CO882-(6-8) — Page 282

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

8

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

176

I

It must be explained that when the first railways were constructed, a staff of able engineers was sent out to execute the works, Mr. John Hawkshaw acting as consulting engineer. One of those engineers was the late Mr. Connal, who after- wards became Surveyor-General. I have been trained by Mr. Connal, so that the sound principles upon which our railways have been constructed continue to be followed by me, being simply adapted to the new requirements of progress and of the Colony. I have, for instance, introduced in Mauritius the standard gauge railway with a light permanent way and rolling-stock, which enables the Govern- ment, for a smaller outlay to extend railway communication to a larger area. have besides, in doing away with the contract system, which has of late proved a failure, adopted a system of task-work which enables me to execute the earthwork at a cheaper price than formerly and to be the master of the position, pushing on the works as I like and finishing them on a fixed day. I can undertake the con- struction of the four railways in question from January next, open three of them to cane traffic for the next crop and also open that part of the Pamplemousses- The Vale-Poudre d'Or (Schoenfeld) line which will extend between Schoenfeld and The Vale, in August next.

To that I have in my detailed reports put the following rider: provided the then head of the Colony extends to me the unflinching support I have received from His Excellency Sir Charles Bruce.

In concluding this report, I beg to point out that His Excellency would close his so successful career in a most statesmanlike manner in taking the provident step of strongly recommending the construction of the railways in question to the Secretary of State's favourable consideration.

October 13, 1903.

Annexure II.

G. DE CORIOLIS,

Surveyor-General.

EXTRACT from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Railway Board at a Meeting held on the 8th October, 1903.

***

*

The General Manager lays before the Board a report he just sent in to the Government on the urgent necessity of the rolling-stock being increased.

The Board congratulate the General Manager on the full and able report he has sent in to Government in connection with the necessity of increasing the rolling-stock of the Mauritius Railways, the traffic of which is every day augmenting and will continue to augment. They concur in all the facts mentioned and opinions expressed by the General Manager of Railways and they respectfully and earnestly beg to sup- port his application and to recommend it to the favourable considera- tion of His Excellency the Governor.

A true extract;

October 9, 1903.

L. BOUFFÉ,

Secretary,

REPORT of the General Manager on the urgent necessity of ordering Additional Rolling-Stock. The Honourable

THE COLONIAl Secretary,

In the beginning of July this year, I reported that, to carry on satisfactorily the traffic of the coming crop, 200 waggons, în addition to those already ordered,

would be needed.

His Excellency the Governor rightly pointed out that it was useless to order, so late in the year, so many waggons, as they could not possibly be put on the rails in time for this crop. The number was consequently reduced to 33. Of these, 25 have arrived, are now being landed, and will be put together as fast as we can.

177

They will help to reduce the pressure a little, but the number is far below our requirements. The railway is, this year, absolutely unable to cope with the traffic. All the sugar factories and factory store-rooms are full of sugar. All our goods sheds also, and at many stations even the passenger buildings have been turned into sugar stores. We are only at the beginning of the crop and things will be worse later. We are doing all we can, and, as may be seen by the statement enclosed, the railway is carrying more sugar this year than it has ever done before.

We cannot carry more with the waggons at our disposal. They are all utilized to their full capacity and there are very few delays in loading and unloading them. The fact is that more sugar is made than we can carry. The number of waggons is not sufficient.

In October, 1901 (M.P. 9111/01), I reported that it was necessary to have more sugar waggons and I submitted for approval an indent for 40 fifteen-ton covered waggons, an increase which would have enabled the railway to cope with the largest crop then anticipated. It was unfortunately not found possible at the time to incur the necessary expenditure. The 40 waggons would have been very useful this year, although not sufficient to meet the increased traffic which is due to several reasons, the chief of which is the surra which, by destroying the draught animals, has compelled many sugar manufacturers, who formerly used carts, to resort to the railway for the transport of their sugar to town.

Before the surra, we carried from 70 to 73 per cent. of the total crop of the island. This year I expect that we shall carry from 80 to 85 per cent., and as this crop will be the largest on record, the increase of our traffic will be still greater than would appear at first sight from those figures. Several estates have for the first time this year given up the boats entirely and taken the railway. It is unfortunate that, owing to scarcity of waggons, we cannot give them full satisfaction for their transport, as the difficulties they experience this year may induce them to abandon the railway for good, unless they know that Government is taking steps to provide the railway with the means to deal with the traffic next year a prompt and efficient

manner.

At the present time factories are so full with sugar that several managers have informed me that they will have to stop work for want of room to bag and store the sugar. The situation is most serious, and the Railway Department is incurring a very great responsibility and running a great risk in keeping such a large quan- tity of sugar stored in our stations. The loss in case of fire or storm would be enormous. Another consideration is that, owing to our limited supply of waggons, we are spending a great deal more than we should in loading and unloading goods. If we could keep the stations well supplied with empty waggons, they would be loaded by the men of the estates when they bring the sugar to the station. As it is we have to stack the sugar in the goods shed and pay men at one cent a bag to load it into waggons when they are available.

The same thing occurs at Central Station--goods are unloaded from carts into the goods shed and we have to pay men to load the waggons afterwards. We should certainly save three or four thousand rupees a year, if we could always supply

empties when needed.

All the above applies to closed waggons for sugar, grains and similar traffic, but we also require additional open waggons for timber, firewood, sand, coal and principally canes. The quantity of canes to be carried increase year by year; if we are able to manage the traffic satisfactorily with the waggons we have, it is only because the factories have such a great quantity of canes of their own to crush that they can accept only a limited quantity by rail. Were there more factories, or were the existing ones more powerfully equipped, we should certainly have at least half as many more canes than we now have tendered to us for transport, and we should then be lamentably short of waggons.

Another very important, and, to a great extent, new traffic, is that of coal. Tramway lines, worked by steam locomotives, have been built all over the island, and coal has naturally to be supplied to work them.

This new traffic necessitates at least 10 waggons a day, and admitting that a waggon makes a complete trip in three day, about 30 waggons will, in future, during the crop, be entirely employed in coal traffic for the estates. Our own coal con- sumption has also greatly increased, and we necessarily employ more waggons than before in taking the coal from the quay to the stacks. We are so short of waggons that I was compelled, a short time ago, to have 500 tons of coal landed at Caudan

19284

น