CO882-(3-4) — Page 689

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

FEPERIC.O. 882

سلسل

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH——NOT TO

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upper part of the railway have been largely reduced, and the application of the present rates to the proposed extension would give a rate of Rs. 22 (not Rs. 33) per ton as the price for the transport of coffee from Haputalé to Colombo,—a rate considerably below the minimum cart rate from Haputalé. I believe that even at the old rates (Rs. 33) the railway would have successfully competed with the cart traffic, as without raising their prices it would have been impossible for the carters to have long continued to replenish their stock of animals. At the existing railway rates the point does not admit of question. It is also to be remarked, with regard to the tea industry, that tea is a far more bulky article than coffee, and that while six carts would be sufficient for the transport of ten tons of coffee, it would be necessary to hire ten to convey the same amount of tea.

19. No scale of up rates, the absence of which is commented on by Sir F. Stanley, was given among the enclosures to my Despatch, No. 265,* because it was found that their fluctuations were such as to render it impossible to form any average, or deduce any conclusions from them that would not have been misleading.

20. I do not think that the general manager anticipated that from the moment the completed line is open for traffic the cart competition will cease, and he will secure the "whole of the traffic both ways." For my own part, I certainly did not but we are both of opinion that this must soon be the result. I cannot suppose that any force of habit or conservative instinct will induce the planters of Uva to send their produce literally past the doors of the railway station (which would stand by the side of the high road along which all traffic from Badulla must pass), in order that it may be slowly conveyed to Colombo at a higher cost than that of railway transport, and along a route through the whole length of which it is exposed to risk of theft. It is possible that for a time the carters may make desperate efforts to compete with the railroad, but it is a competition in which they will be destitute of those adventitious aids which, till the recent reduction of railway rates, have kept up hitherto, after a fashion, the cart traffic of Dimbula and Dikoya-it is a competition in which they must as inevitably fail as in one to compel their bullocks to vie with the speed of a locomotive engine.

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21. The 10th paragraph of Sir F. Stanley's Despatch contains two erroneous state- ments. The first of these, however, is one for which not Sir F. Stanley, but Mr. J. F. Dickson, is responsible. The yield of coffee in Uva (except, possibly, on some highly favoured and exceptional spot), never amounted to 11 cwt. the acre, as stated in his Administration Report for 1884; and I am at a loss to understand how so able and experienced a public officer can have been led to make a statement so entirely fallacious and misleading. More than ten years ago, 5 cwt. per acre was considered by the Railway Commission of that day to be the average yield. The fall, therefore, to 44 cwt. in 1883-84 is not so great as Sir F. Stanley supposed. Nor is it the case that "no recovery whatever has been shown in this industry." The yield of the past year showed very decided improvement. That there was a steady decrease in the amount of coffee despatched from the Haputalé District between 1880 and 1883, is true; the fall being from 351,406 bushels in the former year to 212,987 in the latter. But in 1884-85 the amount rose to 300,900 bushels, being the best crop gathered since 1880. Again, in the Badulla and adjacent districts the crop sank from 224,446 bushels in 1880-81 to 160,774 in 1882-83, but in 1883-84 it rose to 173,605, and in 1884-85 to 241,487 bushels. There has also been a steady annual increase in the export of cinchons from these districts—in Haputalé from 6,266 lb. in 1880 to 400,291 lb. in 1885, and in Badulla from 25,312 lb. to 818,277 lb. in 1885.

22. Nor is it possible for me to concur in the opinion expressed in the following paragraph, as to the speculative character of the anticipated tea traffic, a point as to which the Commission has spoken very strongly. If not an acre of land beyond what is already planted with tea were hereafter to be taken into cultivation—a most improbable supposition-an amount of nearly two million pounds of made tea annually would, at the most moderate estimate, require transport to the coast. As little do I think that because the greater part of the short distance between Nánu-oys and Haputalé is uninhabited along the immediate line of railway, considerable passenger earnings will not be received from the populous district in which its terminus will be situated.

23. The 12th paragraph also shows that Sir F. Stanley was not free from misconcep tion on some other points. The Nánu-oya-Haputalé line is by no means as difficult "a

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line either to construct or work as that from Nawalapitiya to Nánu-oys. The latter line rises 3,400 feet in its short course. There is a rise of 2,229 feet between Nawalapitiya and Hatton, and 1,361 feet in the 11 miles between Talawakele and Nánu oya. But in the 25 miles beyond Nánu-oya there is only a rise of about 900 feet to the highest point, and a somewhat greater fall to Haputalé. Again, it is true that the working expenses of the Nánu-oya line, during the year of contractor's upkeep, rose at first to the high figure of 70 per cent., owing to the inexperience of those working it; but they only amounted to 53 per cent. in 1885.

24. I trust, therefore, that the information now laid before your Lordship will be considered as sufficient to answer one of the questions put by your Lordship's predecessor, and to show that the desired extension of the railway beyond Nanu-oya may be undertaken without imposing any undue liability on the colonial finances.

25. The other question, whether the railway should take precedence of other works, is one which I have in other despatches, especially those noted in the margin,* already to a great extent practically answered. I have no hesitation in saying, and my Executive Council, the whole of the members of the Legislative Council, and the Chamber of Commerce, all agree with me in saying so, that the construction of a northern breakwater at Colombo is not a work which should take precedence of the railway. Though not a work of primary and paramount necessity, or one the success of which can "be regarded as beyond all doubt," (for it will afford little or no additional barbour accommodation, and many highly qualified officers of the Royal Navy and Royal Engineers consider that it will cause the port to silt up) it is still obviously one of general utility. But Sir F. Stanley was unquestionably induced to form an exaggerated idea of the inconvenience to trade, and risk to shipping, resulting from the absence of a northern arm to the breakwater. As I have said ́elsewhere, no rational grounds can be given for supposing that vessels are deterred from resorting to Colombo by any apprehensions founded on the non-existence of the northern arm, or that a single ship the more would visit the harbour were it constructed. It is not the case that the harbour is "insecure." Since the practical completion of the present breakwater in 1882, there has never been a day on which loading and unloading has been impracticable, or communication with vessels in port suspended. I must demur to any comparison being instituted between it and the railway, as being a stimulus to production. If we succeed in raising produce to export, our first object must be to provide efficient means of transport for that produce to the coast; our next, to supply it with secure means of shipment. The latter already exist, the former do not; and between the improvement of the one and the creation of the other, there can be no comparison. It is idle to suppose that any one contemplating the cultivation of land in Uva will be deterred from doing so by the want of a northern arm to the breakwater; that he may be so by want of railroad communication is very probable. That, on the other hand, the construction of a northern arm will cause an acre of land in the district in question to be cultivated, is more than doubtful, while that the extension of the rail- road will rapidly bring large additional areas under cultivation is certain. When we have given to the existing production means of transport, and rendered it easy to extend the ares of production, it will be time to consider whether we can give yet greater convenience and facility for shipment than is now given.

26. I have just as little hesitation in saying that, whatever claims to precedence over all other work the fortification of Colombo may possess, there is no probability of that claim being admitted to consideration if the cost of auch fortification is deemed by Her Majesty's Government an obstacle to the completion of the railway, The unanimity on this subject is really remarkable, and it was difficult to get the scheme at all con- sidered, such was the impatience to reject it. So long as the Legislative Council is left free in this matter, so long will it decline with one voice to consider any vote for fortification, which can be used as an argument against the extension of the railway. The position of this question is, however, somewhat altered by the receipt of your Lordship's Despatch, No. 97, of the 14th ultimo,† in which your Lordship treats as groundless the fear entertained by my advisers, "that the expenditure on fortifications "would be used as an argument against spending money on other works;" a disclaimer which it is perhaps not altogether easy to reconcile with the language of the despatch of Sir F. Stanley, to which I am now replying, but which will be greeted with unfeigned satisfaction by the Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils of this island.

* No. 64, December 18, 1885. No. 66, December 22, 1885.

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↑ Not printed.