0 CEYLON AND ITS ADMINISTRATION.

Councils, and those of seventeen smaller towns to Local
Boards. Provincial and District Road Committees maintain
and control the minor thoroughfares, as well as the restbouses
 or public innskept up for the convenience of travellers
at distances of 12 or 15 miles apart.
In the villages the Gansabhawas or Village Committees
play an important part, managing as they do a variety of the
tocal affairs of these little communities, such as the construcsion
 and repair of village paths and footbridges, the erection
and maintenance of village schools, the regulation of fisheries
and of the supply of water to the rice fields, and so on.
The revenue, which continues to rise by leaps and bounds,
is, in round figures, Rs. 29,400,000, or $9,800,000, to which
Customs Duties and the Government Railway contribute,
roughly, Rs. 8,000,000 apiece. The next largest contribution
 is derived from ¢ Licenses, Excise, and other Internal
Revenue,” which amounts to Rs. 6,000,000. This includes the
revenue yielded by arrack, salt, tolls, revenue stamps, and
fines. Rs. 1,700,000 is derived from Fees of Court or Office,
Payments for Specific Services, and Reimbursements, The
chief items among these are judieial stamps and warehouse
rent. The Post Office contributes Rs. 1,000,000, the sale of
Waste Land Rs. 500,000, and the sale of Government Proberty,
 principally timber, realizes about Rs. 400,000,
The larger items of public expenditure are as follows, in
round figures :—

Rs.
Public Debt «2,800,000
Pensions ... 1,250,000
Hospitals and Dispensaries
 «ee 1,290,000
Military Expenditure 2,150,000
Post and Telegraphs. 1,100,000
Public Works ... 4,300,000
The Public Debt is about Rs. 75,000,000.
The money in circulation is the Indian silver rupee, halfrupee,
 and quarter-rupee, and Ceylon subsidiary coins both
of silver and copper, and gold sovereigns which are legal
tender at the fixed rate of fifteen rupees to the sovereign.
Ceylon has its own Government currency note issue.
The principalarticles of import are rice, which is the staple
food of the people, cotton piece-goods, with which they are
clothed, salt fish, which gives a savour to their otherwise
chiefly vegetable diet, sugar, metals, and petroleum ; and
the principal articles of exports are tea, the oil and other
produce of the cocoanut tree, plumbago, cinnamon, cacao,
arecanuts, citronella oil, and rubber.