all the plumbago
exported from Ceylon are dug in the Kurunegala and Kalutara districts.
It was then noticed that exaggerated figures have appeared in the Blue
books as to the number, of plumbago mines in the island, from the
inclusion of abandoned pits and mere holes. While the pits opened from
first to last must amount to thousands, those being worked at any one
time may be taken at a few hundreds, from 300 to 600. Water in the soil
and from rainfall is the great difficulty. To quote :—
As
a general rule, graphite seems to exist not far from the surface, on
which its presence may be revealed through fissures, while, in regard
to this mineral as well as gold and other ores, indications in streams
guide explorers up to the including rocks, generally quartzy gneiss, in
which the mineral is embedded or diffused. Mr. De Mel tells me that
very good plumbago is often found near the surface, but that as a
general rule, the lower the digging operations go the better the
quality and the larger the quantity of the mineral. Of course, the
purer the finds are, and the larger the masses the better, but a visit
to any of the preparing yards in Colombo will show that besides the
cost of prospecting and mining and the uncertainty of ultimate
success, a good deai of expense is involved in conveying a considerable
proportion (already noticed) of extraneous matter to Colombo, there to
be hammered, cut with small axes, picked, sifted, and washed out.
Still,
with all its drawbacks, the plumbago enterprise is valuable to the
country, not only for the revenue it yields but for the generally
remunerative employment it has given to many thousands of the
population (from 15,000 to 20,000 men, women, and children, probably,
including cartmen and carpenters), especially since the period when the
collapse of the once great coffee interest led to so much distress in
the conntry. The Kurunegala Administration Report of 1873 stated that
in that district alone, the plumbago industry had given employment to
some 5,000 persons. The Galle report for 1872 estimated that each mine
required from two to eight or ten miners, and even up to fifty or
sixty, at high wages. At a period when the plumbago industry was at the
height of its prosperity, Mr. De Mel and other mine owners had almost
concluded an arrangement with Messrs. John Walker & Co. for a light
railway line from the mine region to the Government railway. Depression
in prices caused this design to jjpll through, but the day cannot be
far distant when Kurunegala at least wilfbe connected with the
Government railway system at Polgahawela, forty-five miles from
Colombo. The Western Province plumbago found in the Pasdun Korale (a
korale which is famous for the quality as well as the quantity of ore
it produces) does not come on the railway at Kalutara. Once it is
loaded in boats it comes by water all the way to Colombo.
A
return furnished by Mr. Pearce shows that nearly one-half of all the
plumbago exported from Ceylon comes on the railway at various points,
mainly at Polgahawela, the quantity so carried in 1882 being no less
than 5,64210ns.
To
show the vicissitudes of the plumbago enterprise, I may quote from the
Sabaragamuwa Report of 1873 to the effect that plumbago, which formerly
sold at R200 per ton, then realized only R90, while the working
expenses had considerably increased in consequence of the enhanced
prices of labour. It will be remembered that 1873 was the year in which
the change was made to the collection of royalty at the Custom-house,
in anticipation of which the great manufactories in Britain and America
had provided themselves with stocks of the mineral. Hence a fall in
exports and prices. Eleven years subsequently, in 1883, Ceylon sent
away her largest export of plumbago, but the depression had even then
set in, which led to greatly reduced shipments in 1884. In the one
matter of cask making, however, the increase in the export of plumbago
during the past five years must have largely filled up the void created
by the decrease in coffee. Hora, one of our most inferior timbers, can
be utilized for plumbago casks and as the casks are uniformly made to
hold a quantity somewhat over a quarter of a ton (5J cwt, nett), at)
average of
