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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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Sir William Gregory, in introducing the deputation, said:-"He wished it to be distinctly understood, that, in accompanying the deputation, he was not actuated by His wish was to give effect to it, for any desire to oppose the policy of the Governor. te knew that he was most desirous of giving railway accommodation as soon as possible But it was well known that the authori- "to the large and important district of Uvah.
ties at the Colonial Office, represented by successive Secretaries of Staté, had shrunk "from the enormous expense which extension, even to Haputale, on the broad gauge principle, involved. Moreover, an extension to Haputale would not secure the traffic from a large portion of the Uvah, which would still be carried either to Kandy or to "Colombo by cart. Mr. Brown, the chairman of the large Uvah Company's estates, would inform the Under Secretary of State that such would be the result; but this traffic " was being reckoned on in the statistics which would be submitted to the home authori- "ties.
He (Sir W. Gregory) had heard that a good case was likely to be made out by the revised statistics recently prepared in Ceylon, but they must remember that in his "own time similar statistics were carefully and honestly prepared, and they brought out the result, of a return of 5 per cent. on the Matale line, and of 6 per cent. on the "extension to Uvah, but the Matale line just pays its expenses of working, and the Uvah extension gives per cent. over those expenses. It was no wonder, therefore, that successive Secretaries of State shrank from the responsibility of involving the Colony in its depressed condition from such a burden as the interest and sinking fund would be on the sum requisite for the construction of the extension to Haputale, more especially as that extension would fail to accommodate the district, and fresh "demands for a further extension of 25 miles would immediately be made.
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"It was a great mistake to suppose that the native gentlemen, representing a large "proportion of Uvah countrymen, were opposed to railway extension to Uvab. It was quite the reverse. They would assure the Secretary of State that they were of the extension if it could be effected at a moderate expense, and warm supporters " with a reasonable prospect of paying its way together with interest and sinking fund. They, the deputation, therefore urged on the Secretary of State to obtain an immediate inquiry into the working of the Darjeeling line, which had been constructed "at an expense of about 5,000/. a mile, and which accommodated fully the great "district of Darjeeling.
"He, Sir W. Gregory, had just been over it, and he had met Ceylon planters coming "from it. There was a unanimous opinion that it solved the Ceylon difficulty, and "there seemed no doubt that a similar fine could be constructed in Ceylon for the same "if not less cost."
Sir W. Gregory went into an account of the nature and expenses and capacities of the Darjeeling line, which Sir Ashley Eden had just informed him was doing its work admirably, and was paying 7 per cent.
Mr. Prestage, the constructor of the Darjeeling, would be prepared to construct a similar line to Haputale or Badulla for 5,000l. a mile, including rolling stock, stations, &c.
He, Sir W. Gregory, therefore, urged the Secretary of State to institute an inquiry into the Darjeeling system, and he suggested that the inquiry should be extended as to proper point for break of gauge, whether the existing line might not be improved by getting rid of the long and expensive deviation at Telawehelle by means of a third rail, and as to the expense of transferring goods by break of gauge.
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Mr. White followed, strongly advocating immediate inquiry, and remarking that the objection of delay which it might cause would be amply compensated for if the two foot gauge line were adopted, as it would be so soon finished from the avoidance of tunnels and heavy works.
Mr. Bois advocated inquiry.
Mr. Brown said that the important estates which he represented would not be served by the proposed extension to Haputale. Their produce would go by cart unless the line were extended to Badulla, and many other estates would be equally unaccommodated. He was strongly in favour of a line on the Darjeeling principle.
Mr. Rama Nathan will send his own observations. He vindicated himself from the charge of any factious opposition to the Bill, and expressed himself strongly against the composition of the Railway Commission appointed by the Government to obtain statistics for the Secretary of State, stating that the Commission was formed exclusively of persons who had either voted for the Bill in Council or had been strong partizans of it.
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Enclosure 2 in No. 6.
The Athenæum Club, Pall Mall, London, MY LORD,
July 7, 1886. HAVING heard recently from my constituents in Ceylon, and from the Ceylon Agricultural Association, on the subject of railway extension to Haputale, I beg leave to place on record some of the observations which I made on the 1st of June last as one of the deputation which, in the unavoidable absence of your Lordship, was received by Mr. Osborne Morgan and Sir Robert Herbert, and to add a few more remarks on the subsequent history of the question.
2. The opposition which men of light and leading among the natives of the island have raised is not against railway extension, but against extending it without regard to expenditure and the true wants of the island, and irrespective of its financial condition. The anticipations of governors and railway commissioners having been most grievously disappointed in the case of the Metale and the Nanu Oya-Nawalapitya sections, and agricultural and commercial depression continuing to be felt with increasing severity, the more thoughtful of the Ceylonese have given their best attention to the proposal of the Government. They feel that if they do not seek information themselves on the and help your Lordship in the solution of the question, they, and not the few spot, European planters who have temporarily settled in Ceylon, will be burdened in the end with a debt which, together with existing burdens, would paralyse all progress and subject them to taxation, as they have been already subjected to, during the past two years, in respect of legal proceedings, letters, and spirits. It is contended that Mr. O'Brien's estimate of 1885, and the more recent estimate of the Railway Commis- sioners of 1886, entitle the Government of Ceylon to ask your Lordship to sanction the proposed extension. It is possible the estimate may prove correct, but what confidence can we have in the labours of a Commission every member of which had already prejudged the question, and on which there was not one independent man to control the natural tendency of willing minds to jump at conclusions ? Both in my speech on the second reading of the Railway Loan Bill, and in my protest, I recommended to the Government the desirability of appointing on the Commission a native gentleman of standing, and I cannot understand why my proposal was rejected, and why partisans only should have been appointed, for the Lieutenant-Governor, the Auditor-General, and the Surveyor-General had already voted in Council in favour of the Government policy, and the opinions of Messrs. Donnall and Christie, both nominees of European planters, had been often expressed in public, and only too well known. But I submit that any estimate which is founded upon coffee produce only should be received with the utmost caution. Even Mr. Ferguson, the Editor of the "Ceylon Observer," and a very ardent advocate of the extension, concedes that coffee is on the decay. He says, Taking the extremes of the decade (1875-85), we find that plantation coffee has gone "down from 855,651 cwts. to 312,558 cwts., or 64 per cent., while the export of native "coffee last season was only 10 per cent. of what it amounted to in 1874-5. "The lamentable part about our coffee exports at present is the great decrease in "value as well as in quantity. Taking season 1878-9, for instance, when we shipped "824,500 cwts. of both kinds, the average value was probably as much as Rs. 53 per cwt., whereas we cannot put the average for the 324,000 cwts. just shipped at "more than Rs. 37.
The loss of 30 per cent. in value besides 64 per cent. Indeed the belief is widely prevalent in Ceylon that "in quantity is almost crushing." our coffee enterprise will not be sufficiently paying in the next few years to be kept alive, and that it will soon be a thing of the past.
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3. It is also widely believed, and is the opinion of Mr. Brown, the Chairman of the Uva Planters' Association, who, more than any other European, ought to know the capacities of the Haputale district, that the extension to Haputale on the proposert expenditure will not pay. That opinion he avowed to Mr. Osborne Morgan and Sir Robert Herbert on the 1st June last, when as a member of the deputation he joined with us in advocating an inquiry into the narrow gauge system. It is further believed that the Haputale district, from its dryness and deficient rain-supply, and from other causes, will not be as successful in the production of tea as the moister districts of Ceylon.
4. Soon after my opposition and that of the Sinhalese member were raised in the Legislative Council, the Ceylon Agricultural Association, which is composed of inde- pendent and representative natives of the island largely interested in its agricultural enterprise, took measures to invite a public discussion of the question, and it was unanimously resolved on the 30th January last that "in the opinion of the Association "it is inexpedient to extend the railway from Nanu-Oya to Haputale, unless further
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