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TÖÖBLIC PECORD OFFICE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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YOUR EXCELLENCY,

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Enclosure 1 in No. 77.

MEMORANDUM "

A."

PORT LOUIS,

11th April, 1932.

Financial Commissioners' Report 1931.

Chapter X-Railways.

1. In accordance with paragraph 2 of my Report on the Railway dated 23rd October, 1931, on assuming office, I commenced to examine what immediate steps should be taken to reduce working expenditure". The Financial Commissioners, at our last inter- view on Railway matters, said they hoped I should proceed on these lines, pending the issue of their report.

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2. With regard to my earlier report, written in England, dated 12th August, 1931, which was obviously of a preliminary nature and unsuitable for the inclusion of a mass of technical data, I wish to say that the figures, which the Commissioners describe as hypothetical hopes and nothing more than guesses were in reality accurate estimates, based upon thorough inquiry and definite technical knowledge. Had I been asked by them to substantiate my figures, I should, of course, have been happy to supply all details. I quite appreciate, however, as stated in paragraph 3 of my letter to Your Excellency dated 23rd March, that the impossi- bility of undertaking capital outlay at present rendered it un- necessary for the Commissioners to pursue these matters, though perhaps I may be permitted to add that, in the event of it proving possible to retain any passenger traffic for the Railway, it might have been worth while ascertaining to what extent, if any, running costs could be reduced by the introduction, at a later stage, of modern units which have done so much to assist Railway Authorities all over the world to meet the competition of the roads.

3. My first step was to save approximately Rs.5,000 per annum by the diversion of staff from keeping statistical returns to more useful work. I mention this because, on receiving a copy of the Commissioners' report about a fortnight ago, I noticed that the Commissioners said they had based their proposals on the Rail- way Costing Statistics. Under the circumstances, I feel it necessary in the next paragraph to refer to these statistics at some length.

4. The " costing figures under reference were instituted in 1925 by Mr. Robertson, the then General Manager, whose ideas had been acquired in the Great Indian Peninsular Railway. This Railway

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has a track length of over 5,000 miles, whereas the Mauritius Rail- way has a track length of 148 miles. The various Sections, the North, Midland, Moka Flacq, Savanne, Black River and Montagne Longue sections, are totally dissimilar as regards length, gradient, density of population served, and volume of traffic carried. With the above characteristics and only 4 months of heavy goods traffic per year, the Mauritius Railway system cannot usefully be com- pared to any other in the world. The statistics prepared for the Mauritius Railway at very considerable cost appeared to me to record voluminously facts which were more or less obvious, but not to indicate the sources of loss or points of weakness. Costing statistics on an extensive railway system are most useful in assist- ing to fix rates, but that does not apply in Mauritius, because the varying conditions of each Branch are so great, and would demand such unequal rating assessment, that sugar factories for example, in the less accessible areas, where production costs are high, would have to pay far more per ton mile than factories situated on a Costing Branch whose working costs are comparatively low. statistics for repairs to locomotives, carriages and wagons, running, and maintenance of permanent way must, of course, be retained, as they are necessary for annual comparisons, but are not com- parable with other Railways unless allowances are made for number and design of rolling stock items, class and gauge of permanent way, cost of power and price of labour. As an instance, in paragraph 5, page 127, the Commissioners, I notice, lay stress on the "remark- able fact that the only section of the Line which pays is the Black River Line which has no passenger traffic, but has three goods trains a week between crops and three goods trains a day in the crop season.' The Black River Line to-day, exclusive of the Tamarin Siding, is 8 miles long, runs from Medine to Richelieu, the junction, 4 miles from Port Louis, The Line is more or less flat, carries always only full wagons of canes or sugar and occasional general goods, thus with a minimum of tare haulage, because the Line is virtually the Medine Sugar Estate Company's private siding. The rates are low and the Line is as entirely dependent on the Midland Line for its existence, and Permanent Way Staff, as it is upon Plaine Lauzun, one mile from Port Louis, for its engine and wagon repairs, or upon Central station for its control and general administration.

5. At Plaine Lauzun I found that far too many men were being employed for the work to be done. It seemed to me also that the old custom of each passenger train carrying both a guard and a brakesman should be abandoned as the guard alone could very well look after the train. With the fall of passenger and parcels traffic the number of porters remained excessive. The work of Station Masters and of the outside Head Office clerical staff generally had greatly reduced. The fact combined with a reduction of one train a day up and down the Main Line led to a general examination

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