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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TTIC.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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four hundred feet between each vertical curve, approaching and leaving the bridge on reversed curves of seven hundred feet radius, with a straight line three hundred feet long between each curve. Another delicate piece of work was the Labourdonnais River ravine, alongside which the line runs just at the top of the escarpment. A huge earth bank has been made there.

Although the line was only officially opened to cane and sugar traffic on the 19th of September, we had been conveying sugar from L'Industrie for a month. In about four months the Mountain Long Branch Railway, most substantially con- structed, according to the best technical methods, has been opened for cane and sugar traffic as desired by His Excellency the Governor and as asked for by the small proprietors of Mountain Long. I have only now to trim the cuttings, to ballast the line and to build the station and platforms. All that is in hand and will be finished in December next, when the line will be opened for passenger traffic. His Excellency the Governor has thus succeeded in giving satisfaction to the inhabitants of Mountain Long with an outlay of only Rs. 110,000, exclusive of the value of the second hand rails and sleepers used for the permanent way.

SAVANE EXTENSION LINE.

(Rivière du poste, Bois Chéri and Pont Colville-Nouvelle France.}

The line is 75 centimetres gauge. The surveying work began on the 12th May last. It took three days to take the necessary levels, and then the pegging out of the line was begun. On the 23rd May the tracé and section of the line up to the main road near Pont Colville had been made. The earthwork of the Rivière du Poste- Bois Chéri line was begun on the 25th May and went on without interruption till its completion on the 18th July. The length of this line is a little above four miles. While the first part of the formation was being made, the study and pegging out of the line to its present terminus, which is at Chemin Louzier, where it forms the boundary of Mr. Bax's property, was continued. There are fourteen culverts on this line, several of which are of some magnitude. They have been carefully built in masonry on solid foundation, old railway rails having been used as girders. The plate- ' laying was begun on the 3rd July. Strong rails purchased in the Colony and which had been employed on a sugar estate tramway, have been placed for the first two miles on old railway sleepers cut into four. New German rails with metal sleepers are on the remainder of the line.

As soon as the formation of the Rivière du Poste-Bois Chéri line was completed, the earthwork of the Pont Colville-Nouvelle France Branch was begun, that is, on the 20th July. The tracé had begun a fortnight before. miles in length; it branches off from the Rère du Poste-Bois Chéri line near Pont This line is about three Colville, and terminates near the property known as Nouvelle France, which has been parcelled out to Indians.

The whole of this line is in the district of Grand Port. completed on the 25th August. There are only three culverts of less importance than The earthwork was those of the Rivière du Poste-Bois Chéri line. The platelaying was begun on the 27th July.

The line is now in working order except at Nouvelle France terminus, where, owing to the delay in receiving rails and rolling stock from Europe, and in obtaining delivery of the same and in having the rails transported to Rivière du Poste, I have 2,000 feet of rails to lay, which will only take two or three days when the materials are on the spot.

Traffic on the completed parts of the line began about three weeks ago. Joli Bois estate has put up a weigh bridge at Pont Colville, where mountains of canes can be seen every day, being purchased at a reasonable price by that estate and being trans- ported by its own rolling stock, an innovation in Mauritius, which is giving excellent results. The Government engines and trucks are being fitted up by the Railway Department and will be on the line in a few days. If the Hon. Dr. Edwards and the Hon. Gébert had not pressed for the construction of the line in question, and His Excellency the Governor had not readily approved of the works being put in hand at once, obtaining from me the assurance that they would be completed for the crop, thousands of acres of canes could not have been cut in the locality this year, and hundreds of Indian and other small planters would have been ruined. In order to render the assistance this line is affording to small planters more efficient and complete,

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His Excellency the Governor decided, on the 5th of last month, that an extended siding should be constructed from the Bois Chéri line as far as Grand Bois village, and that the Bois Chéri line itself should be extended, passing near the Bois Chéri old mill as far as Concession Varnet, or in all, about three miles more. The works are in hand and are actively pushed on; the extension will be gradually opened to traffic on the completed parts. It is expected that in November next the whole line will have been completed, i.e., about ten miles. The new station at Rivière du Poste is also in hand, and will be completed in December. The line is connected with Union Park, Jolibois, Britannia and St. Avold tramways or wire-rope and with the Savanne main line, thus enabling the small planters to get the best possible price for their For a total outlay of about Rs. 205,000, including rolling stock, His Excellency the Governor would have secured the results described in that part of this report relat- ing to the Savanne extension line.

canes.

BLACK RIVER LINE.

Side by side with the construction of the two above described lines, meant to save the position of small planters for this crop, His Excellency the Governor obtained, at the end of June last, the Secretary of State's sanction to build the Black River line. The surveying works on that line were started in the first days of July last and the earthwork began on the 13th of that month. I was reluctant to guarantee the opening of the line for cane and sugar traffic at the beginning of next year's crop. But His Excellency pressed me so much to give him that assurance that I yielded to his desire. The Governor was thus in a position to cable to the Secretary of State that the line would be opened to cane and sugar traffic in August of next year. The question of labour was, at the outset, a difficult problem. I have solved it. have now almost 1,400 artizans and labourers at work every day. The progress of the work is quite unexpected. After 2 months and 17 days I am operating at " Belle- Vue," having completed three miles of the line.

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Considering the work as actually distributed, I am authorised to say that by the 15th instant we shall be at Albion, i.e., at 43 miles from our starting point. Had we rails at our disposal, the cane traffic could be opened to Albion Estate by the end of this month and we could be at Médine by the end of the year. The line is constructed in the most substantial manner. The banks for the most part are of

dry stone. These banks to a mile from the starting point are of importance (being from eight to ten feet deep and from 500 to 1,000 feet long).

The soil at Black River is a very rocky one, and had we dynamite in sufficient quantity the line would have been completed by now on a length of 34 miles instead of 3 miles.

During the short period mentioned above I have, in addition to the earthwork, constructed two culverts of three feet and ten feet span, one bridge 50 feet long supported by two abutment walls and three piers, and I have this week started the construction of another bridge 40 feet long over River Belle Eau, at the entrance to Belle Vue.

Such is the state of the Railway Construction Works on the 30th of September. I do not think greater activity could have been displayed and better and more work could have been done in so short a time. It is a satisfaction for me to think that I have been able to meet His Excellency's earnest desire, namely, finishing the two first railways in time so as to assist the small planters for this crop, and opening in August next for sugar and cane traffic the Black River line.

October 1, 1903.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR,

G. DE CORIOLIS,

Surveyor-General.

THE amount allowed the last financial year was Rs. 20,000 (M.P. 4833/03). The amount actually expended out of that sum up to the 30th June, 1903, is Rs. 9,238.61. The balance, Rs. 10,761.39, has been allowed again this financial by warrant No. 105 in M.P. 9381/03, and will have to be later on revoted.

year

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