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CHELT

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RECORD OFFICE

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bhi C.O.882/12

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON

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agree with the Commissioners on page 133 of their Report that 22 Clerks are sufficient. The essential expenditure under General Charges will, however, amount to Rs.103,467. This includes:—

Audit and Telephone Police

which may have been omitted by the Commissioners.

Rs. 16,934 10,000

Rs.26,934

12. In order to arrive at the total costs, the Bois Cheri and Electrical expenditure must be added. I estimate these to be :-

Rs.

Bois Cheri Electrical

14,409

25,690

Rs. 40,099

13. The Financial Commissioners recommended that three trains for business men, one for schoolboys and one for workmen should run daily each way between Port Louis and Curepipe. I think I can say with absolute certainty that such a service would be foredoomed to failure for reasons which I shall explain and as shown by figures in Statement IV. In considering the train services, both as regards numbers of trains and time-tables, certain fixed facts, such as the opening and closing hours of the Royal College, Convents and Schools, usual hours of work for artisans and labourers, 7-5 in Port Louis, hours of work for Government Offices and business people, 10 o'clock to 3 and 4 or 5, and the unalterable habits of the population generally, have to be con sidered. Also the principal trains, to be of any use, must run fast, so that the stopping places have to be divided up between successive trains. Moreover the trains each way must balance so as to avoid wasteful, because empty, running. I attach a copy of the Passenger Time Table as now in operation and Statement III which de- scribes the use of the trains on the Curepipe-Port Louis Section, and states the population of the more important places on the line. 14. There is no doubt, when I took over the Railway in October, 1931, that the 12 trains a day each way on the Midland Line and some of the trams on the Branch lines, with the exception of the Moka Flacq Line, which is fairly well patronised through- out each day, were in excess of actual requirements. With 2,337,000 the passenger journeys made per annum, basing these figures upon

* Not reprinted.

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last five months' travelling, the present slightly upward tendency of the number of passengers using the Railway, the recent local increase in the price of petrol and the consequent imminent revision of bus fares, with the Road Control Ordinance coming into force on 1st October next, with its obligations, inter alia, to insure against third-party risks and with the all round economies already referred to in operation, I do not think that the actual and potential value of the passenger traffic should be hastily abandoned, par- ticularly as the passenger traffic, cut down and economized as it has been, still pays its way as has been shown in paragraph 4. See also Statement II and paragraph 16.

15. In speaking of potential value, I mean that a general im- provement in the trade of the Colony, now within sight, due to Imperial Preference and the partial recovery of the sugar market, must tend to swell the number of the travelling public, that the additional savings possible under Scheme "B", postponed on account of the unemployment issue, can be effected and that a reasonable expenditure, when money is available, on carefully selected modern units, possibly on the lines suggested in my Report of 12th August, 1931, would greatly reduce running costs.

16. Table IV compares the Expenditure of 1931-32 with 1932-33 and shows the effect of running the Railway as a Goods Line and with the passenger services eliminated, except for the 5 trains-a-day service between Port Louis and Curepipe. The Coaching Revenue for 1932-33 I estimate to be Rs.422,800 and the Goods and Miscel- laneous revenue, excluding levy, for 1932-33 I estimate to be Rs.1,156,000. See Table V and the Railway Estimates for 1982-33. The revenue derived from the Port Louis-Curepipe Section repre- sents in value about half the total passenger traffic of the system. But if all passenger traffic was closed down except the Port Louis Section and five trains a day instead of nine as at present were run, the revenue, after allowing for the complete loss of passenger traffic from the branch lines as feeders and for 5 trains a day each way would probably not exceed Rs.125,000 a year and the revenue lost would probably be Rs.297,800.

17. As may be deduced from Statement IV, I estimate the cost of running the 5 trains-per-day service each way between Curepipe and Port Louis as under :-

Permanent Way

Mechanical

Transportation

General Charges and Police

10430

Rs.

6,000 41,000 110,000

8,000

Rs.165,000

Q 2