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TREENICO. 882
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Sea side, working expenses per mile, Rs. 7,270; also a good deal of substitution of rails and sleepers.
Matale
Rs. 3,718 per mile
19
Rs. 4,767
39
Nawalapitiya Branch, Rs. 7,761
Nanu-Oya
11
Total, Rs. 35,079 per mile.
Mean, Rs. 7,000 per mile throughout the whole system.
Slip. Increased traffic.
Steel for iron rails.
There will be less wear and tear the higher we go; only two trains a day.
Steel rails have been laid from Nawalapitiya to Nanu-Oya. We may take Rs. 7,000 as the working expense, up and down, of the extension to Haputale. Indeed, Rs. 6,000 could, I believe, cover the expenses, or at 25 miles = Rs. 150,000.
There are three trains a day on the Nanu-Oya Extension. There are only to be two to Haputale.
On further calculations and consideration the rate for working expenses taken at Rs. 8,000 a mile is sufficient to cover the additional cost of running over the main line. This is borne out by calculation on a separate basis, viz., actual cost per mile open of the Nanu-Oya Extension which is Rs. 5,000. Apply this to the Haputale Extension which on a mileage of 25 miles gives a result of Rs. 125,000; to this being added Rs. 75,000, an outside estimate for the entire cost of carrying the traffic from Nanu-Oya to Colombo and vice versa.
The proposed engine shed at Pattupola will not be required. The cost is about Rs. 6,000.
Looking to the revised estimates of the amount of traffic, and taking it at 60 tons a day for 311 days in the year, seeing that sometimes more than 60 tons a day would have to be carried, four locomotives should be provided. (Sessional Paper XI. of 1885, p. 25.)
The total reduction on my estimate of Rs. 303,644 should be by Rs. 46,124.
Nuwara Eliya, 17th April 1886.
Present:-All the Commission.
Mr. PEARCE examined as to working expenses. Report revised and approved.
No. 4.
GOVERNOR THE HON. SIR A. H. GORDON, G.C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL GRANVILLE, K.G. (Received July 26, 1886.)
The Pavilion, Kandy, June 23, 1886.
No. 258. MY LORD,
DURING the last session of the Colonial Legislature, it was thought by myself and by the members of the Legislative Council generally, that, in the event of the hesitation of Her Majesty's Government to sanction the proposed extension of the railway to Haputalé being overcome by the representations about to be laid before it, on the conclusion of the inquiries of the railway comunission, it would be very desirable that this Government should be in a position which would enable it to commence the work immediately on the receipt of intelligence that the consent of Her Majesty's Govern- ment to its construction had been obtained. Great delays in gratifying the hopes and wishes of those interested in the enterprise had already taken place, and it was felt that every moment saved would be of importance to those whose future prospects largely depended on the early opening of railway communication eastwards.
2. It was therefore deemed expedient to pass an ordinance authorizing the raising of a loan of 550,000l. for railway purposes, but with a clause rendering the measure inoperative until Her Majesty's express confirmation of it had been formally notified.
3. I have the honour herewith to transmit this ordinance (No. 2 of 1886), " to raise a loan of 550,0001. sterling for the construction of lines of railway from Nánu-oya to Haputalé, and from Kalutara to Bentota; " and should the arguments contained in
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the railway commissioner's report, and in my despatch, No. 257, of this day's date,* have convinced your Lordship that the work of extension may now with safety be commenced, I would request that it may be humbly submitted to the Queen for Her Majesty's gracious allowance and confirmation. Although half the year has now passed away, many preliminaries might still, if this ordinance be sanctioned, be got through before it closes, which otherwise would have to be deferred until 1887, and the necessity for the arrangement of which would probably delay yet further the actual commencement of any active operations on the line. Should it, however, unfortunately be the case that the doubts entertained by Sir F. Stanley are shared by your Lordship, and that, notwithstanding the explanations afforded, you are equally with him unable to assent to the proposals of this Government, the ordinance will remain, as it now is, a dead letter, and absolutely inoperative. I enclose the usual certificate of the Attorney- General. I also enclose the protest of two members of the Legislature against the passing of the ordinance, chiefly on the ground that, until a commission of inquiry had reported, such legislation was premature.
4. I had the best possible reasons to suppose that this ordinance would be adopted with one voice by the Legislature, and had received the assurance of the senior unofficial member of the council to that effect, after personal conference on his part with, I believe, all his colleagues. I was, therefore, unprepared to find the measure, on its second reading, opposed by Mr. Ráma-Náthan, the Tamil Member of Council, who had up till that time been an earnest advocate of railway extension, and had taken an active part, both as a member of the Select Committee at the Council Board, in the rejection of the scheme for the fortification of Colombo, on the express ground that railway extension should take precedence of all other works.
5. will not now enter into any consideration of the reasons which have induced, or may have induced, Mr. Ráma-Náthan to doubt the accuracy of his former views. It is, however, to be remarked that he has not in his speeches adopted an attitude of hostility to the extension scheme, but merely pleads that further information should be obtained before a decision is arrived at. In short, he takes up precisely the same position as Sir F. Stanley, and requires that more complete evidence of the paying nature of the enterprise should be afforded before action is taken. On this ground he opposed the ordinance as premature, and asked that the question should be, not abandoned, but postponed. It is, therefore, not impossible that the facts, figures, and arguments of the railway commission may supply him with sufficient materials for arriving at a more decided and more favourable conclusion; and should your Lordship happily be convinced that the wishes of this Government and Legislature may now be safely complied with, I shall entertain sanguine hopes that Mr. Rána-Náthan will find the representations which have been made, equally efficacious in convincing him. Mr. De Alwis, the Sinhalese Member of Council, followed, as he almost invariably does, the line taken by his Tamil colleague.
6. A similar course has also been adopted by the Ceylon Agricultural Association, and I have the bonour to enclose a memorial addressed to your Lordship by that body, recommending extension of the railway at Bentota, but depreciating extension towards Badulla.
7. In my Despatch, No. 163, of the 13th April 1885,† I explained the composition and character of this society, and how little it merited its title, or any serious attention as a body really representative of Sinhalese agriculture.
8. But, setting aside any considerations as to the composition of the Association from which it emanates, and looking only to the memorial itself, I am disposed to charac- terise it as one of the most flimsy productions which I have ever, been requested to submit to a Secretary of State for the Colonies.
9. It starts with an expression of belief that an extension of the coast line of railway from Kalutara to Bentots would prove to be both a profitable and beneficial undertaking. As the chairman and most of the members of the Association are intimately acquainted with the district (in which many of them reside), their opinion upon this subject is undoubtedly entitled to weight, and I am glad to perceive that it is in entire accordance with my own.
10. In the next paragraph the memorialists speak of the necessity for revising estimates of traffic and produce made many years ago. Here, too, I perfectly agree with them, but it is curious that they should have been unaware that a commission had been appointed for this very purpose, a month before the date of their memorial,
11. The fourth paragraph contains nearly as many inaccuracies as lines. It is not the case that the receipts of the Colonial exchequer have during the last year “scarcely
↑ Not printed.
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