PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
116
given me from other districts as to the crops of 1873 and 1883, respectively. The omission of this information was suggestive, and provoked remark. On the return to Ceylon of the leading planters of Haputalé then absent, I obtained from my Report of 1884 the undoubtedly correct statement that the yield per acre of coffee in Haputalé had fallen from 11 cwt. to 4 cwt. per acre. Sir A. Gordon cannot but be aware that Haputalé, as a coffee district, was "a highly favoured and exceptional spot"; that it was as such that I was speaking of it; and that I did not write of a yield of 11 cwt. per acre in Uva, save in that exceptionally fine part of it known as Haputalé, which has been the last to succumb to the disease and decay which have ruined the coffee interest in Ceylon. There was, therefore, nothing "fallacious and roisleading" in any statement of mine.
The error consisted in treating a statement, respecting Haputalé ouly, as applying to Uva generally; and it was "for the whole of Uva," and not for Haputalé, that an average yield of 5 cwt. per acre of clean coffee was allowed in 1874 (see Sessional Paper No. II. of 1874). The Railway Enquiry Commission of 1874 reported: "In the calculations for traffic, 5 cwt. of clean coffee per acre have been "allowed for Uva and Uda Pussellawa, and 4 cwt. per acre for the other districts," but in the preliminary report of that Commission in 1872, 6 cwt, per acre was taken for the calculations of traffic (see Sessional Paper IX. of 1872, para. 4). It is not here necessary to do more than show that a statement referring to Haputalé alone has been erroneously applied to Uva; while another statement referring to Uva generally, bas been erroneously quoted above as if it applied to Haputalé specially. The altered rate of yield from 6 cwt. to 5 cwt. and 4 cwt. calls for no further notice than to refer to Sir Wm. Gregory's warnings as to the value to be attached to the statistics of Railway Commissions (see Enclosure of Earl Granville's Despatch, Ceylon, No, 207, of 3rd August 1886).*
J. F. DICKSON,
Singapore, 20th December 1886.
No. 21.
The RIGHT HON. SIB H. T. HOLLAND, BART., G.C.M.G., M.P., to GOVERNOR THE HON. SIE A. H. GORDON, G.C.M.G.
(No. 18.)
SIR,
Downing Street, February 4, 1887. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch, No. 2, of the 3rd ultimo, transmitting a memorial from the Ceylon Agricultural Association on the subject of railway extension to Badulla, and to refer you to my predecessor's Despatches, No. 10, of the 7th ultimo, and No. 15, of the 10th ultino.‡
I have, &c. Sir A. Gordon.
(Signed)
No. 22.
H. T. HOLLAND,
The RIGHT HON. SIB H. T. HOLLAND, BART., G.C.M.G., M.P., to GoVERNOR the HON. SIR A. H. GORDON, G.C.M.G.
No. 49.
Downing Street, March 2, 1887.
SIR,
WITH reference to the sixth paragraph of my predecessor's Despatch No. 10, of 7th January last,§ I have the honour to forward for your information copy of a further report from the Consulting Engineer as to the cost of the proposed railway extension to Haputale.
Sir A. Gordon.
I have, &c. (Signed)
H. T. HOLLAND.
• No. 6.
↑ No. 19.
Nos. 15 and 17.
$ No. 15.
117
Enclosure in No. 22.
Sir CHARLES HUTTON GREGORY to CROWN AGENTS.
Ceylon Government Railways, Haputale Extension. GENTLEMEN,
2, Delabay Street, February 24, 1887. (1.) In my report of November 23rd 1886, I stated that my estimate for the construction and equipment of the Haputale Extension amounted to Rupees 6,843,827, on the assumption that the works of construction would be carried out by contract, as on the extension to Nanu Oya. I have now the honour to give you some explanation of the means by which I arrived at that figure.
2. Mr. Waring's report of May 25, 1885, pointed out that his Estimate No. 4 contained in a letter dated April 7, 1884, differed from previous estimates from the fact of its having been based on the Schedule prices which made up the amount of Messrs. Thomas Nowell and Co.'s Contract, while his revised estimate of May 1886 was based partly upon a revision of the works of art after more careful consideration of local requirements, and partly upon alterations explained at length in his report of the 25th May 1885.
3. I think it may be assumed that the prices in the contract of Messrs. Thomas Nowell and Co. were on the whole remunerative, and that they will be applicable to a fresh contract, and that the alterations arising from the revision of the works of art above named may properly be adopted, and I much regret that I cannot follow Mr. Waring in all the modifications which have been made in his last estimate; but while I feel great confidence in his engineering ability, ripened as it has been by his long experience in Ceylon, and supported by great exactuess in all his work, I have felt it my duty to look with great caution upon any proposed economies which might not be realized, and to avoid, as far as possible, the chance of future disappointment by a liberal allowance for contingencies, which even high practical knowledge cannot always anticipate.
4. The most important saving contemplated by Mr. Waring is to be found in the reduction of the formation width for cuttings and embankments, and consequent decrease in the length of the culverts, and in the diminution of the quantity of ballast.
In support of this important economy, he quotes several cases on other railways in which a less formation width may be seen, and emphatically points to the much less annual amount of rainfall in the district to be traversed by this extension, than in the district leading up to it.
On the other hand, the dimensions adopted on the Indian State Railways, the Madras Railway, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, and others that might be named, would not support any diminution in the formation width, but rather the reverse, and the large proportion of curves, some of them of a very short radius, and on steep gradients, would, I think, render any diminution of ballast a measure attended with some risk as diminishing the stability of the line of railway. It must be remembered that, although the total rainfall is less along the district in question than on the Nanu Oya Line, there are frequent rain storms of great severity, which might not only disturb the ballast, but bring down heavy slips, either of which, in a country of such a rough and precipitous character, might lead to dangers of a most serious nature. After long and careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that it would not be prudent to depart from the dimensions adopted on the Nanu Oya Line,
5. The amount which would have to be added to Mr. Waring's estimate for reverting
to the original dimensions of earthwork, culverts, and ballast, and the consequent raising of station platforms, would be Rupees 189,861.
6. I do not find in Mr. Waring's estimate any provision for additions to workshops, for which I set down Rupees 50,000,
7. In Mr. Waring's fast Estimate I find put down for contingencies in Schedule No. 1. L., Reserve Quantities, Rupees 83,250, and in Schedule No. 2. Z., contingencies, Rupees 75,000, the two amounting to Rupees 158,250, I propose to bring the allowance for contingencies up to Rupees 488,517 which would involve an addition to Mr. Waring's Estimate of Rupees 330,267.
8. The additions contemplated in the last three paragraphs amount to Rupees 570,128, but from this must be deducted, in order to show the total cost of construction and equipment, the sum of Rupees 76,200 which appears in Mr. Waring's Estimate Schedule No. 1, M, for maintenance, which would reduce the total amount of additions to Rupees 493,928, and this sum added to Mr. Waring's Estimate for the line if made by contract of Rupees 6,349,899 produces my estimate of Rupees 6,843,829 for the total
cost of construction.
¡ 18328.
R