While fresh from the subject of government mismanagement, let us
turn our eyes in the direction of one of those natural resources
of wealth for which Ceylon has ever been renowned - the "pearl
fishery." This was the goose which laid the golden egg, and Sir
W. Horton, when governor of Ceylon, was the man who killed the
goose.
Here was another fatal instance of the effects of a five years'
term of governorship.
It was the last year of his term, and he wished to prove to the
Colonial Office that "his talent" had not been laid up in a
napkin, but that he bad left the colony with an excess of income
over expenditure. To obtain this income he fished up all the
oysters, ruined the fishery in consequence; and from that day to
the present time it has been unproductive.
This is a serious loss of income to the colony, and great doubts
are entertained as to the probability, of the oyster-banks ever
recovering their fertility.
Nothing can exceed the desolation of the coast in the
neighborhood of the pearl-banks. For many miles the shore is a
barren waste of low sandy ground, covered for the most part with
scrubby, thorny jungle, diversified by glades of stunted herbage.
Not a hill is to be seen as far as the eye can reach.
Pages:
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356