NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETING
The first General Meeting of the Ceylon Society of Australia for 2012 will take place on Sunday 19 February 2012 commencing at 6.30 pm at the Pennant Hills Community Centre, Ramsay Road, Pennant Hills, NSW 2120. Please note the new venue. Ramsay Road is off Yarrara Road and the venue is opposite the Pennant Hills Railway Station. Members and their Guests are welcome.
AGENDA
1. Apologies
2. Dr Rajpal De Silva will speak on the topic of Poetical Sketches of the Interior of Ceylon by Benjamin Bailey, 1841.
Dr De Silva has reproduced in full this manuscript which has 200 odd sonnets and verses together with accompanying notes compiled between 1832 and 1834, when Bailey travelled round the island on horseback, following the death of his wife soon after his arrival in Ceylon. His ‘versifying’ is full of the solace he derived from the beauty of Sri Lanka’s natural vistas and scenery that he encountered.
Additionally, the book will include a comprehensive ‘Introduction’ by Dr de Silva which deals with Bailey’s appointment as Senior Colonial Chaplain in 1832 and later as the third Archdeacon of Colombo; his friendship with John Keats, the Romantic poet; his other ecclesiastical appointments; his marriage; and, the reasons for his eventual dismissal from Ceylon’s clerical establishment and repatriation to England in 1852 and his death in 1853.
Dr De Silva is a medical practitioner based in the UK since 1964. During these years he has had the opportunity to pursue his interests in Sri Lankan history and antiquarian art, especially for prints, engravings and watercolour drawings. He has published three books; ‘Early prints of Ceylon’, ‘Illustrations and Views of Dutch Ceylon’ and ‘19th Century Newspaper Engravings of Ceylon’.
3. Thiru Arumugam will speak on the topic of A River for Jaffna.
Adequate fresh water is a perennial problem in the Jaffna Penninsula. The first recorded observation about solving this problem was made by the Dutch Engineer, Captain Hendrile van Reede, nearly 350 years ago. Construction work on the River for Jaffna project which involves converting the three saline lagoons in Jaffna (Vadamarchchi, Upparu and Elephant Pass) into fresh water lagoons commenced in the 1950s but was never completed as funds ran out and the work done fell into disuse. This project has now been taken up again for construction very recently.
Thiru Arumugam is a Chartered Water and Environmental Engineer who worked for many years with a firm of Consulting Engineers who are the global leaders in the field of wet infrastructure and water engineering. He is the prime author of the book Science and Civilization in Sri Lanka, Volume 4 Part 1, D J Wimalasurendra and the history of the Laxapana Hydro-electric Scheme. He has also written a book titled Nineteenth century American Medical Missionaries in Jaffna, Ceylon.
4. Social
NOTE: After a brief discussion period, the usual Social will be the next item on the agenda. Those who are able to, are please requested to bring a plate of non-sweet savoury finger-food. Please avoid cakes with icing as the general preference is for plain cakes, sandwiches and savoury pastries. To avoid duplication of items, please contact our Social Convener, Chandra Senaratne on (02) 9872 6826 . A donation to CSA to help defray meeting costs, which could be made at the meeting, is an alternative.
Thiru Arumugam
Hony Secretary CSA
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