Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 31st July 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 24, RAILWAYS A3STD THE GUARANTEE SYSTEM. Whi...

Page 24
Page 24
24 of 32

On this page

  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      762 The Leadbb, [No. 436, July 31, 1858 ...

      762 THE LEADBB , [ No . 436 , July 31 , 1858 M —— ^___

      India.

      INDIA .

      Mr. Etfarrs Committee On The Colonisa.Ti...

      MR . ETFARrS COMMITTEE ON THE COLONISA . TION AND SETTLEMENT CMF EUROPEANS IN INDIA . We devoted a page last week to an extract from Major - General Treiuenheere ' s evidence , and have since given the whole of the reports a more careful perusal , which has induced us to think a precis or summary view would be acceptable . We may premise that there appears to be an important difference

      ^ between colonisation and settlement , the former being settlement on a large scale of labourers and the employers of labour in mass , and in sufficient number and variety to admit of their proper municipal organisation ; while settlement means the mere diffusion of individuals among the general population . The enlightened object of Mr . W . Ewart , the author of the committee ( and also its chairman ) , was to ascertain the possibility of colonising India with Europeans , and to promote both colonisation and settlement .

      Three classes of witnesses appear to have been examined : medical and scientific , whose evidence chiefly relates to the climate and its effects on Europeans ; the planters , or independent settlers , whose evidence goes largely into the character of the government or administration ; and the official witnesses , who appear to have been called to counteract the non-official evidence . The practicability of " colonisation , " as above defined , was very early solved ; and the substance of all the evidence upon that question is really contained in the following opinion , which we mav be

      excused repeating from General Tremenheere : — " Colonisation ( said the General ) cannot proceed in India as it does in Australia or Canada ; it must spring from the upper rather than the lower ranks of society , b y the settlement of capitalists ; that is , from the capitalist rather than the labourer ; " , in the language of the chairman , which the same witness confirmed , " Whereas emigration generally moves from below upwards , in this case it woulcl have to move from above downwards , by the settlement of capitalists in the country who shall employee labourers , not by that of labourers who work for

      capitalists . " All the rest of the evidence on this part of the subject agrees with the above . Colonisation , therefore , cannot take place for the mere purpose of commercial enterprise . But this still leaves open the question of locating our army on the hills , and establishing sanatoria on plans congenial to the tastes aiid instincts of Europeans . This is a part of the subject which will have to undergo further examination , either by the Committee or by the Government . There haying been no colonisation , and it not being practicable , the next question obviously is , What

      progress has been made in the " settlement" of Europeans ? The evidence only establishes on this point what was well known . The real state of the case ¦ was expressed in such phrases as the following : — The progress of settlement in India has been very slight beyond the settlement of a few gentlemen engaged in the manufacture of indigo and sugar . This refers , of course , to the interior ( the mofussilX as contradistinguished from the Presidency towns . And the few settled are chiefly in the plains of . Lower Bengal . In Bombay there are no European settlers , and none ( to be mentioned ) in Upper India or m Madras . At the same time it is admitted that the number of Europeans has increased in connexion ¦ with railways , steam enterprise , and other interests 01

      . European origin , which could not be carried on without Europeans . Their real number is not known . It was stated in a return from the India House m 1853 at under 500 . But that return is questionable from the known purpose with which it was made , of disparaging the importance of the European settlers at that time . One witness ( the missionary , Mr . Mullins ) , endeavoured to give better intormation , but ( as we happen to know ) it was derived from a source whore Europeans arc not distinguished from the Eurasians , or country-born and the probability is , that the whole of the European settlers of pure blood in the interior , who arc employed in developing the resources of the country , or in non-official occupations , arc considerablv under 1000 . J

      Next came questions about climate and its effects on Europeans . The following is the substance of the opinions of the chief medical witness ( Dr . Ronald Martin ) , a gentleman of great Indian experience and influence . There is a difference of cli .

      mate between the alluvial plains throughout India , or plains subject to annual inundation , and " the arid plains of Hindostan /* In the former , fever , dysentery , liver diseases , and cholera are prevalent ; and such is the fatality of the plains generally to Europeans , that the witness had , in his official capacity , submitted to Government the necessity of locating the European army permanently in the hills . And , in answer to a question , he said he regarded it as a " state necessity" that a plan should he formed of having large reliefs always in the hills . This important evidence , which has been several weeks in the hands of members , ought , we think , before the conclusion of the session , to have been brought distinctly to the notice of the Government .

      The other points touched on by Dr . Martin are equally- interesting . We learn from his evidence that the mountain ranges are chiefly of advantage for the prevention of disease , and that for the cure a sea voyage is far preferable : the mountain climate is curative in simple fever unaccompanied with organic disease , but not in visceral diseases ; for bowel complaints and chest ailments it is unfavourable , owing to the cold and damp of high situations .

      With the minuteness which belongs to his profession , Dr . Martin discusses the comparative healthiness of different elevations . He prefers medium elevations to 7000 and 8000 feet , which are high elevations ; 2500 feet is a sufficient elevation in some parts of the world ( Soutli America and the West Indies ) to raise the European soldier out of the fever range , while , unlike the high elevations in India , it is not high enough to have the effect of producing bowel complaint .

      Next we may notice the two following very important statements : —There is hardly a province throughout India where there are not mountain ranges which can be made available for the residence of Europeans , civil and military ; the question is only the best elevations ; and secondly , that by improved methods of placing the troops , the mortality might be reduced to the level of England . A avumber of other points of <; reat interest are

      touched upon m Dr . Martin ' s evidence , but our limits preclude our noticing them . And we must conclude , for flic present occasion , by strongly stating our opinion of the practical value of this Dart , of the evidence . For Our army in India , it is lull of instruction of vital importance , and ought to have the very serious attention of the Commanderin-Chief and Government . Next week we hope to contiuue our summary of the evidence .

      Railways A3std The Guarantee System. Whi...

      RAILWAYS A 3 STD THE GUARANTEE SYSTEM . While India has been debating on the political economy of railways , Canada and Australia have been acting . What is an experiment in India , -with a large population and a cultivated soil , is in our colonies , of scattered population and uncultivated wastes , a recognised institution . The consequence is , Canada , with its two millions of people , has more miles of railway open than India with its two hundred millions of people ; and Australia , which has not a million of settlers , has in each province as much railway at work as India has in each presidency . The guarantee system ha 3 drawn to the colonies the capital they did not possess , has given them the benefit of the capital expenditure during the period of construction , and the permanent benefit of the working of the railways themselves . When Sir Macdonald Stephenson undertook to represent the public voice of India , and to become the advocate of a railway sj'stem , he appealed to the home public at a period of great commercial buoyancy and speculative tendency in the money-market , the period being that of the great railway mania of 1846 . Had he been then supported , as he ought to have been , by the Indian Government , instead of being subjected to a system of tutelage , there was that confidence in the resources of India that the railway capital might have been subscribed wMhout a guarantee . They trifled with the

      question , and began to consider when it was time to act . Instead of leaving the engineers , who woulcl havo been employed to carry out the railway system , they directed Mr . T . W . Simms and other commissioners to devise a system of construction for India , and lay down a plan of railway policy . While Mr . Siinnri 3 was inquiring and reporting , prosperity ebbed from tlie money-market , and when the Government wanted railways , capitalists no longer cared about them . The agitation of Sir Macdonald Stephenson and his colleagues , instead of being an agitation for guarantees merely , became an agitation

      of guarantees for railway *; but again the Gow « , dallied with the matter , and propofed a guaranlS ? T a 1 per cent ., and lest valuable time in the attempt to / i a small amount of capital at this rate , ffi aUerSh * 5 per cent was conceded , railways were still treated 7 an . experiment , and what were called short experimental lines were the only fruits of so many years' agitationi and consideration . . ana Public opinion moving ; faster than the Indian Govern ment , extensions of the experimental lines were concede * before the experiments were fully accomplished but stm so grudgingly , that when the revolt broke out in 1857 there was no railway open to the scene of ivar th « nearest being the original main line , stopped short ' as * colliery line at Burdwan , and which only served bv i «* partial operation , to show how valuable would have he ™ effective railway communication , and to cause regret that

      it had been so long delayed . In consequence of this ex : pressionpf opinion , the Government has conceded a fur * ther instalment , and to the three Presidency lines are now added an Eastern Bengal line , the Scinde and Puniauh lines , and the Southern Madras . The history of Indian railways has , however , been that of fatal procrastination . While the Government was dallying with these lines , on the eve of the rebellion , there was a favourable state of opinion in monetary circles towards Indian enterprise , and the East Indian Railway interest proposed the Northern Bengal Railway , the Oudo Railway , and the Simla Railway as natural and necessary extensions of the Bengal main trunk ; other extensions to the indigo and sugar districts of tlie great Gangetic plain were held in abeyance till public opinion liad been expressed on these lines , and the

      Government policy had b & en ascertained . The necessity for these lines is not controverted , but the Government , in its paternal care , was fearful of conceding too much at once , and delayed granting the guarantees , though it is understood that , as a matter of course , they must l ) e conferred on these lines . The result is simply this : the Northern Bengal Railway is hurig up , although the revolt does not interfere with the district it traverses , and even the survey is suspended , and yet at this moment there are hundreds of wounded and invalid soldiers , hundreds of English women , and nearly a thousand English orphan and other children , pining in Calcutta and Dumdum , -whom the Government wish to send up to Darjceling . Meanwhile they are constructing a road ¦ without bridges . Had the guarantee been conceded when asked , the rail-way would * be now in progress . In the case of the Oude line , the Government can nurse itself

      ¦ with the idea that it has done no barm , for the revolt would have prevented the progress of the railway , which is true , but when the revolt is suppressed the surveys and arrangements have still to be made , and the public , when appealed to , may be doubtful whether the guarantee is a compensation for the risk of enterprise in a disaffected district , for capitalists must be taken when in the humour . All . that the Government has done for Oude is to guarantee to Mr . Bourne ' s Steam Navigation Company a subsidy for placing steamers on the Gogra , a measure which , had it been timely

      pushed , would have materially contributed to the military domination of Oude , and subsequently to its commercial development . Meanwhile , although it is -well enough understood the Government means that there shall be an amalgamation and a guarantee , two companies , under the name of Oude Railway Companies , are left before the public with depreciated scrip , when their organisation might be effectually assisted and every preparation made for the commencement of railways as a military measure and as a resource for the population . when the pacification of Oude has been effected .

      The Indian authorities have treated the guarantee system as an experiment , just as they made experiments for preserving railway sleepers from the white ant , and to find what telegraph posts would bear the weight of carrion birds and baboons , whereas the experiment of guarantees has been effectually tried for them in other pans of the world . The French Government began with the guarantee system , have carried out an effective network of railways , and are now free from the guarantees . The guarantees were found useful as a means of inducing English capitalists to begin French undertakings , and French investors afterwards to take part in them , and in duo time sufficiency of capital wad obtained ; and although , the French treasury was burdened for a short time , it has in the long run emancipated itself from all engagements , and greatly augmented its

      resources . Without adverting to the experience nfibrded by the United States ; wo may refer to the examp le of Canada , where , by the encouragement of gunraiitccs , two great systems of railway have been carried out , which connect the great lakes and the ocoan , traverse Canada throughout , enable it to convoy its own products into the States , and to ship the produce of tlie far West . Canada has become n groat country in virtue of railways ; and while the grand Indian line was postponed for fear of the passage of the Soane , and before tho Ganges has been bridged , Canada has boldly prosecuted tho Victoria Bridge over the St . Lawrence . Such is the difference between paternal government and repre-Bentattve government , such the difference between tho energy of a few officiate and that of an English community .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1858, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31071858/page/24/