PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
LLIC.O. 882
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH——NOT TO
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If these four pieces of line were made there would be continuous railway commu- nication down the peninsula from the Coast of Province Wellesley opposite Penang as far as Port Dickson, very little North of the Mulacca Territory.
4. Of the four lines, the first has been the subject of separate communication. I should have been glad if the whole of this line had been undertaken by the Government, whether in part by the Colonial Government or wholly by the Government of Perak, for I do not appreciate the serious difficulty to which Mr. Swettenham alludes of using Perak money for the construction of a line on colonial territory, if by these words he means a serious political difficulty. If, however, nearly all the available Perak money is required to complete the second line, viz., the link between Taiping and the Kinta Valley railway, a work which I understand is now being pressed on, it is, of course, desirable that the scheme for the line across Province Wellesley should be otherwise financed, and that no more should be asked of the Perak Government than to build with reasonable speed the connecting line from the Taiping railway Northwards to the boundary.
At present, negotiations with Mr. Hooper are in progress, but, if any hitch occurs in them, or undesirable delay, it would be well, in my opinion, if the Colonial Government were to reconsider its decision not to make the line, as the expenditure would not be very large, and a substantial return for the money may reasonably be expected, while there would be great advantage in keeping this torminal section of the main railway of the peninsula in Government hands.
Of the other two sections, I gather that in Mr. Swettenham's opinion it would be more profitable at the present time to take in hand the fourth than the third, i.e., to extend the Selangor line southwards into Sungei Ujong rather than northwards to the l'erak frontier. This will be a matter more especially for the attention of the Selangor Govern- ment, and has probably not escaped it already.
5. To the four lines noted above, as feasible and desirable at the present time or in the immediate future, must be added a fifth and sixth, neither of which would be immediately connected with existing railways. The fifth is the line in Pahang between Raub and Punjom, as shown on Mr. Swettenham's map. Mr. Swettenham is strongly in favour of this line, and he seems to think that it would not be difficult or unduly expensive to make, though I should have thought the cost of transporting materials in the first instance would be great, as there is no railway communication, and, indeed, at the time of writing, no regular road communication, at either end. I can, however, readily understand that such a line promises well as running through the chief mining district of Pahang. If nude it should be on the same gauge as the lines on the western side of the peninsula.
The sixth line, not mentioned in Mr. Swettenham's memorandum, is one which has, I am told, often been talked of, viz., a line across the island of Singapore and across the Strait to Johor. The construction of this line is clearly only a question of time, and it is worth considering whether the time should not be shortened and direct connection between the town of Singapore and the mainland be established at a comparatively early date.
6. As regards the financial side of this question of railway construction, I gather that in Mr. Swettenham's opinion the present revenues of the native States are sufficient, without any immediate need for borrowing, to enable them to take in hand the lines whose traces lie within their borders, though obviously not all at the same time. It will remain for the colony to consider whether to make any lines within its own territory.
I must confess that I see no valid reason why, if a railway project promises favourable returns, the Colonial Government should hesitate to lay out money upon it. It is difficult to suppose that, if reasonable prudence be exercised, railway enterprise in these growing countries will not prove remunerative, and the financial position of the colony seems to me, in spite of comparatively straitened circumstances for two or three years past, to be exceedingly sound.
The return of Assets and Liabilities which accompanied the last estimates despatch showed a prospective balance on the 1st of January last of nearly $800,000; and the sum of from $1,000,000 to $1,100,000 which is owing from the Negri Sembilan and Pahang is hardly likely to be outstanding for many years more.
Nor, if ready money is required to meet capital expenditure on such a work as a railway, do I see any adequate grounds for not raising a loan. Money could, beyond question, be borrowed by the Straits Settlements on very easy terms, and if, as a matter of business or from political reasons, it should seem desirable to expedite the obvious and
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natural development of the colony and the peninsula, it would be unwise, in my opinion, to hesitate to borrow for the purpose.
7. These are a few considerations which occur to me in connection with this subject at the present time, but I am rather concerned in the first instance to invite an expression of your own views, and content myself with intimating that an active railway policy, which is followed up consistently with businesslike common sense, will, in the Malay peninsula, as elsewhere in the British empire, have my hearty support.
I have, &c.,
15217.
SIR.
No. 3.
J. CHAMBERLAIN.
GOVERNOR SIR C. B. H. MITCHELL to MR. CHAMBERLAIN. (Received July 20, 1896.) [Answered by No. 4.]
(Straits Settlements. No. 288.)
Government House, Singapore, June 24, 1896, YOUR despatch, No. 103, of the 17th of March," containing a memorandum of the Resident-General's on the question of railway extension in the Malay Peninsula, has remained unanswered until I could confer with Mr. Swettenham on this most important subject.
2. This having been done, and Mr. Swettenham still holding the views expressed in his memorandum contained in the despatch under reply, it is now my duty to lay my views on the subject before you.
3. On the general question, I am by no means sure that the postulate that railways In Natal, the railway extension develop a new country is entirely and at all times true. from Pietermaritzburg to Ladysmith was decided on by Sir George Colley, on my advice, supported by statistics which I had carefully collected. These statistics proved so fallacious, by reason of the keen competition of the ox-wagon, that, despite every effort, in the years 1883-84 and 1886, the total receipts did little more than pay the working expenses, and in 1885 the receipts had so fallen that the expenditure absorbed more than the whole revenue, leaving the interest of the debt to be paid from the general resources of the Colony. It is my firm belief that if it had not been for the opportune develop- ment of the Witwatersrand goldfield, which changed the whole aspect of affairs, Natal would by this time have been, by reason of its debt, in very grave financial difficulties.
4. Nor did I notice that in the ten years 1878-1887 there was any remarkable development of the country through which the railway passed. Doubtless there was a gradual increase of traffic and of land settlement, but I think it probable that the improvement of the rough roads of the Colony might equally have effected this gradual increase, and such increased traffic as was carried by the railway was only induced by the lowering of the rates to an unremunerative level.
5. From this experience I infer that the construction of railways in a new country should depend:
(1.) On the available resources of the country;
(2.) On the natural traffic advantages already afforded by roads, rivers, or other
means of cominunication.
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I should add that the construction of even unremunerative railways may, in my judgment, be of great advantage to a Colony, if such railways can be constructed without im sing the burden of debt upon a new community.
6. If this reasoning be applied to the Protected Native States, the position may be taken as this. The extraordinary mineral resources of the country have brought about, in the natural course of things, the construction of short lines of railway from the mines to the nearest port, and these for obvious reasons have been, so long-but only so long- as the mines were payable, extraordinarily remunerative. The Taipeng-Portweld railway in former days paid well, and it even now, by reason of the population collected
• No. 2.