Morey to John Davis, December 11, 1883

Mr. Morey to Mr. Davis.

Sir: Adverting to the subject-matter of my dispatch No. 130, of May 11, 1881, I inclose herewith two printed copies of the speech of his excellency the governor at the opening of council last Friday, and would draw attention to the marked paragraph intimating an intention of levying a duty on kerosene oil, hitherto imported free.

I think that such a measure is to be deprecated, even from local considerations, for the product is a great boon to the natives, being by far the best and cheapest illuminator they can get, and an impost increasing its present cost will, I fear, militate against its enlarged introduction. The act would also be very unreciprocal towards the United States, for kerosene is the only American commodity comprised in the 300,000 rupees’ worth of our goods possibly consumed here yearly that is free of duty, whereas the Ceylon exports to the United States, amounting to over 2,000,000 rupees in value yearly, are all in out free list.

The value of the kerosene oil imported here last year was under 119,000 rupees, the duty upon which at 5 per cent, ad valorem, a rate analogous to that ordinarily levied here upon most goods, would therefore produce the small sum of 5,950 rupees, an amount, it strikes me, so insignificant as not to be worth the risk of interfering in such a direction with the trade, and out of all comparison with what the colony would lose were our Government to put a duty upon the 560,000 rupees’ worth of cocoanut oil alone we now take annually from Ceylon; and yet, to my knowledge, the traffic in that article at home yields so inconsiderable a profit that the imposition of any duty upon it at all in America would effectually put a stop to the trade, and thus this island would be deprived of about its best customer for so much at least as we now take of the article, a deprivation, in fact, which in these hard times would be severely felt here.

Immediately upon learning the intention of the local government to put on this duty, I wrote soliciting an interview with his excellency the governor with a view to represent these facts to him, and am assured in a letter of yesterday’s date that he will appoint a time to meet me after his levee on the 13th instant. I hope then to be able to place the matter before him in such a light as will induce a reconsideration, of the subject, and possibly an abstention from the measure, which I suppose would not have been thought of now were it not that the colony is suffering from a diminished revenue.

I am, &c.,