PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:
PENCO. 882
4PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
I AM indeed glad the Colonial Office has not disapproved of your narrow-gauge proposal for Haputali and Badulla eventually. I understand the Commission has made a very favourable report but deprecate most strongly the break of gauge. Arguments against it such as "new workshops," "extra staff," &c., &c., are used, but there is not one of them that could not be met were the report submitted to any professional engineer in favour of the change.
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They are not altogether fools; there is method in their ostensibly idiotic action. They want a railway; what for? Not to carry their produce or food both quicker and cheaper, but to lower the rate of cart hire. If Downall or any man can send his produce one cent. cheaper by cart than by railway he will, and you cannot blame him. Carts take a ton of coffee to Colombo for Rs. 42; when the railway is completed they will take it for Rs. 30. The railway to pay cannot do this if constructed or worked as a broad gauge, but it may and possibly would compete if but 1,000,000 Rs. instead of 5,000,000 Rs. were spent on its construction.
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I forgot to mention that I had heard that none of the inen at Haputali who were not of Downall's way of thinking were examined by the Commission, The Haputali man who told me was Glenny, who is no doubt opposed to the railway, as he is largely interested in cart transport, yet he was not examined. The Home Government is, therefore, not in possession of what the other side says. Nor was MacPhail, the leading and oldest planter in Hapu'ali examined, because it is known he thinks coffee is doomed and tea will not thrive there as it does where there are no months of drought as in Haputali and Abu generally. You see Mr. Cecil Smith, the new Colonial Secretary, is now in the country. I doubt much if he would support the enormous outlay recommended by the Commission if he knew more of the altered condition of things upon that side of the country. I have just been to Badulla and Haputali. I am not a planter, but I probably see more tea and coffee than any individual planter in Ceylon, and I have had charge of the planting province for eight years. If ever coffee was doomed that of Uva is; it is going, not rapidly but gradually and surely. Beware, therefore, I say of spending any more money than necessary in providing a railway for the relief of a doomed agricultural district.
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I send the "Times" of Ceylon. It contains a good letter on narrow gauge and the question generally for the relief of Uva. The writer, Atkinson, is a shrewd fellow, who holds agencies and resi·les in Kandy, and was at one time a leading man in the firm of George Wall & Co.
I have never heard any argument against the change except the usual one, viz., transferring goods; but the sooner the line from Nanoo Öya to Naualpiiyja is changed to a narrow gauge the better for the Colony. It will never pay as it is; the working expenses reach too large a sum. They would be proportionately the same possibly on a narrow gauge in some respects, but the savings in fuel, wear and tear, staff, would be enormous, and the line would be doubled without more expense than the extra cost of one new permanent way, the present ballast being fully sufficient for two lines of rail. It is said new workshops, &c. would be required at Haputali. They would be very limited indeed for a railway of 25 or 26 miles long. In the first instance temporary structures would answer; when the line goes to Badulla a permanent workshop could be established there. It would be necessary, whether the gauge was wide or narrow, Badulla being over 180 miles from Colombo by the railway trace.
No. 2.
The RIGHT HON. SIR W. H. GREGORY, K.C.M.G., to the Hon. R. H. MEADE, C.B.
Private.
MY DEAR MEADE,
Coole Park, Gort, Co. Galway, August 2, 1886.
I SEND you an extract from a letter just received from a planter in Ceylon, a very clever fellow. It is worthy of your consideration, for remember we have all our eggs in one basket now,
and if tea fails us, that is, if over-production in India, China. and Ceylon drives our plantations out of cultivation, we have nothing of any importance
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to fall back on, and whence will be derived the interest to meet heavy obligations if you at the Colonial Office allow them to be incurred.
It is idle talking and writing to persuade the world that leaf disease is dying out and that the coffee which remains will flourish. The disease is not dying out and coffee is disappearing.
It is as well you should hear the real state of the case from one who is quite disinterested except in the prosperity of Ceylon, for, of course, if disaster comes and the Colony is hard pushed to pay its way, the cry will be, "Why did the Colonial Office sanction all "this expenditure?
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I do not wish that I should be considered a croaker, so please do not mention my name, if ever you quote these opinions, either favourably or unfavourably.
Yours sincerely,
Extract.
Enclosure in No. 2.
W. H. GREGORY.
"I have had it on my mind to give you a note of warning about tea. I do not hesitate to do so, as you can take what I write just for what it is worth. What I wish to point out is that, although Ceylon will probably be the best growing tea country in the world, the future of tea is such that for years to come the profits to the planter must be very small. Ceylon tea has already fallen terribly, and at this moment it leaves no more margin than a planter has a right to expect for his risk and trouble, yet the shipments this year I do not think have touched 5,000,000 of lbs., and with the present acreage of tea cultivation in Ceylon the shipments five years hence will not be far off 50,000,000 lbs. Take into consideration that in the coffee districts of India very much the same thing is going on as in Ceylon, tea is taking the place of coffee rapidly, so that Indian exports of tea will also largely increase. Again, if there is any truth in the awakening of China to civilization, what does that mean but that the Chinese Government will look to railways for revenue instead of the present inland duties on tea, amounting to about 15 per cent., and China will be able to put tea into the market at a cheaper rate than ever. Now, on the other side, we may look for a small increase of consumption in the United Kingdom; but, if we are to depend on the British market, we must drive China out of it to make our estates pay, and bow is that to be done? There remain America and Australia.
"The fact is, that almost all tropical produce is capable, with proper cultivation, of being increased to an extent many times exceeding all possible demand; take, for instance, cinnamon, cinchona, cardamoms, sugar. I believe there is hardly a product which the British planter takes thoroughly in hand that he will not flood the market with. Cocoa- nuts and cocoa are safe, because they require such patience before you get a return that few will cultivate them, and coffee will never be really overdoue because it is a short-lived plant, subject to pests aud diseases in every country. This is a long yarn, is it not? not good for much, perhaps, but meant to impress on you that you should be chary of parting with money for erecting expensive stores and tea machinery. Make your estate pay its own way, and be as little out of pocket by it as you possibly can."
No. 3.
The RIGHT HON. SIR W. H. GREGORY, K.C.M.G., to the HoN. R. H. MEADE, C.B.
Private.
Cool Park, Gort, September 22, 1886.
MY DEAR MEADE,
I SEND you Prestage's remarks and the Director's Report of the Darjiling Line together with his letter referring to Waring's Report.
The only way to set the matter at rest will be, as you have suggested, to send out to Darjiling some competent engineer not compromised to either broad or narrow gauge, or otherwise you will have a series of statements and counter-statements going on ad infinitum.
In our recent conversation you remarked on the very doubtful item of coffee, which swells so much the statistics of the future Uvah traffic. I heard there is not a doubt but that its extinction is going on rapidly, whatever may be stated to the contrary. I doubt
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