Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/155

 RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION — JUSTICE, CRIME, ETC. 103

whom 1,096,301 were earners and 1,535,321 dependents) was returned as agriculture ; 442,011 or 107 percent. (191,130 earners, 250,881 dependents) industrial occupation ; 323,568 or 7 9 per cent. (136,259 earners, 187,309 dependents) trade.

The population on estates, mainly consisting of immigrant Tamils from Southern India, numbered, at the census of 1911, 513,467, and formed 12*5 per cent, of the total population.

Marriages registered, 1919, 18.870 1 ; births registered, 161,405 (82,464 miles and 78,941 females) ; deaths registered, 168,323.

The urban population is about 14 per cent, of the total population. The principal towns and their population (exclusive of the military, shipping, and estates), according tothecensus of 1911, are :— Colombo, 211,274 ; Galle, 39,960 ; Jaffna, 40,441 ; Kandy, 29,451.

Religion and Instruction.

The principal religious creeds were in 1919 — Buddhists, 2,S66,560; Hindus, 1,087,063 ; Mohammedans, 328,613 ; Christians, 474,060.

Buddhism in Ceylon (unlike that in Tibet, China, and Japan) is, in its philosophy, materialistic and atheistic, and in popular usage has a large ad- mixture of the doctrines and practices of popular Hinduism and of the aboriginal wild tribes.

Education is under a separate Government department with a Director, an assistant Director, an office assistant, and a staff of Inspectors.

The number of vernacular schools in 1919 was : Government schools, 884 (attendance, 97,819 boys and 32,570 girls); Aided schools, 1,855 (attendance. 129,027 boys and 78,649 girls); Unaided schools, 1,363 (28,649 .-hildren). There were also 265 English and Anglo- vernacular schools, attended by 36,376 boys and 10,512 girls.

The total sum spent by Government on vernacular education during 1918-19 was 96.153Z.

Education is free in vernacular schools, fees are charged in English schools. The Royal College and the Government Training College with the English school attached to it are Government iu-<titutions. The other English schools are grant-in-aid schools. The total grants to English schools in 1918-19 amounted to 30.345J. The Government also gives two scholarships of 2501. a year, each tenable for three years, with outfit allowances of 501. each and free passages, to enable the best two students of each year to complete their course of education in England, and other scholarships are given locally. The Cambridge school certificate examinations, and examina- tions of the London University up to and including the final bachelors degree in arts, science and law, are held annually in Ceylon by arrangement. Technical education is given in the "Technical Schools" (429 students in 1919). There are 84 industrial schools.

Justice, Crime, and Pauperism.

The law is Roman-Dutch, modified by colonial ordinances. Kandyan Law is to a certain extent in force in the Kamlyan Provinces, and special systems of personal law are recognised for the Mohammedan community, and for the Tamils of the Jaffna District. The criminal law has been codified on the principle of the Indian Penal Code. There are a Supreme Court, police courts and courts of requests, and district courts, intermediate between the latter and the Supreme Court. Village councils deal with petty offences. In 1919 the number of cases instituted in the police courts

1 This is exclusive of Mohammedan marriages, which correspond to a rate of 5'0 per 1,000 of the Mobarnmedan population : marriages in this community are seldom registered.