V
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TLC.O. 882
8 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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4. I have not, therefore, considered it wise to incur the expense of transferring to Government a form of transport which the estates will certainly utilise whenever and wherever that can be done with advantage.
I have, &c.,
GRAHAM BOWER, Administering the Government.
Enclosure 1 in No. 201.
GENERAL Manager of RAILWAYS to COLONIAL SECRETARY. (G.M. No. 1041/411.)
July 13, 1904. Referring to the enclosed paper, the following figures are correct as far as I have been able to calculate, with the short time at my disposal :-
A traction engine and two trailers cost Rs. 20,000; can haul in a day a Cost distance of 6 miles 40 tons of canes. The cost will be Rs. 40, or R. 1 a ton. of repairs to engine and trucks, say, Rs. 2,000 a year. Cost of repairs to roads, I cannot say, but will come up to a large figure.
An automobile, cost Rs. 14,000, will carry 20 tons 6 miles in a day. Cost, Rs. 25, about, or Rs. 1.25 a ton.
I understand the cost of maintenance of these engines is very heavy. They also require good roads, but the cost of road repair would probably be less than in the case of traction engines.
A loco engine of nine tons on the Bois Cheri line could-with sufficient wagons and no delays to them from loading or unloading-haul with great ease 180 tons a distance of 6 miles. Cost, Rs. 25, exclusive of road repair and station staff and repairs to engine and wagons.
One engine and 40 wagons would cost Rs. 20,000. Cost of repairs and depre- ciation, 10 per cent,, or Rs. 2,000 a year. Repairs to road, including renewal of permanent way when needed, Rs. 4,500 a year.
Cost of station staff Rs. 1,200 a year. Total cost, exclusive of running expenses, Rs. 7,700, or Rs. 25, about, per working day (300 in the year), total cost to haul '180 tons Rs. 50, or 28 cents a ton, about.
Of course the tramway line can best be counted on as a permanency. Except in very special circumstances, a tramway or railway is far the cheapest means of conveyance; the eagerness with which the inhabitants of Black River— even those who own automobiles or traction engines-are waiting for the comple- tion of the railway is ample proof of that.
L. EMILE PITOT,
General Manager.
Enclosure 2 in No. 201. SURVEYOR-GENERAL to COLONIAL SECRETARY.
His Honour the Officer Administering the Governmen. has asked me to supply him with a report on the cost of steam traction on roads, as compared with steam traction on rails.
As I understand that the General Manager of Railways has been asked for a similar report, I have agreed with him that he will supply complete information as regards steam traction on rails, on which he has more precise data than I can have, and that I will deal fully with the question of steam traction on roads, the public roads being under my control, and no traction engine being worked on the same without my permission.
2. It may be taken as an approximate guide that a traction engine weighs about one ton per nominal horse power, and that when the gradients do not exceed 5 per cent., it will draw on a good road twice its own weight, or three times its weight on a level, but much depends on the condition of the roads, at a speed of about five miles per hour. At that speed a locomotive on rails will haul over twenty times its weight on a level line, the locomotive weighing, say, 15 tons.
The material with which our roads are maintained is not the same everywhere. Where we can get hard, basaltic stones at hand we spend about Rs. 385 per mile per
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annum to maintain a road on which there is no traction-engine traffic, and Rs. 720, or nearly one hundred per cent. more where traction engines are worked. Where we can only get friable stones, they are easily crushed to dust by traction engines. The cost of maintaining the road is then so much as Rs. 1,000 per mile per annum. Now, our macadam for traction-engine roads must be three inches, and we must have a layer of six inches, at least, over the road, with this result, that where the macadam has just been laid and the gradient is steep it is very hard for a traction engine to pass over it in hauling up its loaded trucks. Now, our wooden bridges cannot be loaded with more than fifteen tons per span, which compels the traction engine to pass first and draw its trucks afterwards. The result is a considerable loss of time. Traction engines are, for the reasons I have enumerated, only used in Mauritius where no other system of traction is available. Before the surra epidemic they were only used for drawing heavy loads like machinery. In the district of Black River, where we are constructing a railway line, there are two traction engines and one heavy automobile. The owners are going to give up using them and having recourse to the railway.
3. As regards the cost of haulage, I will take as an example the best traction engine we have in Mauritius, that of the Estate Tamarin, in the Black River district. It weighs fifteen tons, and plies between Tamarin Mill and Petite Rivière Station, a distance of about ten miles. The difference of altitude between the two points is only 230 feet, but the engine has to go up hills to the station, and there are several ups and downs on the way. One hill has a gradient of seven per cent. The road is one of the best in the island. The traction engine cannot make more than one trip a day, drawing up about twenty tons cf sugar, at most. The cost of haulage is about one rupee per ton, or ten cents per ton mile, exclusive of the interest on the cost of the engine and of wear and tear. Now, the wear and tear is consider- able. Accidents to the engine happen frequently. It is not exaggerated to say that such a traction engine, which has cost, with its three trucks, delivered in Mauritius, £1,100, will cost as much for its upkeep and renewals in five or six years. As regards heavy automobiles, they cannot be depended upon, they break down constantly. The Manager of Medine has informed me that his automobile, which was bought for Rs. 14,000, costs as much in repairs and renewals in one year.
4. If, instead of sugar the Tamarin traction engine had to haul up trucks with sugar canes, a greater number of trucks would be required. The tare weight would thus be considerably increased, and the nett weight of sugar canes trans- ported ten miles would not exceed 15 tons per day. If, instead of a road traction engine, Tamarin Estate had a tramway line up to Petite Rivière Station, with gradients not steeper than two per cent., or one in 50, a locomotive of 15 tons working on that tramway could make six trips a day and haul up at least 30 tons of canes per trip, with three sets of trucks, one loading, one unloading and one on the way, or about 180 tons per day. The capital outlay would be for rolling-stock, about £3,200. It would require 12 road traction engines, with trucks, to transport the same weight of canes per day, or a capital outlay of about £14,400. Now, it would cost Government to maintain 10 miles with twelve traction engines working on the same, Rs. 1,500 per mile per annum, about, instead of Rs. 385 per mile per annum.
G. DE CORIOLIS,
29218
No. 202.
Surveyor-General.
ACTING GOVERNOR SIR G. BOWER to MR. LYTTELTON.
(Received August 20, 1904.)
(No. 259.)
SIR,
19234
Government House, Mauritius, July 23, 1904.
WITH reference to my despatch, No. 192, of the 20th May last,* I have the
• No. 171.
* M