!
238
}
81
5. I need not remind you that, at 6 per cent,, the annuity on a loan obtained under the Act of 1914 would be very nearly 7 per cent, on the amount borrowed, or very nearly 8:4 per cent. on the amount spent, On a loan of £1,865,257 this would amount to £130,568 a year.
45653.
No. 14.
I have, etc.,
MILNER.
THE GOVERNOR OF NYASALAND to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received 3.20 a.m., 14th September, 1920.).
[TELEGRAM.]
September 13th. Your despatch 26th July, confidential. Is there any probability of obtaining cheaply in France or elsewhere war salvage light rails narrow gauge and rolling stock suitable for road tramways, so as to avoid heavy metalling for road traffic? Such rails could be lifted and relaid hereafter elsewhere as feeders to railway when constructed.-SMITH.
19904.
No. 15,
Trie GOVERNOR OF NYASALAND to THE SECRETARY OF STATE,
(Received 11.15 p.m., 8th October, 1920.)
[TELEGRAM.]
[Answered by No. 16.]
7th October. Your despatch 26th July, confidential. After careful investigation of points at issue with Director of Public Works, am of opinion that money would be wasted in construc- tion of now [new] metalled roads for heavy motor traffic, which would serve little purpose when railway has been constructed and would be useless, practically, as feeders. High cost of working motor transport also requires consideration. If available, consult Roy on following suggestion. Labour now is cheaper than it will be probably some years hence; propose there. pre to proceed with railway earthworks and masonry of bridges, timber structures on latter till ironwork cheaper and lay light railway if obtainable, see my telegram 13th September,† to be afterwards lifted to serve as feeder, say, Fort Jameson to Domira Bay. Expenditure on roads as temporary substitutes for railway thus saved could be applied to feeder roads opening up areas now being settled in, settlers having depended largely on known proposals of Govern- ment for extension of railway to Lake.
Reserve reply to your telegram 6th September! respecting advance of £28,000 pending settlement of above questions.
Paragraph 3 your despatch 26th July, road in question suitable only light motor traffic at high cost difficulties in wet season.-SMITH.
50108.
No. 16.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR OF NYASALAND.”
(Sent 11.20 a.m., 5th November, 1920.)
[TELEGRAM.]
5th November. Your telegram 7th October. § Roy left England 8th October. Impossible to consider matter further pending receipt of reply to my despatch of 26th July, confidential," especially as to paragraph two. When may reply be expected!-MILNER.
62307.
85
No. 17.
THE GOVERNOR OF NYASALAND to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Confidential.)
MY LORD,
(Received 21st December, 1920.)
Government House, Zomba, Nyasaland, 11th November, 1920.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Lordship's confidential despatch of the 26th July, transmitting a report by a Sub-Committee of the Colonial Economic Develop ment Committee on the projected railway from Luchenza to Lake Nyasa. While I can but recognize the considerations which have induced Sir Herbert Read and his Committee to come to the conclusions and tender the advice they have, I am compelled to represent that a decision to postpone indefinitely the construction of this extension of our railway service will be received with no little regret by all who are interested in the development of the Protectorate and probably not without some reproach from new settlers who, on the strength of intentions announced in 1914, when the East African Protectorates loan was sanctioned, and more recently since the conclusion of the War, may have been induced to take up land north of Zomba in the hope of the railway reaching them, or being readily accessible within a reasonable space
of time.
2. On receipt of your despatch I lost no time in consulting the Director of Public Works on the two main alternative proposals which stand out for consideration-(1) the construction of substitute roads for motor traffic, (2) the possibility of a light pioneer railway, to be lifted when the full-gauge line can be constructed and then relaid as a feeder elsewhere. I thereupon despatched my telegram of 13th September and later that of 7th October,† copies of which I attach. The latter sufficiently outlines the trend of our views. I now enclose a more detailed report which Mr. Pratt has furnished.
3. Under heading A. of his list of roads, item I., Zomba-Liwonde-Fort Johnston and Lake, would become the main substitute road, running in a measure parallel to the proposed railway line (both are indicated on the attached map). During the War much was done to realign, widen, drain and bridge this road, but it is unmetalled and cannot be regarded as more than a fair-weather earth road for light motor traffic. The estimate for completing this road for motor traffic up to 6 tons is £44,000. To this must be added £8,000 if the Shire Bridge is reconstructed to a 10-ton load. The other items under A., estimated to cost £225,000, are in a large measure feeder roads which, in the main, will continue to serve as such when the railway is constructed, but in one or two instances would require modification as substitute roads. List B., estimated at £156,000, while part of a system of developmental roads required and receiving attention by degrees (see proposals for a loan submitted with my despatch No. 400 of 17th November, 1919, § covering the Estimates for 1920-21) is not immediately con- cerned with the question of railway extension to the Lake, as traffic by these roads would go only on to the existing system. They are, however, important for opening up well-settled areas, and the more these are developed and traffic placed on the existing railways, including the Trans-Zambesi line under construction, pro tanto will the Government liabilities in respect of these railways be lessoned.
4. For reasons which are fully set out in the letter of the Director of Public Works we deprecate an expenditure on substitute roads which will be of little or no use once the railway is constructed. That the railway must come in the course of time there can be no question, and it has seemed to us better, as the cost of local labour will inevitably rise, to proceed now with the earth work of the projected railway, making that at once the line of communication to the Lake; and, if materials for a light railway or tramway are procurable at a low cost, lay that now on the line, to be lifted and placed elsewhere as a feeder, say, Domira Bay to Fort Jameson, when the broader gauge railway comes along. There is this further consideration that the construction of a metalled road for heavy traffic between Zomba and Fort Johnston might, in certain eventualities, e.g., the local production hereafter of a cheap motor spirit, become a powerful competitor against the railway. As to materials for a light railway or tramway, should these be unprocurable from military salvage stocks (sce my telegram of 13th September), I am given to understand that the Johannesburg mines may be able to provide what we require at a cost appreciably below the figure Mr. Pratt has inserted in his estimate.
5. As to the cost of motor transport, or the existing alternative, human carriage, I have some difficulty at arriving at exact figures, as so much depends on the class of vehicle employed, the rate going down as the currying capacity increases, and, in the case of carriers, on the season of the year in which they are employed. In the way of motor traffic a certain amount is carried between Dedza and Limbe for the North Charterlands Company of North-East Rhodesia and others. Between Linibe and Fort Johnston much is Government traffic, but many light cars have been run over the route by others.
6. The North Charterlands are not at present in a position to furnish me with figures, but promise to do so after the accounts for this season have been examined. The African Lakes Corporation, which tried but has abandoned, except in urgent cases, motor transport between Blantyre and Fort Johnston, put the cost at about 3s. per ton mile, while they quote human carriage at about half this rate, varying according to season and other circumstances.
• No. 13.
† No. 14.
43196; not printed.
§ No. 15.
• No. 13.
20790
Nos. 14 and 15.
Not reproduced.
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