Henaratgoda still popular for outings

Saturday, 21 March 2015 00:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Colombo Terminus from where the first train took off By D.C. Ranatunga A recent newspaper report that seven railways stations are to be given a facelift brought back memories of my school-going days in the early 1950s when I travelled by train daily from Gampaha to Maradana. Not much has changed to the looks of railway stations since then. They all maintain the old colonial look which really is not a bad thing, except that today passengers expect an improved service and better facilities. The train was the most convenient and preferred form of transport at the time and as students we got concession rates. Regular passengers bought season tickets which cost much less than the daily fare.

Fort Among the stations selected for the facelift drive are ‘my station’ Gampaha and Ragama, the junction station where the main line branched off to Negombo/Puttalam. The main line in the early days referred to Colombo/Kandy line – the first to be opened with a train running on 26 April 1867 from Colombo Terminus to Kandy. The selection of Kandy was to facilitate stocks of coffee brought down to Colombo port to be dispatched to England. Kandy was the most productive coffee-growing district. The construction of the line started with Governor Sir Henry Ward cutting the first sod on 3 August 1858. The ‘Illustrated London News’ in a report published on 1 April 1865 referred to the visit of Duke of Brabant (from Belgium) to Ceylon when he was taken on a special trip along the line from Colombo to ‘Heneratgoddi’ (‘Henaratgoda’ as Gampaha was then known) and ‘Veyagoddi’ (Veyangoda). “This first trip was performed with success, to the astonishment of thousands of the natives, who watched the train as it swept gracefully long the shore of the lake, beneath the pretty bridge at Marehdahan, across the grand iron bridge which spans the River Kalamy, and over the green fields beyond, till it plunged into groves rich with tropical vegetation, and was lost to sight,” the report said. (Note how Maradana and Kelani had been spelt then.)

Henaratgoda railway station In Henry W. Cave’s ‘Ceylon along the Rail Track’ (1910), Henaratgoda is described as “a busy little town of about 5,000 inhabitants, situated amidst well-watered fields and gardens whose products are of considerable variety and importance”. Reference is also made to sticks of betel leaves amounting to twenty tons a week being sent by railway. Arecanuts, pepper, cinnamon, rubber, tea, paddy and coconuts are the other crops grown in the area. Picking the Henaratgoda Botanic Gardens (known to

day as Gampaha Gardens) as “the chief interest where some of the finest Para rubber trees in the colony” can be seen, Cave mentions that many passengers from various countries who call at the port of Colombo make a trip to Henaratgoda for the special purpose of seeing these trees. Cave refers to “the observation camp” at Ragama where planation workers arriving from India are kept under observation. He describes the operation thus: “Ceylon is dependent upon India of labour for the tea estates, involving a constant migration of Tamil coolies to the extent of about 150,000 per annum. In order that these new-comers should not import disease into the various districts in Ceylon, they are, immediately after disembarkation at Colombo, placed in quarters specially provided at the root of the breakwater. Here they are subjected to a thorough inspection, bathed and fed. Next they are entrained on the spot and conveyed to Ragama, where they are kept under observation until it is considered safe for them to proceed to their various destinations.” Mention is also made of “the famous Mahara quarries” which provided all the stone for the construction of the breakwaters and harbour works of Colombo. A branch line from Ragama led to the quarries, one of which supplied stone for protective works on the coast line and other railway requirements. At the time Cave wrote the book, there had been a station at Pettah and another at Fort. A new and spacious ‘Fort Station’ was being built amalgamating both. Meanwhile, the existing Fort station was mainly being used by the clerks of the European mercantile firms and the government offices in the Fort. It is so to this day. Once the Fort station was ready, it became the starting and termination points of the trains other than coast line trains which started and ended at Maradana. It was also a very convenient starting point for passengers from steam ships (berthed at the harbour) and visitors at the Grand Oriental Hotel (GOH) and Bristol hotels to take train to coastal towns. Pix courtesy Henry W. Cave’s ‘Ceylon along the Rail Track’ (1910)

A fascinating botanical true-romance

In her book, ‘How to see Ceylon’ (1914), Bella Sidney Woolf, sister of Leonard Woolf, relates the story of rubber in Ceylon. “The late Sir Joseph Hooker (at that time the Director of Royal Gardena, Kew) had long tried to procure living seeds of Hevea Braziliensis from the Amazon Valley, but in vain. However, in 1876, Mr. (now Sir) H.A. Wickham was commissioned by Sir Charles Markham to supply seed to the Indian Office. Mr. Wickham secured the valuable seeds, but he would never have got them home had it not been for his power of seizing opportunities. He found an ocean-going steamer abandoned on the Amazon by her supercargoes. He chartered her and brought the seeds in triumph to Kew. Ceylon was chosen as the nursery for the seedlings. They arrived – 7,000 plants – in 39 Wardian cases by the S S Duke of Devonshire in 1876. “From these historic seeds has sprung the whole of the Ceylon rubber industry, as well as a great part of that existing farther East. The monster trees at Henaratgoda today have grown from the original seedlings, and it was from them that the first rubber seeds distributed in the East were derived.” The Studio Times publication ‘Handbook for the Ceylon Traveller’ refers to one of “the most fascinating of botanical true-romances” – the smuggling of the seeds down the Amazon in bales of cotton; the intensive research for the basic technique of exploiting the tree commercially; the development of the various technological uses of the product, including the rubber tyre that made the automobile industry possible. “From these trees came the seeds dispersed throughout South-east Asia to give a dozen countries a financial mainstay, and the economic revolution that sprang from then broke forever the ruthless rule of the South American ‘rubber barons’ and made of their millionaires’ city, Manaos, with its marble pavements and gold-plate WCS, a ghost town.” One of the trees at Henaratgoda Gardens (No. 2) yielded 392 pounds of dry rubber in less than five years at a time when every aspect of growing and ‘tapping’ was still experimental. Tree No. 6 was the first to be planted.