This Simple Plan Might Be Adopted With Great Success With The
Powerful Brine Of The Salt Lakes, Which Might Be Pumped From Its
Present Lower Level Into Dry Reservoirs For Evaporation.
The policy of the government, however, does not tend to the
increase of any production.
It is preferred to keep up the high
rate of salt by a limited supply, which meets with immediate
demand, rather than to increase the supply for the public benefit
at a reduced rate. This is a mistaken mode of reasoning. At the
present high price the consumption of salt is extremely small, is
its rise is restricted to absolute necessaries. On the other
hand, were the supply increased at one half the present rate, the
consumption would augment in a far greater proportion, as salt
would then be used for a variety of purposes which at the present
cost is impossible, viz. For the purpose of cattle-feeding,
manures, etc., etc. In addition to this, it would vastly affect
the price of salt fish (the staple article of native
consumption), and by the reduction in cost of this commodity
there would be a corresponding extension in the trade.
The hundreds of thousands of hides which are now thrown aside to
rot uncared for would then be preserved and exported, which at
the present rate of salt is impossible. The skins of buffaloes,
oxen, deer, swine, all valuable in other parts of the world, in
Ceylon are valueless. The wild buffalo is not even skinned when
shot; he is simply opened for his marrow-bones, his tail is cut
off for soup, his brains taken out for cotelettes, and his tongue
salted.
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