The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-29 00:00:00

RAILWAYS IN INDIA.

WE hear a great deal every now and then from
the Government organs in India regarding the
wonderful doings there in the shape of rail-
ways ; but if one comes to examine closely
into the matter it will be found that the via
inertia prevails in that department pretty
nearly to the same extent as it prevails in all
the other departments of that most mis-
governed of England's possessions. The pro-
posal to establish railways in India was, if we
remember rightly, made to the Directors about
ten years ago. The first five years or so of
this period were spent in the way in which a
similar term is generally wasted when any
proposition is brought before the Government
of India for the improvement of the country
and the development of its resources. In
other words, they were consumed in corre-
spondence between the Government and the
proposers, in which stage the affair might
have continued to eternity had not some per-
sons of weight in England taken the matter up.
The fact is, it was not to the East India Com-
pany's interest to see railways established in
its dominions, how ever much to the interest
of the public at large both in India and at
home. Railways bring with them a vast
agency both for construction and working, and
these are mostly men of English birth. Rail-
ways bring travellers, newspaper correspon-
dents, and others ; and where railways must

SEPT. 29, 1855.

the true nature of the administration of a
country is soon laid bare. Railways, more-
over, bring powerful and enterprising
capitalists in their train, and these are in all
quarters of the world foes to misgovernment
and to the evils and follies of despotic sway.
In short, it was clear to the Company that they
and railways could not exist together, and
that the first fruits of the new engine of
civilisation would be their own removal from
the pedestal on which they stand, and the
introduction of a new order of things more
suitable to the altered state of affairs, in which
they would probably find no place.
The opposition of the Court of Directors
was, however, fruitless ; and they were obliged
to permit railroads to be undertaken whether
they would or no. But their ingenuity
was not exhausted, and what they could not
altogether prevent they decided as much as
possible to delay. Their first act was to show
the proposed shareholders pretty plainly that
no concession whatever would be made to
them on any other condition than that of the
Company possessing over them a power of
control to the extremest possible extent. In
utter hopelessness, the shareholders accepted
the terms, and the Company have obtained
a mastery over the several Indian Railway
Companies as complete and despotic as they
could desire. The Secretary to the India-
house, though wholly ignorant of all that con-
cerns railways, and having abundant other
work to do, has been made an ex-officio
director of every Indian railway, and his
powers are such as wholly to override those
of all the rest on the Railway Board. Consult-
ing engineers have been appointed by the
several Indian Governments to overrule the
decisions arrived at by the proper superin-
tending engineer of the line, though with the
exception of Colonel KENNEDY, the late con-
sulting engineer in Bengal, and now managing
director of the Baroda line, there are none of
the consulting engineers half so conversant
with railway matters as the regular railway
engineers, whose decisions they criticise, and
frequently set aside. The consequence is that
a system of endless delays and references has
sprung up. The Government is not content
with referring to its consulting engineers the
general plans and estimates of a line, with a
view to ascertain generally whether the scheme
be one deserving of approval; it pushes its inter-
ference to an extent which turns into a nullity
the shareholders, the railway directors, and
the engineers of the line. Not only have all
the accounts to be submitted periodically for
the Government's inspection and approval
(a measure we should not object to), but the
details of every, even the pettiest, work have
to be laid before it for sanction before the
work is begun. The waste of time lost in
references of this kind is endless; and in
respect to nothing is the adage more true than
in respect to the progress of railway works,
that time is money. We have heard of three
months being thus wasted in correspondence
about a bridge over a brook that a person
might have almost jumped across. The
objection was of some frivolous description
such as none but an Indian official would
have dreamed of raising, and not worth, even
if valid, the paper it was written on, setting
out of consideration the waste of time and
the loss in consequence in salaries, and the
interest of money. What is the result? Why,
that while some thousands of miles of rail
road have been constructed in the United
States and on the continent of Europe, and a
proportionate number in this country, since
the day when the East India railway system
first began, they have got on at the rate of
about twenty miles per annum in Bengal, and
of about ten miles per annum in Bombay, the
whole extent open being about a hundred and
twenty and, fifty miles respectively in these

THE PRESS.

two places. If they continue to progress at
this snail's pace, the works will not be com-
pleted till the century itself is drawing to a
close.

Such a state of things we cannot look upon
as satisfactory; and we trust that some of
those members most conversant with these
kind of undertakings will not fail in the en-
suing session to take the question up. We
are not of those who approve of the Govern-
ment guarantee principle as applied to rail-
roads, whether in the East or in the West, be-
cause we think that works of this kind are far
best left to the unfettered operations of
private enterprise. Still, a journalist or a
statesman must deal with facts as he finds
them ; and in this case of Indian railroads the
guarantee, whether rightly or wrongly, has
been given. The State is now bound beyond
recal for any losses that may accrue from
them; and it behoves the public to exercise
the same vigilance over the Indian Govern-
ment that the Indian Government claims to
exercise over the railway companies in the
first instance. Whether railroads in India
will ever pay has been a question which time
and experience alone can determine ; but it
must be quite clear that the only means to
make them pay are economy and rapidity of
construction. The most promising line in the
world must necessarily prove a failure if bur-
thened, as the Indian lines are, with a double
staff at most enormous salaries, the business
of one half of which appears to be endless
correspondence with the other half, while the
subordinates are, pending the discussion,
drawing their incomes for doing nothing. To
railways constituted on this principle, and
which progress in consequence at tho rate of
from ten to twenty miles yearly, there can be
but one termination, and that the swallowing
up of the whole subscribed capital before the
works can be more than half completed. If
this were a private matter between the rail-
way directors and their shareholders we
should not notice it; but the Government
having guaranteed a certain interest on the
outlay on these railroads, it concerns the
public quite as much as it does the share-
holders, for it is on the public that the loss
must eventually fall.