The Express.
London, England, 1847-05-26 00:00:00

COLONIAL.

NEW BRUNBWITK7—RniLwATe. —We have
now before us the reports presented to the Legislative Coun-
cil and Assembly of New Itrunswick, relating to the project
of constructing a railway and a line of electro-magnetic tele-
graph through the province', from Halifax to Quebec : and

X EVENING, MAY 26, 1847.

we understand that this Important document is now beingree
printed here by order of the Colonial-office. We can eon-
mice nothing more important at the present day than the
development .f the fisheries, and the agricultural and
mineral resources of British North America: and certainly
the first step to systematic colonisation, to the creation of
granaries for England in the rich soil of her nearest oolonial
possession, is to facilitate intercommunication by roads and
railways, the formation of which, moreover, would immedi-
ately employ and relieve thousand, of our home population.
Make railways, and colonies will make themselves. The
reports we have referred to embrace very ample and valuable
details and statistics u to the trade, agriculture, fisheries,
and general progress of the 13 counties of New Brunswick the
imports and export., and number and Umfrage of vessels built is
the province from 182.5 to 1845 ; estimates and other parti-
culars relating to electric telegraphs and wooden railways,
and upon the ports and harbour, east of Halifax ; and a prac-
tical treatise os the various uses and properties of the timber
trees of the dose forests of New Brunswick. Our reader,
are aware that the local and imperial governments have
afforded very great and extensive privileges to a body of local
e,apitaltsts to form the first link in this great chain of British
transatlantic railways; these privileges embrace large tracts
and blocks of territory, and a guarantee of .5 per cent. inte-
rest on the further capital to be subscribed in England. It
is now more than ten year, since an act was parsed to incor-
porate the St. Andrew's and Quebec Railway Company. Va-
rious circumstances, espacially the pending protracted nego-
tiations to settlo the boundary question, led to the sisspen-
sio a of proceedings under this ac!, but • line was actually
surveyed at the expense of the British government. It is
now intended to form eighty miles of this line, vie, from
St. Andrew's to Woodstock, to be afterwards continued to
the Grand Falls, there to run into the great main trunk
line from Halifax to Quebec, in the event of which
extension, the United State. companies will complete the
coanexion through Maine, from Boston and Augusta to St.
Andrew's; thus by the physical leading to the moral and
commercial union of the republic and Great Britain. These
railways will all be constructed of Payniaed timber rails,
with cylindrical bearing wheels, and on the guide-wheal
principle; and, as all the land, timber, fuel, and materials
are granted free, will not met mare than 1,0001. pee mile.
There are 12.000,001 of acres of rich and valuable territory
still the property of the crown in the province of New Bruns-
wick; and this territory abounds in the finest timber, in coal,
iron, salt, gypsum, freestone, and slate; while the waters of
the bay of Fundy term with fish, for which • railway would
open up on inexhaustible market in the interior of the pro-
vinces. Perhaps the moat important portion of these reports,
especially in connexion with the formation of the line, and
the supplying of England with cheap timber for railway
and other purpnses, is that which treats of the vast timber
forests of New Brunswick. Between the parallels of 43 deg.
and 46 deg. north latitude, or the larger portion of New
Brunswick, both the resinous or "soft wood" trees, the pine
and the spruce, and the leafy or " kid woods," the maple,
birch, beech, ash, &r., abound in all directions; above that
line, the hard wood lands gradually become more rare, and
the soft wood lands more abundant ; while the reverse takes
place below the line, as we proceed clawnwards through
the states. In New Brunswick, accordingly, we find three
or four species of oak, walnut, maple, alder, cherry, beech,
hornbeam, ash, elm, lime, pine, spruce, larch, and cedar ;
and many of the most valuable descriptions being found
in the interior, and at some distance from river navigation,
they have never become the subject of commerce with
Europe. The cutting down and sawing of this timber into
sleepers and scantlings for the English railways,
would afford a permanent employment for emigrant
labourers during the winter months. In South Carolina,
where also three is abundance of timber, rails essentially of
timber have been adopted with success, save as respects the
perishable nature of the material. It was necessary that all
the timber should be periodically renewed, or that perma-
nent embanking and masonry should be supplied. But in
the report on this subject addressed to the Lieutenant-Gover-
nor of New Brunswick by Mr. Wilkinson, of the surveyor-
general's department, it is alleged that had any certain mesas
of preventing the decay of the wood been known, such ne-
cessity would have been obviated. Oa the principle to be
adopted in these Canadian lines, we observe that both
mechanical and chemical appliances are resorted to, to pre-
vent abrasion and decay ; and a first successful experiment,
accordingly, will pave the way for the general adoption of
the plan on the American continent. Eighty miles of •
cheap and efficient railway, commencing at the boundary
port of St. Andrew's, will lead to hundreds and thousseds
of miles of similar roads.

SUGAR CULTIVATION IN THE MADRAS
PRESIDENCY.—(CoyworocAran).

The Delta of the Godarery, forming part of the dis-
trict of Rajahmundry, is situated about 230 geographical
miles N.E. of Madras. It is about 50 miles from the point
where the river Bret divides to the sea, and the Delta land
extands about 80 miles along the coast, joining on the south
side the Delta of Kistne. It has a perfectly safe and good
harbour in the Ilay of Coring..
The peculiar advantages of this district for sugar cultiva-
tion are these:—l. The whole Delta, containing 800,000 acres
actually under cultivation, has been pronounce 1 by one ex-
perienced person to be perfectly suited in respect of soil,
almost every acre being capable of producing a good crop, and
the best probably not less than 21 to 3 tons. A considerable
extent is now cultivated by the natives, and with greater
profit than any other cultivation, but from want of cap:6d,
and especially from the uncertainty of having a sale for the
produce, it has not increased hitherto ; but now that Euro.
peace have undertaken the manufacture of sugar, ensuring a
sale for the jagghery and coarse sugar sada by the growers,
it is inereuing, but not rapidly.
The following is the actual present coat of cultivation, as
conducted by the natives, with the country cane :
Rapes.
Planting, weeding, tutting, An, per awe l2
Baraboo. to support the canoe
Cost of raising water 10 to 15 feet
Land-tax lbr two years

Presdng and manntleturing jagghery • 9
Met of II candies, or 5,5001bn B7

Cog a ditto per to 35
Present prSoe per to 3O

Profit to cultivator&
At this rate for jagghery the cost of the sugar to the manu-
facturer is

Rupees.
2 V:, (including carriage)
Manufacturing about

C4At of one ton of row llll—Cl6 10..
Freight, dots, &e 2O 0

38 10s.

Present value of such enter in London /boat

Nett profit to the manufacturer
It will be observed that this is the present actual oast of
sugar under these disadvantages :-
1. The country cane is a moat wretched kind, about the
e iZr of one's finger, 6 to 10 feet long, producing, according to
the natives' estimation, about one-half or three-quarters the
quantity of sugar per acre that the Mauritius cane does—for
the latter has hams introduced lately, and thrives excellently.
2. The whole cultivation is earned on in a very ignorant
and imperfect manner, from want of capital and skill. Two
years' land tax is paid upon each crop, because the canes do
not rettoon, but a new piece of ground is taken each year •
and every other year little or nothing is grown on the
ground.
3. The means of raising the water are miserably bad, and
it costs about three or four times what it would cost if relied
by steam power.
4. From the imperfection of the mills and of the manufac-
ture much of the saccharine matter is lost.
On account of these and other defects in the native ma-
nagement there is not the least doubt that with the Mauri-
tius cane and European skill and capital, the actual coat of
production would be greatly reduced, especially as the sugar
would be made direct from the juice.
The following is the estimate of an experienced West In-
dian planter, of the exposes of werking a farm and menu-
fact4=lo tans of raw per annum :
1,000 rupees per month.
•olmsapsims, oaesrverseers, disease ,
1,500
I :10111 =
4 NMI bibs soligant-ovainers 100
Woe men so

.........
6 oaths eta sentsnts .. GO
3 forges Go
10 carpenters .. TO
1 European carpenter
To pews
1, 0
20
SOO labourers
Sundries
—5,900 ropees Y. 12 = 63,600
1 000 tons of firewood
Water government rest
[And, ditto _ IWO 7,400

1,000171.000
repairer ton 71
tort of yaw, per met.
Value of rum eblebed
Profit on rem aline, per cwt 3
That is that there would be a deer gain on the rum alone
equal to 3s. upon every cwt. of sugar manufactured from
jaeghery, which is, as above, 10, 6d. per cwt., and de-
ducting the value of rum about 75., for it is evident that
European skill and capital applied to the cultivation, with
the saving from making the sugar direct from the juice, in-
deed of first spoiling the material by making jagghery of it,
most necessarily diminish the cost of the sugar. There are
works in Amherst, sear Moulmein, on the coast of Tense-
rerun, which are supplied entirely with labourers tram-
ported from this district by sea, and paid four times as much
as they we here, and it is stated that even there the rum
more than covers the whole wet of the production of eager.
2. There is an unfailing supply of water, the Godavery
containing water sufilcisat for probably 200,000 acres ;
perhaps for four in the derangements. At present the water
must be raised by 'machinery for irrigation, but it is in con-
templation by government to construct a weir across the
river, which would bring the water upon the surface of the
land at all times ; and land thus supplied throughout the
year would probably pay government some increase of tax,
although lees than it would cost to raise it by steam power,
and saving the cultivator the first coat of the machinery.
3. The low ooat of labour, 2d. a day. The want of capital
among the people is so great that a very small sum will go
a at way in any undertaking in this district ; as a proof
of this fact free lands are commonly sold at 10 years' pur-
chased the rest.
4. The climate is perhaps one of the very best within the
trapies ; there is no fever or other epidemic in the district.
Though for two months the heat is very great in the
interior, the thermometer about 100 in the shade, at the
most, in the middle of the day, yet the Europeans are gene-
rally very healthy; on the coast there is always a mailmen
in the afternoon, excepting in yary e seasons,

and the thermometer rarely reaches 90. Coosidering
the many diseases produced by the climate of Great Britain,
from which we are entirely free here, I should not think
the mortality in this district would much exceed, if at all,
that of England; the actual mortality during the last
five years has been 6, including children, in about 90 indi-
' ?ideals, or less than lin 70 per annum. There are otos-
' sional cases of cholera, and now and then particul .r villages
are attacked with it, but I do not suppose the deaths
from it are nearly equal to those from consumption, for in-
stance, in England.
5. There wdl be scarcely any cost of carriage: the distance
of the plantations from the port will be only from 10 to 70
miles, with water-carriage at all times.
6. Abundance of excellent timber, teak and others, are
brought down the river, at a very low price.
7. The population of the Delta u about 4,000,000, or per-
haps 2.50 to the square mile. They are now actually convey-
ing labourers from this presidency to the Mauritius and the
West Indies eta great cost, paying them there four times
what they can be hired for here oa estates that have been
purchased with an enormous capital, in a climate much more
dangerous to the European constitut:on, while here every-
thing is ready upon the spot.
8. Perhaps the most important point of all is that so little
capital is required to carry on ;he manufacturing of softer.
The following is the estimation for a plantation of 2.50 scree,
to produce 500 tons per annum:
Pulklinxs
Machinery
Enzine and pumping apperstaa.. 5OO If required.
Current expenses 1,900

£4,000 -400 tow,

Capital required per tan per annmn... 8.
And as any small plantation could be cultivated with little
inGre than proportionate cap:al, any active young man with
6001. or 4001. could begin with every prospect of an ample
income.
To compare this district with the Wed Indies, in their
present stato : _

.1.11.41•013.
Cost a estimated capital to produce 4011 tow OlO,OOO 0 0
Current capture"

400 1 44,000 0 0
Capital required's km per anr...ra

Interat of capitol. et 6 per ern% for each ton 1 12 0
Cost of production— ll 0 0

Total and of probe.= mad interest
___ £2o 12 0

Capital u above per Oft pr aan— 8 n 0
Interut, at 6 per eeat..—.— 0 9 7
Profit on rum 4 0 0

Net on rum above, deducting interest ES to S per ton.
Barbadoes is taken as being the most profitable of the
West Indian Islands at present with many of the others
there can be no comparison at all.
It thus appears that a young man with 5001., could at once
commence upon a farm to produce GO tons a year. with a
profit of more than the whole value of his produce of sugar.
In Berb■doea he would require a capital of 7,0001. This
district is thus open to any active yowl, man with a few
hundred pounds, while in the West Indies • man must
already be very wealthy before he can commence sugar
plsitthig upon the most moderate scale.
Some of the prices of things in the West Indies, com-
pared with those in this district, will ht:p to explain this
difference.
In Grenada. In Bajahmundry.
,C e. d. P. al.
Bricks, per 1,000
Carpenter, per meth
Bricklayer, per month
Labourer, per day 0 1 6 0 2
Lime, per ton 1 16 0 6 0
An experienced West Indian, after being some consider-
able time employed in sugar works in this part of the coun-
try, estimated that the labour of • native, under European
superintendence, was fully equal to that of the Africans in
the West Indies. These statements are thus based upon the
actual present cost of sugar manufactured by Europeans from
jagghery, and the estimate of an experienced West Indian
on the spot, of the cost tt production when the cultivation
also is carried on under European superintendence. What
better data could be demanded ?
It seems to leave no possible room for doubt that
neither the Brazils, nor any other part of the world, can
compete with Rejahmundry. The produce of Brazils can bo
landed in England for 15s. a cwt. ; that of this district would
cost in England as follows :
Coat of production
Freight,

Ile.
Deduct vaned rum

Cost per sirt.
Coat of RaPihroundry engsr in LOLC3II ed. per lb.

What reason can be discovered why sugar should not be
produced thus cheaply ? ft is one of the easiest cultivated
plumb; the same acre of land that produce' 1,5001 be. weight
of rice, will 'produce 13,0001b5. of sugar—four times the
quantity; the ,labour of cultivation is not extraordinarily
great; the manufacture is not a particularly difficult or expen-
sive operation—where, as in this district, there are sun, suit.
able land, water, and population ; with a healthy climate, it
ought to be one of the cheapest products of the earth. It
has only been made immense, hitherto, by the ...esteem of
men taking their fellow-creatures, against their will from
their own countries, or bribing them, by high pay, to emi- ,
grate, in order that the cultivation might be carried on '
where previously there were no labourers ; while they left I
uncultivated the finest sugar countries in the world, though
filled with a dense population. There is no me point in
which this district has not the advantage over the West
Indies, and, in moat, in a prodigious degree.
In the particular of climate alone there is no comparison
between them. For Europeans this is nearly the healthiest
tropical climate in the world. The mortality among Euro-
pmine is quite insignificant, very little greater than that of
England, if indeed it is so great.
There is no doubt that things cannotalways remain in this
state, but that in the courso of years, a district which can
produce at leect 400,000 tons of sugar pet annum, by an in-
vestment of capital of only three millions, and at a cost in
London of only 41. per ton, must make • complete change in
the whole sugar market. Its price to the consumer, if the
duty is proportionally reduced, might be leas than half what
it is now ; and it is also certain that the investment of
three millions sterling in a district which probably does not
at present contain property of all kinds to the value of half
a million will materially affect the value if money, and so
increase the cost of production in time, though not probably
very
seriously, because there is nothing to prevent people
flocking into it from the neighbouring countries ; but after
all, for a great many years to come, this Delta must afford
an unbounded field for the profitable employment of Euro-
pean capital and enterprise.
Let us now consider what results the occupation of this
magnificent field is calculated to produce under the combined
advantagea of a fertile and suitable soil, unfailing supply of
water, a dense population labour at 2d. a-day, land to be had
on merely paying the government tax of from se. to 16s. an
acre, a few miles only of water carriage to the coast, a safe
harbour, river communication, with teak forests, and •
climate perfectly healthy to the inhabitants, and so much so
to Europeans, that probably the diseases to which they would
be subjected from the heat t.• not at all exceed those which
are peculiar to the climate of England, and from which they
would be here quite free.
1. It will wipe off the grievous stain of a district of un-
bounded 11
natural advantages while under oar government,
sinking annually into deeper poverty, the population dimi- I
nishing and exposed ever to the danger of amine, while its
resources are as unfailing as they are great.
2. It will bring European influence to bear upon the na-
tive population in a far more powerful manner than has yet
been seen in India, at least if its occupation is carried for.
ward under the concentrated power and energies of an hitch
ligent English association, who would feel at every step that
the welfare of the native population and their own were en-
tirely inseparable, and who, being unconnected with the go-
vernment, would in many respects be able to promote that wel-
fare far beyond what the government itself can do.
3, Such a revenue could be paid with the greatest ease
beyond the present collections as would go far towards pro-
viding for the expenses of our wars, if they should not exceed
what they have been in years past. The district would pay
an additional 500,0001. a-year with far more ease than it now
pays 200,0001. The revenue of Tanjore is now 300,0001. 1
a-year more than that of the Delta as a mere main district;
and certainly this could and would pay 200,0001. more than
Tanjore now does, if it were a sugar plantation.
4. It would probably reduce the cost of sugar to one half
what it now is, and bring up the consumption of England to
• million of tom a year, besides causing an incalculable
in-
crease in the consumption of the coetioent of Europe and of
America, providing thus an Unmet= field for the employ•
ment of shipping.
5. It would apparently give the final blow to the slave
trade.

have yet to see what effect upon our whole Indian
empire the example of one province fairly brought under
European influence, its resources well developed, and its
dense population roused from the torpor in which it is sunk,
would have..

It would show certainly, in a manner far beyond anything
yet exhibited, what India might become under the com-
bined influences of a strong, well-ordered, and upright
government, and private European enterprise duly organised
and concentrated.

oanii:lTes;iitit:hat this' is an Mttgn. ifieant question? or id
it too much to say that England, India, and Africa, are
deeply interested in it ? The world is now so bound toge-
ther by various ties, that the influence of such a change u
this cannot but be powerfully felt over a large portion of it.
It is most remarkable that so many years should have
puled without the attention of mercantile men being drawn
to these districts. .

•
It was well known that the cane thrives well, and that
excellent white loaf sugar was always procurable at about
41 per lb., or 225. per cwt., manufactured in the wasteful
and unskilful mode common among the natives, and yet
while every other part of the tropics almost has been tried
for this produce by Europeans, it is only within these two
yean that two mercantile homes have thought of under-
taking the manufacture here, while there is really not one of
the drawbacks that are found in every other sugar country.
Sugar works are now in operation in Dimlipatam, in the
next district of Vizagapatam, capable of manufacturing at
least 2,000 tone a year, and the same houses are now esta-
blishing two seta of works in this Delta, one of them for
manufacturing from the canes to be grown on the spot, and
one from Jegghery purchased from the natives.
In the former, the cultivation of the was and manufactures
from the juice, there is an unlimited field. Perhaps this
Delta alone would produce half a million of tons a year and
more.
Some shipments from Bimlipatam have already bean
made, and the quality of the sugar may, therefore, be easily
ascertained; but as it was manufactured by persona who had
not been experienced, it will be doubtlem inferior to future
shipments.