; J. W. Bennet. (1843) — “Ceylon and its capabilities". p. 134,C.O. 54. 84. 23rd September. 1824; C. O. 54, 138. 28th Dezember, 1833. 2. I. Vanden Driesen. op. cit. pp. 15 - 20; C. 0. 54. 105 15th July 1829; C.O. 54. 105, 15th August, 1829, 3. Tennent. ‘Ceylon’ Vol. IL. pp. 228-229; Mills. op. cit. p. 227; Danson. - Economic and Statistical studies, pp. 205 - 205; C. Pridham (1849) An Historical Political and Statistical account of Ceylon - Vol. II p. 871. 4. Ceylon Blue Books 1834~- 1842; Ceylon Government Almanac of 1847; C. O. 54. 130. 2nd Nov. 1833; C. O. 54, 179, 9th April, 1840; C. O. 54. 71. 16th July, 1839; C. 0. 54. 189. 9th August, 1841; C. O. 54. 190. 22nd Nov. 1841; C. 0.54, 199. 18th Nov. 1842; C. O. 54, 203, 23rd March, 1843.THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF CEYLON 5 to defects in the government's land sales policy, the shortage of labour, the absence of roads, the lack of a railway, and the shyness of capital towards a new colony;— these were the questions to which the pioneers had to find ready answers. Small investors most of them, they well knew that their resoutces were too limited to allow of anything but quick success. Imbued with that desperation which the fear of impending bankruptcy so easily gives birth to, they addressed themselves to their task, with an enthusiasm which at times almost amounted to ferocity. It was in the pursuit of this object of “making good” that they transformed the character of the Island’s economy. Tt was in the demand for land that the activities of the planting fraternity found its first expression. The type of soil and climate best suited to the cultivation of coffee lay in the newly acquired districts. of the old Kandyan Kingdom. [t was in these regions that the demand for land was heaviest, and it was here also, that the planters early found themselves in conflict with the old scheme of things.? Under the Kandyan rulers there had existed a right to the periodical cultivation of forest land, technically known as chena cultivation, which had a different connotation from the term as it was unders- tood inthe remaining parts of the country. In the latter, areas previously ruled by Portugal and Holland, it had come to be admitted that all land not privately owned was the property of the Crown, and that all forests were under its exclusive control. In the Kandyan districts however, the chena consisted of portions of forest land which though not legally admitted to be the property of the individual farmer had nevertheless been periodically cultivated as a matter of custom. Upon this land the planters soon focussed their attention, For when the coffee boom got under way, it was discovered that much of what the government had previously regarded as Crown land was being claimed by the Kandyans as chena forest.” Aware of the disastrous results that this could have upon the expansion of the young and promising coffee industry, Governor Stewart Mackenzie urged the Secretary of State to deny the old rights of usage and declare that the Crown possessed ‘‘a catholic 1, Vanden Driesen. op. cit. pp. 315 - 217; Vandendriesen. ‘*Coffee Cultivation in Ceylon” in “The Ceylon Historical Journal III July, 1953, pp. 31-61. 2. Vanden Driesen. “Plantation Agriculture and Land Sales policy in Ceylon-The First Phase - 1836 - 1886 “Part I in “The University of Ceylon Review” Vol. XIV. pp. 6 - 25. 3. Vanden Driesen.— ‘Land Sales Policy and some aspects of the Problem of tenure - 1836 - 1886” - Part Il in “The University ef Ceylon Review” Vol. XV. pp. 36 - 52; chenas were lands periodically cultivated with dry grains. It may be briefly described as a system of cultivation where there was a rotation of the soil instead of a rotation of the crop; C. O. 54. 345. 29th August, 1859,6 1. -H. VANDEN DRIESEN right to all land not proven to have been granted at a former period”. ‘The Colonial Office, hesitant at first, did not withstand this pressure for long. Ordinance 9 of 1841, promulgated when the “sania” was at its height, demanded from the peasants, a legal title to possession of chena properties and though the distress of the local population found expression in open violence, the armed forces called out to restore peace, soon compelled a bitter acceptance of the new legislation.? One can do little more than regard these events as the inevitable conse- quence of the impact of a commercial agriculture upon a feudal economy. It reflects well the change in land usage, ice., the substitution of cash crops for the old food staples. The coffee growers moreover, were concerned not with subsistence but with profit; with large units, not small, and above every- thing else with outright legal ownership. These were all concepts foreign to these areas and their introduction could not but produce conflicts of a serious nature on a society which was feudal, made a fairly extravagant use of land, and grew part of its crops by means of a shifting cultivation on land it did not own in the modern sense of the term. Difficulties of this nature were in their essense very similar to those which existed in India and are still present in modern East Africa. The land problem which the development of the coffee industry created in Ceylon was thus nothing unique,-it isa common ~ place of colonial history. It was in the nature of things that a primitive economy could not of itself loosen the tie which bound the agriculturist to the soil, in order to oblige the coffee planter with the supply of labour he so sorely needed. The traditional system of service labour had been abolished in 1833,% but the expected “free market” did not immediately take its place. The peasant} indifferent still to the philosophy of money continued to cultivate his little holding, and turned a deaf ear to the offer of wages.* This was an unanticipated reaction, for the 1, C.O, 54. 171, 16th July, 1839. 2. Ibid;. C, O, 54, 178, 10th February 1840; C. O. 55. 81. 15th June 1840; C.. 54. 182, 9th December 1840; C O. 55. 81. 25th August 1841; C. O. 54. 210. 24th January 1844; C. 0, 54. 190. 15th November, 1841. 3. Mendis, G. C.—“The Colebrooke—Cameron Papers” Vol. I, pp. xxiii—xax; C. R. de Silva - op. cit. Vol. I. pp. 385-413, 4. C.O. 54, 315, 8th June, 1855; Tennent op. cit. Vol. IE. p. 233; C.O. 416, 2 Questions 28-30, Agent of Seven Korales; Ibid A 8. Q.54. Matale Agent, C.O. 54. 235, 2ist April 1847; J, Steuart - “Notes on Ceylon” p. 73; R. Pieris. - op. cit. pp, 80- 81.THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF CEYLON 7 British officials assumed that the Sinhalese would offer their services for money wages in order to “better themselves.” But that was an assumption based on experience of human behaviour in an individualistic society. In traditional Ceylon ..-.... the basic structure of the social fabric and the constitution of its ethos were such that there was no inducement for individuals to exert them- selves in accumulating wealth”? “For what should they do with more than food and raiment.”? The emergence of that cash nexus which was a prerequisite to the break up of the old economy had obviously to await the farther development of the plantation system, with the resule that the planter was obliged to look élse- where for his labour. Ie was his good fortune that cheap labour in almost unlimited quantity was available in the great neighbouring country of India where objections to working for wages no longer existed.# In the early years of the coffce era this labour atrived in Ceylon in increasing numbers, under the two-fold impetus of worsening economic conditions at home and the offer of relatively attractive wages and security of employment on the plantations.* But before long a reversal of the trend set in, when planters faced with a severe shortage of capital commenced to exploit the immigrants through the default of wages, the infliction of cruel punishments and the provision of poor housing conditions.S The annual rate of entry, which had risen from 3,814 in 1840 to 76,745 in 1844 fell back to 32,172 in 1848.6 “The treatment meted out to the coolies by theic employers, was not in every instance or in every particular, such as. humanity or even policy would have required, in order to encourage and secure a continuance of their resort to Ceylon”, was the observation of Lieutenant Governor Tennent in 1847.7 Considerations both of prudence and humanity 1. R. Pieris- op. cit. p. 177. 2, “An Historical Relation of Ceylon” - Quoted by Pieris. op cit. pp. 80-81. 3. On this early development of a labour market in India, see Vanden Driesen. “Some aspects of the development of the coffee planting industry in Ceylon ~ 1823 - 1885" - p, 179. 4. C0. 54.227. 11th November 1846; C. 0 54. 243. 25th February 1847; C.0. 54. 235. 2st April 1847, 5. CO. S4. 235. 2ist April 18475 C. O. 54. 258. 13th April 1849; C. 0.55. 89. 6th August € pe — od. cit. pp. 202 - 203; Ferguson - “Ceylon, Summary of useful information” 7. C. O. 54, 235, 21st April 1847,8 I. H. VANDEN DRIESEN | soon compelled the Government to step in and organize medical services and amenities for the immigrants at she ports of entry and round and about important planting centres. The planter himself came to see the wisdom of a more humane treatment of his labour,? and the result of this new concern, both official and private is found in the steadily mounting figures of immigrants insubsequent years, The atrivals rose to $8,276 in 1855 and to around 100,000 pet year by the end of the coffee era. This influx of workers from abroad is of uncommon significance to the economic historian. There had appeared for the first time a landless working class proper; a class tied to their employers by the cash nexus alone. Again not only was this class relationship something original, it had certain other novel characteristics as well. The new working-class was composed entirely of immigrants and opposed to a class of employers as alien as itself. Their settlement moreover took place in particular districts, i.e., those in which the estates were situated, and they lived there in the separate concentrated groups which the provision of ‘line’ accomodation forced upon them. In a sense it was very like the import of a little piece of India, with allits customs, religious beliefs and other sociological relationships. The first arrivals came with the very definite intention of returning home after a period of time. But with the passing years many decided to make Ceylon their permanent home, and as a result the Indian Tamil community numbered well over 200,000 persons by the end of the coffee era. Nearly a million strong today they comprise the second largest racial unit in the Island and, employed largely on the plantations, continue to fulfil the function for which they were first intended. Since plantation agriculture concerned itself with the market and not with subsistence, transport immediately became the pivot on which the entire economy turned, Ceylon’s system of communications thus came in the course of time, to bear the stamp imposed upon it by the needs of the coffee planter. 1. C.0.54, 227. 11th November 1846; C. O. 54. 235. 2ist April 1847; C. O. 55. 87. 18th January 1847; C. O. 55. 89. 7th August, 1847, 2. B.P. P. 1847-48. XLII p. 29; C. O. 54, 227. 11th November 1846; C.O. 54, 228. 4th November 1846. 3. Ceylon Blue Book for the relevant years. 4. Vanden Driesen. 1850- op. cit p. 183; H. C. Sirr.~ ‘Ceylon and the Cingalese” p.161; C.O, 54. 243 25th February 1847.THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF CEYLON 9 Though roads were not unknown in Ceylon prior to the coming of the British, those that existed were limited to the environs of the larger towns in the maritime provinces and to a broad track running along the coastal belt. By the beginning of the coffee era strategic and administrative considerations had led to the opening up of a few lines of communication with the interior of the country, but these were merely trunk routes and in any case too restricted in number to be of much use to the coffee grower.? With the flood of investment in the 1840's the call for roads became insistent.? The government was not in principle opposed to this demand. Road building was traditional function of the state and it was moreover, hardly logical for the government to encourage planters to take up land and then leave that land inaccessible,# But so many roads were demanded, within so short a space of time, that the financial aspect of the question soon assumed formidable proportions. On the one hand construction costs were heavy. Ceylon though only 143 miles in breadth at its widest, rises in the central districts to an clevation of over 8,000 fect. Steep inclines and generally rugged country are thus a feature of this part of the Island. It was precisely in these regions that the coffee industry came to be located. The new roads in the hill country thus abounded with sharp gradients, heavy cuttings and tortuous curves, -all of which necessitated a heavy expenditure of both time and money. The problem of maintenance soon took on an equal importance. Heavy rainfall, extreme heat, and the thin iron rimmed wheels of the carts which plied between the estates and the shipping centres, combined to destroy even the newest of road surfaces within a month or two. The annual expenditure on these items mounted at so incredible a rate - £23,147 in 1842, £35,431 in 1. Tennent, -“Ceylon” Vol. II. p. 120; Mendis, “Ceylon under the British” p. 11; C. R. de Silva. ~ op. cit. Vol. I. p. 263. 2. C. 0. 54, 92, 8th February 1826; C. 0. 54.104. 11th March 1829; C. O. 54. 127. 4th January 1833; C, O. 54. 136. 15th December 1834; C, O. 54, 27th November 1835; CO. ‘54. 142. 28th November 1835; C. O, 54. 128, 4th May 1833; C. O. 54. 135. 10th August, 1834; C, O, 54) 128. 2nd April 1833; C.O. 54 118 Ist October 1832; C, O. 54.132, 12th September 1833; C. O. 55. 75, 12th September 1833 3. C.O. 54.190. 21st October 1941. 4 C, 0, 54, 189. 9th August 1941. 5. C, O, 54, 379, Ist September 1863; C, 0. 54. 453. 9th February 1870; C. O, 54.494, 26th October 1874; C, O. 54.513. 9th June 1878,10 I. H. VANDEN DRIESEN 1844 and £64,947 in 1846, that by the latter date it accounted for over 15% of a revenue, which growing incteasingly dependent on the coffee enterprise, now tended to fluctuate with the state of the market.” And yet the planters were dissatisfied. The acreage under coffee grew faster than the roads, and bitter investors, alleging discrimination, conscious neglect, indifference and the like, launched a political movement notable for its open hostility to official policy and personnel. A worried government, saddled with the added embarrassment of the depression of 1846-49, fell back on one desperate expedient after another. Under the guise of a road tax a brief return was made to the service labour of feudal times; new methods of construction were tried out and fresh mainte- nance techniques experimented with. But all failed. It was the government's good fortune that prosperity returned early in the ‘50’s and enabled it to assuage the planting community through a heavy expenditure on transport.# One important highway however, remained in a bad condition. This was the main Kandy road which ran through the heart of the coffee region, meeting on its way a multitude of branch lines. So heavy was the volume of traffic upon it and so greatly did it increase each year, that in 1866, Governor Hercules Robinson remarked that “no merely metalled road however good the material may be, can stand the wear to which this line is subject. In actual amount it is probably far in excess of that upon any merely metalled road in England, and the effect upon the road is increased by the enormous weight, from 40 - 45 cwts- usually placed upon a single pair of wheels.” The obvious answer lay in the construction of a railway. Aware of the many advantages that would follow upon such a step, the planting community 1, Ceylon Blue Book, 2. C. 0.54 10th November 1846; C. O. 54, 238, 3rd August 1847; C. 0. 54, 247. 8th March 1848; C. O. 54, 251. 16th October 1848; C,O 54. 278. 25th March 1851; C O- 54, 301 16th September 1853; C. O. 54.309 26th September 1854; C.O. 54 314. 13th January 1855. 3. C.O.54, 248. 6th May 1848; C. O, 54. 251 13th September 1848; C O. 54, 252. 14th November 1848; C,O 54, 252, 11th December 1848; C. O. 54. 252 13th November 1848. 4, C,O. 54, 344, 4th July 1859; C, O. 54. 353, 15th June 1860; C. O. 54. 360. 7th June 1861 5. © 0. 54,415. 15h October 1866THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF CEYLON il rushed instantly to its support. The idea had in fact been mooted early, i. ce. in 1845, when it was pointed out that a railnoad would reduce transport costs and pilfering, and give greater protection from the elements to goods in transit.1 But the suggestion was then received with little enthusiasm by the government. The general revenue, depleted by the depression was in far too precarious a position for the state to offer investors the guaranteed minimum dividends they demanded. Now in the 186o’s things were different. Surplus revenues were large and the government well disposed towards the venture.® Top priority was therefore given to the railroad and by the end of 1867 the Colombo - Kandy line was ready for public use. Around this. solitary line the remaining years of the coffee era saw the growth of a substantial network. The fingers of railroad reached out to bring within their grasp the larger part of the coffee-growing regions,® giving planters the advantages they had hoped for, - particularly in the matter of transport costs, which fell rapidly by between 60% to 75%.5 It was upon transport that the government spent most lavishly in the modern period, From 1837 to 1886 roads accounted for a sum of approxi mately £5} million and railways for £ 34 million,-a total of 0} million: When this is compared with the total general revenue of nearly £40 million over the same years, the high percentage devoted to roads and railways - about 24%, provides one with a fair index to the importance the grovernment attached to the provision of transport facilities.? And this had to be. The condition of the general revenue was too intimately connected with the fortunes of coffee for official policy to have been otherwise. A mere ten years after the “mania” the industry had come to provide more than a quarter of 1, C,O, 54, 220, letter of 2nd September 1845; C. O. 54.241, 15th April 1847; C. 0. 54, 235, 16th May 1847; C, O, 54, 233, 13th February 1847; C. O, 54. 235. 7th April 1847 2. C,O, 54, 371. 8th September 1848; C. 0, 54, 315. 17th March 1855; Pridham op. cit. Vol. I. pp. 406 - 407 3, C, O. 54, 371. 29th November 1862; C. 0. 54, 374. 2nd January 1863; C. O. 54, 372, 11th September 1863 4. C, 0. 54. 427. 4th September 1867; C O. 54. 437. 14th November 1868, 5, Vanden Driesen.-op. cit. pp. 455-482; G. F. Perera.-“The Ceylon Railway’? pp. 121 - 196 6. Vanden Driesen, - op. cit p. 481 1, Ceylon Blue Book12 1. M. VANDEN DRIESEN the total revenue, -a proportion which was maintained for almost the entire coffee cra. . The improvements in communications effected during the coffee era, brought in their train most of the results traditionally associated with such a process. There was a breaking down of rural isolation, - making people more receptive to the new values and way of life which a growing commercialism gave rise to, There was a bringing together of previously self-sufficing area and a standardization of prices with in them. The country was bound together inthe political and economic senses;-made an entity as it were. and in addition linked with the outside world as part of the world market economy. The coming of road and railway tended also to lessen the importance of mere geographical contiguity. Parts of the Island (and for that matter of the world) that were geographically remote came in terms of behaviour, to be actually much closer to one another than adjoining regions, which from the historical stand point were supposed to share a larger body of common understandings. This opening up of the Island and particularly of the central region, was in marked contrast to the old policy of the Kandyans, who for strategic reasons chose to render their country as inaccessible as possible. ‘The planter of the ‘70's, riding along the Kandy highway, must have found it difficult to credit the sarcastic verse wherein a former Chief Justice of Ceylon had described the self-same journey barely two generations earlier. “Marshes and quagmires, puddles, pools and swamps, Dark matted jungles, and long plushy plains, Exhaling foetid airs and mortal damps, By Kandyan perfidy miscalled a road, Through which the luckless traveller must wade, Uncheered by sight of man or man’s abode” 2 Superimposed upon the technical problems of land, labour supply and transport was the all important question of capital investment. The danger of sinking funds ina new and comparatively unknown colony led English financial institutions to adopt a rather hesitant attitude towards Ceylon in the 1, Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences Vol. IV. p. 80 2, Sir Hardinge Gifford, Chief Justice of Ceylon - See “The Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register”, Vol X Part I. p 58THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF CEYLON 18 first decades of the roth century. ‘The early purchasers of land were thus gevernment officials and military men stationed in the island who made use of their private savings to finance their experiments? After coffee-growing was well tried and proven a sucess however, other investors began to enter the field. ‘A few were prepared to put large amounts into the enterprize but the vast majority were men of moderate means, of the category normally described as small capitalists. ‘These latter began to appear in 1840, and apparently entered the industry in considerable numbers until the price of land rose from 5 shillings the acre to 20 shillings in 1844. After that date a sum of about £3,000 was the minimum needed to set up as a planter, and though this was not an inordinately large sum, it probably closed the door to several would-be investors. Of those who did enter the industry a very big proportion must have possessed the bare minimum of capital needed, for few large estates. were opened up after that date. A survey conducted in 1875, when coffee culture was at its peak revealed that the 1351 plantations then being worked, were on an average only 356 acres in extent.? Though the company-owned estate was becoming common by the end of the third quarter of the 19th century, it is nevertheless true, that the coffee company did not at any time dominate the scene, Even in the mid 1870's individual planters looking after their own estates accounted for almost two-thirds of those in production. Out of a total of 1351 plantations, no. less than Soo were owned by individual proprietors, who in 250 instances, resided on and managed their own property. Of the remainder, 400 lived in the island, but left the running of their estates to others.* The small investers who poured into Ceylon with the coffee mania were in most cases dependent on borrowed capital, obtained through the old West India plan of “advances on crops”. By this system planters were given loans by agency houses in London or Colombo on the understanding that the agencies would have a claim on the future crops of the estate, until the debt and interest due had been paid off. Some planters it is true, started off quite independently, but a good number of them also came in time to depend on the agency. For men of limited means were often unable to weather a 3, “The Economist’ (1846) p 961. 4, Ibid; Tennent; op. cit. Vol. Il pp. 238 -243; Ferguson, - “The Ceylon Directory 1875", pp. 761 - 762 Tbid.14 I, H. VANDEN DRIESEN succession of bad scasons and when times became difficult were forced to fall back on borrowed money.2 - ‘The agency did not long remain the only source of financial accomoda- tion available to the planter. A number of banks, most of them branches of well-known foreign houses soon made their appearance in the colony, Ot these institutions, some made such heavy advances to the coffee industry, that they were unable to survive the years of the latters’ adversity, but others were more prudent, and overcoming every crisis yet continue, to contribute to the working of the country’s economic machine.? The Banks and Agency Houses, like sensitive barometers, recorded every fluctuation of the money markets abroad. The rise and fall of international business optimism was immediately transmitted to Colombo. The slump of 1846—49; the pessimism of 1866; the Great Depression of the 1870's and 80's. Each of these was faithfully reflected in the Island. In this way was Ceylon tied even more firmly to the world economy. Before he vanished from the economic scene, the planter had made a notable contribution to the political development of the country. In 1833, following a commission of inquiry a legislative council with nine official and six nominated unofficial members had been established for the first. time ® The unofficials were at the outset representative of the small mercantile body resident in Colombo, (there had not yet grown up a planting community of any importance) and were for'the most part content to accept governmental policy unquestioningly. After the “4o's however the planters began to move gradually into the political sphere and it was their achievement that within a decade they were able to. make their influence felt in the running of the colony. The political concern of the planting body was chiefly centred on demands for better road and railway transport. This was the recurrent refrain. of almost the whole period of their tenure of legislative positions. If the government 1, “The Economist” — 1846. p. 961; S. W. Baker. “Eight years in Ceylon” pp. 85-86, 2. C.O. 54, 187, 3rd February 1841; B. R. Shenoy.—‘‘Ceylon Currency and Banking” pp. 103-110; Ferguson — ‘Ceylon summary of useful Information’. 3. Mills. op. cit. p. 72; Mendis “Ceylon under the British”, pp. 12-15; C.R. de Silva, — op. cit. Vol. I. pp, 569-594; Mendis. “The Colebrooke Cameron Papers.” 4, Vanden Driesen, — op. cit, pp. 490-527.' THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF CEYLON 15 was active in the provision of new roads and in the extension of railways, harmony usually prevailed, but wheneves expenditure on these items was thought to be inadequate, a campaign for greater political power, sufficient to allow control of the budget, was immediately set on foot. The struggle for constitutional reform, so prominent in the history of 19th century Ceylon, was thus, like almost every other form of activity, strongly influenced by the needs of the coffee-planting industry. Planters and merchants for a time formed the vanguard of the movement; their enthusiasm fired, not by questions of human rights or social welfare, but by the simple practical issues important to the businessman. It follows of course that political activity of this sort; geared so closely to the state’s public expediture programme, had necessarily to be somewhat spasmodic in nature. And soit was for the first fifteen years. During that time political agitation waxed and waned with fluctuations in govern mental disbursements upon the transport system. Then in the so's there appeared on the stage a new and rising force, destined ultimately to supersede the planter on the council foor. This was the indigenous middle-class. Its political wing, largely composed of doctors, lawyers and members of the old land-owing classes, voiced the claims of Ceylonese to the plums of administra~ tive office and to a greater measure of self-government. Political apprentices of the planting representatives at first, the Ceylonese soon ontgrew their tutelage. The lessons they had learned were well used. For though the government was able to resist their demands for a season, the growing power of Ceylonese opposition was strong enough by the 2oth century to compel the Colonial Office to embark upon that seties of concessions which led eventually to full Domination Status in 1948.9 ‘The foundations which the planter Jaid were thus called on to stand their real test at a time when coffee was no more than a name in Ceylon’s economy. 1. C.O 54, 227. 10th November 1846; C. O, 54. 238, 3rd August 1847; C. 0.54. 247. 8th March 1848; C.0.54 16th October 1848; C. O. 54.278. 25th March 1851; C. O. 54, 301. 26th September 1853; C. O. 54. 367. 13th February 1862; C. 0.54, 358. 28th Jan. 1860; C. 0. 54. 351, 17th January 1859, 2, C.O 54. 374. 9th February 1863; C. O. 54. 377. 4th July 1863; C. 0. 54 378. 20th Aug. 1863; C O. 54. 385. 14th January 1864; C. 0.54 394. 30th November 1864; B. P. P. of 1867 - 68 Vol XLVIII; W Digby, “Forty years of Citizen life in Ceylon” Vol, I. pp. 322-3 & Vol. II pp, 39-49; C, O, 54,433, 2ist March 1868, 3, Mendis, “Ceylon under the British”, pp, 52-54, 105-122; I, D, 8, Weerawardana, “Government and Politics in Ceylon”,16 i. H, VANDEN DRIESEN The idea of representative government; —a seed which the coffee interest did so much to nurture, was a concept quite foreign to the Ceylonese people. But they were not slow to sec its advantages, for there are few diseases as infectious as the demands for representation and the franchise. It was the planter therefore who quite unwittingly initiated what ultimately became a popular movement for political independence. The supersession of insurrection, the old vehicle for the expression of opinion, by the voice of the people on the council floor, was thus one of the distinct and valuable contribu- tions commercial agriculture made to the moulding of a modern Ceylon. The rise and fall of coffee, the multiplicity of the problems raised during its lifetime and the variety of the solutions offered, combined to produce an impact on the indigenous population which was well-nigh revolutionary. Some of these effects have already been alluded to but numerous others quite as important, yet remain to be mentioned As early as the middle 1850's there were indications that large sections of the peasantry were becoming conscious of money, profit, markets and all that these signified. Many were now sophisticated enough in the commercial sense to notice the success attending the larger plantations, and giving up the haphazard methods of coffee cultivation previously employed, followed the examples of economy and good management set by the European planter.? This conversion to commercial agriculture was so rapid, that in the prosperous fifties and sixties, it was estimated that of the total acreage of 130,000 under coffe, about 50,000 acres belonged to the peasantry. This area is said to have accounted for 1/5 to 1/4 of the annual output and the income it brought in was put at between £250,000 and £300,000 per year.” Exemplified here is the growth of an_ attitude to economic phenomena that was previously of little importance in the peasant sector. Economic individualism was evidently growing stronger, its development hurried on by the expanding network of roads and railways; the food of money which poured in with the coffee “mania” and the settlement of thousands of wage-earning immigrant labourers in some of the most backward regions of the Island. 1, C,O. 54, 335, Sth July 1858; C. O, 54, 332, 8th January 1858, 2, C 0. 54, 328, 20th June 1856; C. O. 54, 328, 20th January 1866; Ferguson, “Ceylon in the Jubilee Year” p. 62, Ceylon Blue Book.'» THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF CEYLON 7 As the scope of economic activity increased, a considerable widening of the existing administrative structure became imperative. New posts had to be created, and many fresh depaments set up. Personel for the higher appoint- ments were normally recruited in England, but the other positions were filled from amongst the local population. A class of white-collared workers and petty officials consequently came into being;—a knowledge of English constituting their chief claim to employment Aware of the advantages of investing in the education of the younger generation, this new social category produced from its ranks, within the next twenty-five ycars,a number of professional men,~ lawyers, doctors and teachers, ~ the equal of any to be found in the West. In the meantime certain of the less conservative Ceylonese families had embarked upon commercial careers. Some became transport agents, others general merchants, and a few, growers of coffee on scientific lines. ‘They too turned early to the education of their sons, and so helped to swell the stream that flowed to Medicine, the Bar and Academic learning. OF these widely differing strands; clerk, doctor, merchant, planter and lawyer, was woven the Ceylonese middle-class. As anew phenomenon on the social scene, with economic interests and political aspirations quite unknown in the past, it constitutes one of the most outstanding characteristics of the modern period in Ceylon history. The Ceylon of 1900, with its roads and railways: its commercial agricul- ture; its growing money economy; its new classes; its political movement and its changing social and economic values, was thus almost as far removed from the Ceylon of the 1830's as that era was from the Ceylon of a thousand years earlier, ‘The new forces set in motion by the coming of capitalism had been at work for a mere seventy years, yet they had in that short time broken the fetters which had for so long trammelled economic progress. The changes they had wrought were fundamental, and it is this which justifies the economic historian’s endeavour to find for this period a distinguishing label. 1, Mendis, — op. cit. pp. 106 - 109, Mills op. cit. pp. 107 - 120, 266 ~ 271.SOME STUDIES OF EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING IN CEYLON, J. E, JAYASURIYA, The problem of the early or premature school leaver is one that has caused concern in very many countries. Almost every school system is organised on the assumption that children would spend a certain number of years at school, and from whatever angle we look at the problem, wastage is likely to occur if children do not remain at school during the period of years planned for them. We may briefly refer at this stage to three aspects of this wastage. In the first place, early leaving may cause wastage and disruption in the administrative arrangements made to accommodate and teach children at school over a definite period of years. Secondly, early leaving often interrupts the course of a child’s school career and thus prevents him or her from developing fully as an individual. Thirdly, the interruption of schooling may not be without harmful consequences from the occupational and social angle, for not only is the carly leaver often unlikely to be quite fit for the occupation which he takes on, but it is also possible that had he continued schooling he would eventually have gone into an occupation mote congenial to himself and more useful to society. Considerations such as these have made many countries take a serious view of the problem of carly leaving. It is, of course, necessary as a frst step to gather data regarding the incidence of eatly leaving. In England, the Minister of Education asked the Central Advisory Council in 1952 to undertake an inquiry into early leaving and this Council, after a survey spread over nearly two years, published its findings in a report entitled Early Leaving. In Ceylon, there has been no indication yet that the Minister of Education is interested in this particular problem, but to his credit it must be said that he has recently appointed a committee to go into an ever greater problem, namely that of children who have never been to school. ‘The studies reported in this paper represent an attempt to gather a little data about the problem of early leaving as it exists in Ceylon. These studies can be divided into two categories- In the first category are the studies carried out in three rural areas, namely the circuits of the Inspectors of Schools of Agalawatte, Kirindiwela and Rikillagaskada. Almost every school in the areas was included in the survey. In the second category area study carried out on a restricted scale in a semi urban area — Balapitiya, where this problem was studied in respect of three schools, and in a rural area — IbbagamuwaCo SOME STUDIES OF EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING IN CEYLON 19 where the problem was studied in respect of the Government Central College. I should at this stage express my thanks to Messrs D. Arampatta, K. M. Punchinilame, K. S. Palihakkara, N. H. Jinasena and D. D. K. Senanayake - all post graduate students reading for the Diploma in Education - who were responsible for collecting the data on which this paper is based. It must be stressed that the findings are necessarily tentative. They appear, however, sufficiently important and interesting to be worth reporting. Let me begin with an account of the three studies carried out at Agalawatte, Kirindiwela and Rikillagaskada. ‘The Agalawatte Inspector's circuit is situated at the extreme southern end of the Western Province, and is bounded on_ the south by the Southern Province and the south east by the Sabaragamuawa province. The area is generally hilly and has a high rainfall. Paddy is grown fairly extensively but the main cash crop is rubber. The chief occupations of the people are paddy cultivation and rubber tapping. The economic level of the average man is poor. Communications in the area are difficult because of the hilly nature of the land, Almost a third of the 66 schools in the area are not accessible by motor vehicle, and one school in fact has to be reached by walking a distance of ro miles. Of the 66 schools, 14 schools have only primary classes. There is no central school in the circuit and about a third of the schools are one teacher or two teacher schools. The Kirindiwela Inspector's circuit consists very largely of the Siyane Korale cast and is bounded on the south by the Kelaniganga and the east by the Sabaragamuwa province. It is watered by a number of tributaries of the Kelaniganga and is annually submerged in parts when the river swells during the south west monsoon rains. Paddy cultivation is the main occupation of the people. Coconut and rubber are also grown but not omas extensive a scale as paddy. The economic level of the people is poor. There are about 60 schools in the area and almost every school is accessible by car. Rikillagaskada is a junction town situated 20 miles away from Kandy, on the Kandy—Ragala road running through Hanguranketa. The Inspector's circuit covers an area of about to miles radius from this point, This region is situated on the nothern slopes of the central hills of Ceylon. It can be divided into two geographical regions, namely a western section which is a plateau and an eastern section which is the depression of the Mahaweliganga. The western section consists mainly of tea estates and the indigenous population is negligible. It is in the eastern section that the real Kandyan peasantry lives. Paddy, tobacco and vegetable crops are grown but as the area gets rain only20 J. B JAYASURIVA daring three months of the year, the yield from the land is low and the bulk of the population lives on the verge of starvations. Communications are difficult but the area is well served with schools dotted here and there. There are 4o schools but the majority are of recent origin and go back only to the days when the M. P. for the arca, Mr. M. D. Banda, was the Minister of Education Thus in the Agalawatta and Kirindiwela circuits we get two typical low country rural areas, and in the Rikillagaskada circuit a typical up country rural area. Not one of these areas has a school of the so called English type with a name and a tradition. Consequently, the more well to do inhabitants who are, of course, very small in number send their children to well established schools situated outside the area. Hence, each area caters to. the needs of a kind of residual school population only. A survey was made of all children who, having been in attendance at schools in these areas had left school during the six months 1st October 1957 to 31st March 1958 for a purpose other than continuing schooling elsewhere. In respect of every school leaver, the following information was collected. Age at admission to school: Date of leaving school: Last standard passed: If child had failed in any class during schooling, particulars of such failures: i ‘Teacher's estimate of child’s class work: Teacher's estimate of child’s participation in extra curricular activities: Teacher's estimate of interest shown by child in school work: Teacher's estimate of child’s conduct: Teacher's opinion as to whether child would have profited if child had continued schooling: ro. Father's occupation, if living: eer as 31. Mother's occupation, if living: 12, Teacher's estimate of economic condition of parents: 13. Number of siblings in the family! 14. Reasons for leaving. Teachers were asked to state, in respect of each child, not more than three reasons for the child’s leaving. ‘The following reasons were listed. (a) No higher classes in school (b) Unable to conform to the rules of the schoolSOME STUDIES OF EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING IN CEYLON al (€) Not able to profit by continuing education (@) Lack of interest in learning 3 () To help in parental occupation (€) To obtain other employment (g) Caste disabilities (h) Family breakdown (i) Death of parent ot other relative. (i) Reluctance to continue schooling for girls () Parental lack of interest in education (). Economic difficulties (m) Family become too large (0) Physical disability. 15. Who made decision that child should leave? 16. Occupation, if child is engaged in any employment: Over 95% of the schools in the arcas described above cooperated by supplying this information. ‘The studies conducted at Balapitiya and at Ibbagamuwa took a different form in the sense that instead of collecting information about those who left during a six month period, follow up information was gathered about children who had been in the sixth standard in 1953 in three schools in Balapitiya and in the Government Central College at Ibbagamuwa. In the ordinary course of events, these children should have taken up the S. S. C. in 1957 had they remained in school and not failed any classes. In the case of all these studies the subjective nature of the information called for by a good many of the questions must be borne in mind. Most of the information collected consisted of teachers’ estimates or teachers’ opinions regarding various matters. Even in regard to the reasons for leaving, the reasons given for a child’s leaving were those which the teachers thought had been operative in the case of the particular child. Elements of subjectivity and reliance on another's opinion can hardly be eliminated from a survey. of this nature, [fit had been possible to get in touch with leavers themselves ot with their parents, light might have been thrown on aspects of the problem overlooked or suppressed by teachers. There was very little direct information that came ont regarding the extent to which teachers themselves were at least partly responsible for some of the early leavers. The Balapitiya study, where a litcle information was gathered from those who had been classmates of the leavers, showed that there was at least one case of eatly leaving resulting more or less from teachers’ attitudes. There was some indirect evidence on the same