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which Mr. Waring has now made, appears to us to confirm this view, and to place beyond question the fact that the conditions existing in Ceylon are not of that exceptional character which is essential to the success of this special type of line.

3. There is, however, one assumption made throughout this correspondence by Mr. Prestage, and adopted generally by the advocates of narrow gauge lines, which it seems to us impossible to admit. Narrow gauge lines are repeatedly said to be specially suitable to mountainous countries, whereas, in point of fact, the narrowness of the gauge by itself contributes in no degree to enabling the trace of a line to be economically adapted to such districts. The limiting gradients and curves, and their necessary corollary, a limit of speed, are the conditions which govern the question, and if extreme gradients, very sharp curves, and a resulting limit of speed of less than 7 miles an hour, which are the characteristics of the Darjeeling line, be considered adinis-ible, there is no more difficulty in carrying a broad gauge over mountains than a narrow gauge, the former having moreover, in its favour, the great recommendation for such localities of greater width of base and consequent stability.

I have, &c.

The Under Secretary of State,

Colonial Office.

SIR,

(Signed)

Enclosure in No. 14.

Mr. WARING to COLONIAL SECRETARY.

M. F. OMMANNEY.

Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, December 24, 1886.

In reply to your communication dated the 19th ultimo, enclosing copy of a letter from Mr. Prestage, dated Darjeeling, 30th October last, I have the honour to state that, in my memorandum of the 17th April last, and in my letter to your address, reporting upon Mr. Prestage's proposal to lay down a line of railway to Haputale, or further in the Badulla direction, upon the type of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, having a gauge of 2 feet, I have dealt so fully with the question of the advisability or otherwise of adopting a railway of that character, that I do not think I can usefully add much to what I have already written upon the subject; nevertheless there are one or two points in Mr. Prestage's last letter now under reference upon which a few remarks may be desirable, and these therefore I beg to submit for the consideration of his Excellency.

2. In the second paragraph of Mr. Prestage's letter he states that "much of the data "on which his Excellency has formed his opinions is evidently unreliable, and in no way "founded upon fact." Now Mr. Prestage is clearly under a misapprehension upon this point; a perusal of my memorandum of the 17th April last will show that, as far as possible, I have avoided expressing any mere opinions at all upon the gauge and type of railway to be adopted for the Haputale extension, but that I have confined myself simply to an analysis and consideration of statistics relating to the Darjeeling Hima- layan and Ceylon railways, and to stating certain, and I think legitimate, deductions from them. These statistics were derived from the very best and most authentic In that memorandum I have kept back or suppressed nothing, but on the contrary have dealt with all the figures available relating to both railways, and have allowed the results to speak for themselves, merely drawing attention to and tabulating these results.

sources.

3. I fail to understand how the figures in the fourth paragraph of Mr. Prestage's letter are obtained. I am not aware of having stated that the traffic estimated in the Haputale extension would yield a revenue of Rs. 851 per mile per week, and I can find no such statement in the fourth paragraph of his Excellency's despatch, quoted by Mr. Prestage. It is needless to say that (the amount of traffic remaining unaltered) the receipts will depend entirely upon the rates charged, and if, as I am compelled to assume, Mr. Prestage's figures are based on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway rates, reference to paragraphs 10 and 17 of my memorandum of the 17th April last, will show that these are far beyond those which circumstances permit the Government to levy in Ceylou.

here remark incidentally, that in all that I have written upon this question I may have taken as a basis the loads I understand to be at present carried by the rolling stock on the Ceylon railways, namely, six tons by the small wagons and 12 tons by the bogie wagons, loads which I believe might be largely increased with perfect safety and obvious

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advantage, while the increase would be very materially in favour of the carrying capacity of the 5 ft. 6 in. gauge.

4. With reference to the 5th paragraph of Mr. Prestage's letter, I have only to say that the speed of the trains upon the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, being in 1884 by the published time tables only 6-90 miles per hou", fail entirely to see how it can be possible to work even only one train each way per diem, over a line on that type, having the length of the Haputale extension, viz., 25 miles, in the hours of daylight.

5. In the 6th paragraph of Mr. Prestage's letter, he states that he requires a good bridle track 10 feet wide, on which to lay his railway, whereas in his formal offer to the Government, dated the 9th April last, he stipulated for such a track, 8 feet wide only. He thus now asks for a formation 25 per cent. wider than he originally demanded.

6. Mr. Prestage in the 7th and 8th paragraphs of his letter, refers to the rates charged on the existing railways in Ceylon, mentioning that those levied on the level and mountainous sections are so mixed up that it is difficult to make a comparison with "the charges on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway." This difficulty I have sur- mounted, and in my memorandum of the 17th April last, I have fully analysed and compared the Ceylon railway rates with those charged on the Darjeeling line, the results being that, as compared with the rates charged on the Nanu Oya Railway during 1884, the first class passenger fare per mile on the Darjeeling Railway 3-125 times as much, the second class passenger fare per mile is 2-34375 times as much, and the third class passenger fare per mile was 19531 times as much, while taking the rates of Rs. 0·0267 per mile for third class passengers now ruling on the Nanu Oya Railway, it appears that the fare on the Darjeeling Himalayan line is 2-92 times as much.

In paragraph 17 of my memorandum I have shown how much higher the goods rates upon the Darjeeling Railway are, than those ruling on the Nanu Ŏya Railway, and I. need not therefore repeat the figures here.

You are aware that the ratee, both for goods and passengers, upon the Nanu Oya Railway, are generally much higher than those charged on the other portions of the Ceylon railways system, and Mr. Prestage's statement that these latter nearly approach the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway rates, is therefore entirely incorrect, and the advice given in the 8th paragraph is unnecessary.

To

7. In the 10th paragraph of his letter, Mr. Prestage appears to be under a misconcep tion in imagining that all future railways in Ceylon will be in the mountain zone. show this it is only necessary to refer to the proposed southerly extension of the sea-side line; to the Chilau Railway, now under survey, and to the contemplated Jaffna Railway, all of which will be lines in the plains. And it is very noteworthy that in this paragraph of his letter, Mr. Prestage, an ardent advocate of narrow gauge railways, admits that the broad is the best for lines in a level country.

gauge 8. In the 11th paragraph of Mr. Prestage's letter he expresses surprise that the break of gauge he

should be deemed to render special workshops necessary for the proposes repair of the narrow gauge rolling stock. For my part I am unable to see how, if the gauge be broken at Nanu Oya, it can be possible to repair the narrow gauge engines, carriages, and wagons, without the erection of new workshops, complete in every respect for their accommodation, unless by laying down a third line of rails, and thus forming what is called the "mixed gauge," from Nanu Oya to the existing shops at Colombo, an alternative involving very heavy expenditure in the first instance, and one which would be besides attended with incalculable inconvenience, additional cost, and risk of accident in working the traffic.

9. Finally I submit that, if a line on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway type be, as I firmly believe, inadequate to deal with the anticipated traffic, and unsuitable in many other respects for the Haputale extension, the arguments brought forward by Mr. Prestage in the 13th paragraph of his letter, even if they be well founded as to the rapidity with which a railway of that type can be made as compared with the time necessary to construct one at the standard gauge of 5 ft. 6 in., are entirely without weight.

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10. Mr. Prestage having sent a copy of his letter to the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies, I have deemed it desirable to hand a copy of this reply to that letter to the Crown Agents. Trusting that this action on my part, if it be irregular, may under the circumstances be excused,

&c. am,

F. J. WARING.

P 3

I

(Signed)