728946-1847-07-Jul-1847 — Page 2

Victoria Pluto, 1847.

24

June

June

20

VINCENT STANTON,

Colonial Chaplain.

Ta Coloma gun hoat she can be desig nated by such a title has been laid up. We are informed that orders have been received from home to build one or more vessels of a more efficient description, the present boat being ton sinall, and too lightly armed, for the service she was expected to perform,

The American ship Francis Whitney arrived at Macao on the 4th. She spoke It. M. S. Vernon on the 21st of June, within 100 miles of Singapore, steering that port. From this it would appear that Admiral Inglefield has changed his intention of corning on to China after visiting Bomen. It is probable that he will wait the arrival of the May mal, and receive

ive his despatelets at Singapore

Today we polylish the last of a series late cles on the Certon trade of India, which have recently appeared in the columas of the Eco- romist. The subject is one of great import. ance, and cannot fail to attract the attention of some of our readers engaged in cnm.uerce with India. A perusal of these papers in a col. lective form will better enable those interested Io understand the matter discussed, and should any of our readers feel a desire to refer to the four articles that have preceded that of to-day, they will be found in our issues of the 12th and 15th of May, and of June 2d and ath.

To the Editor of the FRIEND OF CHINA.

30th June, 1847. DEAN SI-I read is your paper of this date, n statement that the prosecution against me by the Attorney-General or the Postmaster, as it may be, was instituted by the orders of H. E. Sir J. Davis, I think Pam correct in saying, you must be labouring under a mistake, as at so interview I had with H. E. on the subject when I first had intimation of such an action, he distimally told me that he had nothing to do with it, 1. E. having no control over the Post-offive; your informant therefore inusi be in error.

Yours truly,

T. LARKINS.

THERE is no mistake in the matter. Our in- "formant was the Postmaster; and he could not fail to know all the particulars of the per- secution, the honour of which he and Mr Campbell must share with Sir John Davis-

ut albue six yours.

Inca from rugh 1 but

is cast away on a place that redemption. Ilie rentap of months by fore

sated

onergy of D4S,

Weint we

are never touched during the whole journey. The

mino4o his harnessed, the cu can of the cable to the yoke does not fiteally

2

Wairaval by night during moonlight, and merme bad and cols evening, on dark nights, at the rate of fre Awn albo. Kto twenty miles a day; and the cast of th

awkward and ill-constructed as it is. draghi oxen conveys with facility len carriago caftin-that is to say, Lo proceeds at the rate of two and a half or miles an hour?

A val

post can the merchant

from ten to twelve thousand resources of India has latter. Eparis na conoty ns the construction and reinire oredible Informed thu such

o be past ronds are consthally interrupted by rivers and water

the reve-

nue, although beneficial to thos and Portugal is too puorita support colony from which she derives no direct advantage. To foreignora Macao has many attractions, and it will long be the favourite summer resi- dence of the Canton people though we trust the English part of the community will soon be induced to give Hongkong a proference.

WHY DOES NOT INDIA SUPPLY US AVITH COTTON?

No. V

From the Economist, March 20.)

cours, over watch there are no brigs and which are frequently impassable for certs for days, nay 80metimes, for several months in the year. The condition of the communication between Calcutta, the great mutropolis of India, and the interior, is forcibly exemplised in an extract so have met with, written by An Old Indian Postmaster. We take the extract from the columns of the statio and Co- lonial Quarterly Journal, published in December

Jual

"When the late war on the Sutlej broke ant, all officers whose regiments were in the field, were or,

the army. About on

About one hundred officers, e believe,

in the different branches of the service, engineers, artillory, cavalry, infantry, and medical, were required to go from the Presidudley (Calcutta). They were sent at the public expense. How many officers do our readers suppose that the postmaster was able to send daily? Three!! And as the jour ney took sixteen days to perform, travelling night and day, few arrived before the war was over. Even this could not have been accomplished at any other period of the yrar.'.

In our formor articles on this subject we have, we think, satisfactorily replied to the question at the head of it, as regards one of the causes, namely, the hearp and unseled inpost on the land in the greater part of In lin; we have also shown that the most fer

Now, in the absence of proper roads, convey. tile parts of the cotton growing districts are far in- land, and as there are po navigalle rivers or canals dnces, or posting horses, it was necessary that each in auch districts, an additional difficulty exists in traveller should be conveyed in a palanquin, or co. the wint of good roads. We could hardly imagine vered litter, borne on men's shoulders. A complete that in any populous country, like India, under the set of bearers, including link-men, and men to con vey such luggage as is absolutely requisite for a government of a civilized European state, an! more especially of England, occupied as it has been for jury, consists of twelve. These have to be posted nearly a centory, should be, as to internal commu at eight miles apart the whole way, and, assaining niution, in the condition in which we now find it. the distance to be nearly 1600 miles, which we be We are indebted to statistics furnished by Melieve it to be, from Calcutta to Ferozepare, it would Clampman, the manager of the projected railway com. have required 2100 men to convey one officer, and, pany from Bombay into the calton districts east by consequence, 7200 men (equivalent to a large ward of the island, as well as to the reports of two niliary division of soldiers) to convey thres daily. of the Government surveyors and engineers of Ala. We presume that after having carried thèse weights dras, namely, Lieutenant Worcester and Captain at a frot for eight miles, the same men returned to Hitmas, for the fact that goods now cost in transit their post, ready to take up anither traveller on the from one place to the other, on pack bullocks, 88 per following day, and this work they had to perform tom per mile, and on the carts of the country, where for irty-three mortal days in succession." it is sufficiently love! to admit of their use, about 41 per raile, ant that the rate oftravelling in the former case is about seven, and in the later Frontea to fifteen miles a day. This mode of conveyance, however, is confined to the Table Land, for on ap preaching the mountains, either on tho enstern or westera portion of the peninsula, pack-catile are immediately had recourse to

We give an abstract of Captain Ditmas report, made three or four years ago, on the advantages ac coming from the construction of one line of road, 140 niles in length, from Bellary, in the Madras ceded districts, towards the western const.

A very extensive traffic in enign between Bel. lary and the coast at Comple, in Cearn. has long existed, but it bas lately been considrely promot ed by the construction, in 1840, of cart road be. tween Bellary and a place callad Sinsee, at the top of the pass descending into the Concap. The road from thence to the port of Compla, though rendered smoother for pick cattle, is still unfit for carts, and the cotton or other goods coming up and down the pass have to change their mode of transport, and

This may be taken as a sample of what the.com inercial transit of the country must be, but we shall confine ourselves to cotton, and now we fall back on General Briggs pamphlets —

reference to the map of India shows that the cotton-growing districts, on the Nerbudda, ani dhose of Nagpoor and Amrowly, in Berar, are remote from Mirzapore, the entrepot, on the Ganges, lying between Benares and Allahabad; and the mode of conveyance may be thus described :—-

The cotton is brought on oxen, carrying 160lbs each at the extreme rate, is fair weather, of seven miles a day for a continuance, and at a price of about Be for each hundred miles. If we take the average distance to Mirzapore at 500 miles, each 15 of out- ton costs, in transit alune, abore 2ļ. It has thence to be borne by water carriage nearly 800 miles for- ther ou to Caleutia, from which port the exporta- tion of sneh colton to England at a profit must be looked for in vain. Within the last seven or eight years a good road, between Jubalpore and Mirza- pere, has been formed; and it is satisfactory to know that although 400 carts only passed over it in the

Independently of the expense of t:

depen cotton from the interior, there is ano

**

vital inportance. The cotton cups in and Guzemt riper in February, and continues fill the end of April. The 1. cotton however, is picked and cleaned of March, and must be despatched, wi Quzorat or the interior of the Deccán, is week in April, The reins usually como. in June, and, unless the cotton is at that time, it is too be dispatche China

or to England Good roads along the ast, and through the interior, would remove these inconveniences for, while the expense inftrant.

by

URE

in the Bondig hould be reduced, ay dum 118. st 3. to one eighth of a penny per pound, the tim gained is also to be considered, since, as 11 could reach the const in less than half then aber of dage in carte, which it could be conveyed ou laden cattle, the period of picking might be continge with advantage, at least a month later in the reason than at present. I speak especially of the int genous cotton grown in the interior, wher Borar or further south in the Dharwar distric

This was written in 1839, but we find us Mi Chapman's report of this year, a singular corres boration in the following extract from letter from Mr Fenwick, a retired officer of the army, resiling in the interior:-

**It is the actual foot, that from wani ni wale and forage on the road, owing to the scanty presed ing monsoon, a large quantity of the colon im Berar could not be carried to Bombay. Some of it is now in the country, and some lying in different

My sons, who are engaged d parts of Khandesh. The cotton, line, have some cotton which could pas be sent on, housed near Chaluesgaum. This bich ought to have reached Bombay before the castel May. But this untoward circumstance red be exclusively laid to the charge of the drought of the last season It happens every year more or 198. In 1843, we had engaged with a house in Batum to deliver 5000 loads by the end of May, 7 of words before the setting in of the monson, th year there was no want of water-og the contrars rain throughout the hot and cold weather. The roads became in

impassable for days Jogaber, anot although we engaged carts at the rate of fent Arno 10 company's rupees per lond, we could not form our engagement. The usual cost of is from 516 Hyderabad rupees per the 5000 loads, 2,000 we lamped Some we managed by Kushlee under,

across the bay. Th

Recident burnt in Odobers and

upers This would not have hap, elle a beco a railway. Above 20,000 loads were that year left behind in this part of Burar and dispersit over Khandes."

it. It may be necessary also to state that the tan Textos and forbidding circumstanon ding the traffic between the interior and Bunftsy, the their goods. Cotton is eaten up by the lock

ss sustained by the dealers during the top ta

by mouthfuls, out of the biles The Brojamais and cart-mep themselves steal

steal largely, and ther of the loss is never made up by them no the Bunder. I speak from what we have

the profit, in the shape of a bill for $122, goes consequently they must all be made up in small par year after it was built, no fewer than been constantly subiected to s

It is true that Sir John Davis's statement to. Captain Larkins cannot he reconciled with the facts as communicated by the Postmasters but Captain Larkins may have misunderstood his Excellency, or Sir John not have express ed himself clearly may not

into the pocket of ex-Acting Attorney-General cels, ni ed for convegance by pack cattle. Parker.

After the constraction of this road a wonderful Mr Hyland did not make the communica-effect was produced on the trade of that locality. I Bon in confidence nor have we any reason to

the year 1811 pack cattle disappeared altoge:herno question the truth of his assertions, as he offer-

the table land, and 101 carts plied upon it; on the ed to show his correspondence with Sir John wing year 443 were employed, and the cotton trade to the coast extended to the same proportion. Davis on the subject.

During the first three years the traffic of the small port of Compta increased from 160,000 to 400,000, and the revenue from the customs from of improving the pack cattle road, from the top of 4,5220 to 18,015-10 per annum. The whole cost the mountain range to the port, only cost 1000/- Captain Ditmas states, that the diff rence thus ac out on the road, would not only ender it hit for heel carriages, the whole distance, but would lead to a vast increase of revenge. We do not find, how over, that the Government has acted on this hint and the pack cattle still crawl up and down that road, while the people themselves are not au froient ly wealthy or encouraged by the state, to undertale

The misfortune of this road however, as regards along it in i 33; and this number will daily the cotton trade, is that it only commences half way between the cotton districts and the entrepot The article, therefore, has necessarily to travel 250 miles on oxens' backs, and the contract for canvey ance extends to the whole distance so that in fact, for all beneficial purposes to the cotton trade in dist quarter, this excellent road is almost useless In order to render it available, it should be completed the transport of carts substituted, as we may be sure to Nagpoor and Amrowly. Were this effected, and

it would be, it would diminish the expense of co- verance alone from 210 to loss

We reiterate our conviction, that Sir John eruing to the Government in one single year, if laid He describes farther Han 10 per lb -

Davis was cognizant of, and sanctioned, if he did not order the prosecution that this is proved by his refusal to remit the fine in com- pliance with the verdict of the jury-and that at is to be regretted that the memorial to the Postmaster General was forwarded through the agency of the Governor of Hongkong-

By H. M. steam sloop Medea we are in res ceipt of Cape papers to the 30th of April, but they contain no political news. Sir Henry Poulinger continued on the frontier, engaged in the difficult task of curbing the Kaffir chiefs. Three Smash war steamers galled frota Table Bay Manila on the 24th of April. Miey are

and one of

hat

ite construction themselves,

Now, let us trace this colton from Bellary, where before it is packed; it cost 11 per pound, to its em barkation for export. Captain Dilmas say

its uncleaned state, at Compla, 2/1

nected with the want of roads, bot irrespective of

on, difficulties con mere conveyance. The great cotton-growing dis tricts are, as we have seen, in the northern portion of the Peninsula, embracing Guzsrat, and a vast troot called Deccan, lying between the Satogra range of hills and the course of the Kishna river. General Briggs says: The collon from the in- terior of the country to the const at Bombay, occu pres a continuous journey of from one to two months, according to the season of the year; while in the reing the route is wholly impassable, and the traffe of the country is at a stand." His desetiption of this stato of things forcibly porach put the absolute). necessity for a change

-"l'hese are charming prospects for cotton trade. The remedy is, we believe, enhires in the hands of the people of England wagu effect whatever the majority of them wil lacrta

& permanent land tax and secure tenures throuFEEL The country. Ensure something over to (50 prietor, which he may call ren 2adbe of internal communication. There is o ment to the removal of these obstacles, if the verument can be roused to direct 11, for 36 President of the Board of Control, in Cor

of the Premier to the East India Comp, the Emperor of the East, dictating, under

pro tempore ate the delegated ministers di the ONE for the governtzen of India,

The land tax of India, and the land b where are no longer a diystery, as forg Sone who chooses to rent and that not

may underst ad the question, and the mo

107

Tax be roads

With

simple, but, until the cb. I out is applied we can have no ind

English market, Nor, ered the perrpspent, can we bay it ti there we Bring Bio the cons.

faro years some partes in Bog logo have been neuve tu gewung op pays (20

Paples to cons rock radened, but in such erst vel by speculations by Englitime

it has to pay an export duty of sight

ouely to being embarked for transit Bombay, about 200 mile import duty also awaits unpacked, screwed, and r be the time it is ready por lby's

fetches here pro

190 to leverans

To the absence of a dehned road, oven the carriers,

tini made

Englandi that the fu

er

each porton 1.