TUL!
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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Nawara Eliya, April 2, 1886. Present --All the Commission.
Mr. W. T. PEARCE recalled.
Working expenses (Rs. 135,200) does not include any additional cost for working on the main line.
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The addition would be trivial. As far as up-traffic is concerned an extra engine might be required, say Rs. 19,344 from Nawalapitiya to Nanu-Oya. This calculation is based on an extra engine every working day in the year. I calculate that, without tea, there would be 24 tons a day (down) to be carried. I am quite certain that even if the down traffic is doubled I am quite satisfied that the working expenses on the main line will not be increased.
As regards the up-traffic, if the line is extended to Haputale, it can be worked as far Beyond as Nawalapitiya from Colombo without practically any increased expenditure. that station, even if an extra engine were required every week day, the expenditure would not exceed Rs. 19,344. I say this calculating for two trains a day each way between Haputale and Nanu-Oya.
Rs. 4 a mile would cover all expenses of working, supposing only the section between Haputale and Nanu-Oya is taken.
have considered that two more engines will be required.
Construction Account, page 25 Sessional Paper.-The estimate can be reduced by Rs. 126,124, only two additional engines, &c. required.
The returns (pp. 4 and 5, 1 of 1885) were simply calculated on the 50 per cent. principle, as we had no experience of actual cost of working on the extension to Nanu-Oya.
We keep one or two engines now in reserve. Our extra engine will run from Nawalapitiya to Haputale.
For the whole line the figures work out so that we may take three to one as a safe estimate of the up-traffic as compared with the down traffic.
As regards the extension, it will be a perfectly safe estimate to take two to one.
Mr. JAMES BISSET, Udahena, Upper and Lower Hockworthy, Kabragalla Kitulkelle estates, all in Haputale.
Coffee. I have 10 years' experience of Uva. My estates are chiefly producing coffee. The present prospects are very good; better than last year, and equal to the previous. It is going out to a very small extent. Where it is going out I would plant it up with tea at once if there were no financial difficulties.
HP
a road was made via Broughton Gap, I should certainly most undoubtedly use the railway, and as it is, I should very probably use it at Haputale, though there are three additional miles to the Pass.
Looking at the proposed charges at Haputale station, it would pay me undoubtedly to send my coffee and cinchona by that route.
Manure.-I do not use manure; the cost is prohibitive. If I could get it at the top of the Pass at Rs. 18.10 I should certainly use manure, as much as I could afford.
In 1878 I got some manure. It cost Rs. 60, and it was seven months on the road. The cartmen got better terms, and threw my manure into a cattle shed, and it took the police a long time to recover it.
In 1878 I suffered very severely from the murrain among cattle, and the Halpe slip. Rice went up from Rs. 4 to Rs. 6.50 in one week. I fed my coolies by buying paddy in
There was a the villages, and Indian corn.
good deal of distress.
Last year there was also murrain. Cart hire went up 25 per cent. It lasted for about four months.
The prospects in the district generally are undoubtedly much better, judging from the appearance of the coffee. If we get good seasons the average of the past years will be made Any falling off will be more than made up by tea and cinchona.
I attribute the short crops for 1881-84 to bad seasons and leaf disease. Leaf disease
has certainly been less this season than for some years past.
The oldest coffee I have is about 22 years. It is some of my best.
an acre from the best.
I do not think that black bug is extending, or is likely to increase.
so in the last four or five years.
I expect 10 cwt.
It has not done
Coffee deteriorates very much in value on the long journey down now, and this would have a greater effect on my arrangements than the question of cost.
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I estimate the loss now sustained at 10s. a cwt., without calculating loss of interest, which is a loss of 2 per cent. This latter is owing to the fact that carts were not to be had to get rapid transport.
If a cartman offered to take my coffee at a nominal rate I would not employ him if I could use the railway.
Cinchona.-My cinchona is from 10 years old downwards. I am not extending that
cultivation.
I do not think that the amount of bark obtained last year will be maintained for four
or five years. Probably there will be the same amount for the next two years.
I think that cinchoua will give way to tea.
I do not think that cinchona can be looked upon as a product that can be relied on for railway revenue. That applies to Haputale only.
Tea.-(1.) I only know Haputale.
(2.) From 1,200 to 5,000 ft.
(3.) Very favourable.
I have planted tea on the Kandy side.
The tea I have planted in Haputale 15 months is better than that I planted in Kotmalie four years ago, but the former, planted on a cinchona clearing, was younger soil. I have visited other tea estates on the Kandy side. Growth for age in Haputale is better than anything I have seen on the Kandy side. I attribute that to soil.
(4.) From 300 to 500 lbs. an acre is a safe estimate. Haputale is eminently a leaf- producing district.
(5.) No data.
(6.) No experience. I have heard from competent authority that it requires double
the amount..
(7.) Only a little of the patanas in Uva are favourable for tea.
(8.) I consider the railway an absolute necessity for the profitable cultivation of tea.
We labour under a great disadvantage, as fuel will have to be brought up.
the railway we may make two ends meet, but we shall not make a profit.
Without
The patanas might be planted for fuel. Gonamatava has five or six acres planted this year which is well established. A great deal more has been planted. It is the blue gum.
Grazing. Some of the patanas are very suitable for grazing cattle. I do not think that the opening of the railway would increase the stock.
If the railway was opened, I believe that there is a good deal of land in private hands which would be cultivated. There is also a good deal of land belonging to Government which is suitable for cultivation.
I do not think that the carts can charge less than they are now charging. I say this
after 15 years' experience.
C. S. ARMSTRONG, Esq., Rookwood, Deltota.
I do not know Uva, but the district of Maturata fairly represents it.
I have 21 years' experience of Ceylon. For 14 years I have been engaged in tes planting.
The oldest tea in the island was planted 1865-66. Twenty-one acres were planted in Loolecondura. It is now doing very well, and stands at the head of the market. It is grown at 5,000 feet.
The extension of the cultivation has been retarded only because every attention was given to coffee, and also because it was supposed that there was some secrecy in making tea.
At present prices tea pays better than coffee ever did pay.
If you once strike your average into tea it will pay. I believe it to be more reliable than coffee.
Put the coffee now bearing 5 cwt. as compared with 400 lb. an acre of tea.
Profit per acre of tee is Rs. 80; that is the lowest which my experience would put it on.
I know of no land where coffee gave 5 cwt, an acre that will not produce 400 lbs.
An acre.
Tea has replaced coffee at high altitudes, and where the coffee has never paid, tea has produced 400 lbs. an acre.
My experience of tea is at elevations from 5,000 to 5,800 feet. I have a general experience from the lowest elevations.
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