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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
1
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH~NOT TO
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from the statement in the Blue Book despatch
for 1846, published by the House of Commons in
1847, that in 1846 it cost
For the repair and upkeep of five principal
roads, 348 miles
.Ditto ditto second class roads, 2004 miles Roads kept open and preserved from deterio-
ration, 319 iniles
£19.300
4,579
2,900
For repairs alone to roads in 1846 £26,779
There can therefore be no question that the necessity for increased expenditure on roads in the years after Mr. Austruther left the colony, arose from their utter neglect in the period immediately previous.
And as to the "something to shew," which Mr. Anstruther (7733) considers essential to gro88 justify the expenditure from a charge of " extravagance," it will be found in the following statement of the Commissioner of Roads, con- tained in the despatch which accompanied the Blue Book for 1846. (Page 225.)
In 1841 the extent of roads in Ceylon was 1572 miles. In 1946 it was 2358; 786 miles having been opened during the intervening five
years, (at an expenditure varying from 201. a mile in the low flat conntries to nearly 5001. a mile in the mountain districts;) in addition to the upkeep and repairs of all the roads in the island.
Nor was this expenditure altogether without beneficial results to the revenue, as well as to the country for the receipt of tolls which had been in
1843
1843
1844
1845
£10.988 16,580 19,983
1846 1847 1848
32,827
28,300
20,671
27.288
which fell in consequence of relieving foot passengers from toll.
As regards the expend ture for roads, I con- sider that all that has yet been done is insuffi- cient to meet the necessity of the case.
The expenditure has been every year dimi- nished since 1846, but to the manifest detriment of the colony.
In a large proportion of the island, roads are
almost unknown.
T
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In the Northern Province the vast and fertile district of the Laury and Neurakalawys, formerly a separate kingdom, and the granary of Ceylon; is almost unopened by roads of any kind, with the exception of one line; the opening of which a few years ago, almost doubled the value of the land and produse in its vicinity.
In the Eastern Province, of which the capital
is the noble seaport of Trincomalee, there is but one line of communication with the interior, and that is impassable for wheel carriages,
In the North Western Province there are vast districts almost unknown to the Europeans from the absence of roads, but capable of being made active and prosperous by their con- struction.
Mr. Anstruther, in his evidence before Lord George Bentinck's Committee (16,757), stated truly that there is "a whole district in which
a great many planters have established them- selves (as Oovah in the Central Provinces), under the firm belief that Government would make roads; but the Government has not made them,
he supposed, for want of funds, and consequently the whole outlay on those estates must be lost; as they are seventy or eighty miles from the sea, and without a road."
This is a strong but not a solitary case. The necessity for roads is known to no one better than to Mr. Anstruther, and no part of his evidence is to me more inexplicable than the consure which he has passed on the Government for its increased efforts to supply them.
Even during his recent visit to Ceylon he applied to me officially to urge the necessity of increased ontlay to complete the great road which Inada to the districts in which his own coffee estate in situated; and so far as the state of the finances permitted, Lord Torrington directed his application to be complied with.
The western, southern, and central provinces are those which have the greatest number of roads; but even these are quite insufficient for épening up the coffee and cultivable districts,
Tes auch is the annual cost for repairs owing to the violence of the tropical rains, which
Histuista fall upwards of eighty inel