The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-01 00:00:00

BROOD MARES, &C.

Susan Lovell, by Velocipede, out of Cyprian B2
lonia, by lon, out of Ranvilette
The Teri, 6 years old, by St. Lawrence, out of Susan
Lovell, with a bay filly foal by Mathematician 5O
A grey colt, 3 years old, by Fernhill, out of Monge's
dam (untried)

CONSTRUCTION of RAILWAYS in INDIA.

-
The following report of the select committee
appointed 'o inquire into the causes that have led
to the delay in the construction of railways in India,
has just been issued :

" Your committee have taken evidence from many of the
best authorities on the subject, viz., gentlemen connected
with the Indian Government at home, officers of high stand-
ing and long experience of public works in India, as well as
managing directors, secretaries, and engineers belonging to
the different railway companies.
"There are seven distinct companies at present engaged
in vanstructing lines of railway in India, under the guaran-
tee of the Indian Government, viz. :
"1. The East Indian Railway Company engaged to con-
struct a line from Caleulta vici Rajmahal and Alla-
tiabad, to Delhi or Meerut, with a branch from Mir-
zapoor. to meet the East Indian Peninsula line at
Jubbulpoor.
" 2. The Great Indian Perrinsulz. Company, from Bom-
bay iu not Ur-easterly direction to Julibulpoor, and
in a south-easterly direction, via Poonah and Sho-
lahpore to meet the Madras line in the neighbour-
hood of Bellary.
"3. The Madras Railway Company, from Madras via
Cuddapah to Bellary, to join the line from Bombay,
and in a western direction to the Malabar coast, at
er near Beypoor.
" 4. The Bombay and Baroda Company, from Bombay
vici Surat, to Baroda and Ahmedabad.
" 5. The Scinde: and Punjaub Railway Company, from
Kurrachee to Kotree on the Indus, and from hloult an
to Lahore in the Puujaub, with a csanection by steam
navigation between Kotree and Moultan.
"6. The Eastern Bengal Company, from Calcutta to
Dacca, with a branch to Jessore.
"7. The reat Southern of India Company from Salem
yid Trichinopoly to Negapataw, and southward to
Madura and Tinnevelly.
"The first l ndian railway project was broached in the
latter end of 1844 by Mr. M'Donald Stephenson, who sub-
mitted to the India House a scheme for a line from Calcutta
to the north-west of India, based upon minute information
and statistics collected by himself on the spot; and, almost
simultaneously, Mr. Chapman submitted a scheme for a
railway from Bombay towards the interior; a company was
also formed in 1845 for the construction of a railway from
Madras to Arcot.
" The delays attendant upon railway construction in
India may be classified under four distinct heads:—
" 1. Delays arising from Government supervision at home
and in India.
"'I Delays incidental to the execution of extensive and
complicated public works under novel circumstances
in a distant country.
"3. Delays produced by political causes, such as insur-
rection and mutiny,
"4. Delays arising from the natural difficulties which
the face of the country presents.
" Your committee will proceed to notice each class of
delay in the order thus given, but it is necessary before
doing so to describe shortly the system of railway construc-
tion pursued in India. Indian railways are constructed by
companies formed in this country, and incorporated by Acts
of Parliament. In all their proceedings, operations, and
expenditure they are subjected to the control of the Govern-
ment, who engage to grant for 99 years all the land re-
quired, free of expense, to the companies, and to guarantee
interest, generally at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, for
the same term, upon the capital employed.
"The following conditions are attached to the guarantee
and the granting of the land :
" The railway company have the power of surrendering
the works at any time after the lice is opened, upon
giving six months' notice to the Government, and
the East India Company undertake to pay the whole
amount that has been expended by the railway com-
pany.
"The East India Company have the power, within six
months after the expiration of 25 or 50 years, of pur-
chasing the railway at the mean market value in London
of the shares during the three previous years. Incase
the railway company fail to complete the line or to
work it satisfactorily, the Government is entitled to
take possession, and repay within six months the
sums expended.
" The railway company to repay the guaranteed inte-
rests from the profits of the railway."
" The supervision of the Government over the proceedings
of the railway companies is of two distinct kinds, viz., that
exercised in the person of the official director over the rail-
way boards in London, and that exercised by consulting
engineers in India, to Whom is committed the charge of
superintending on behalf of Government all railway opera-
tions in that country.

" SUPERVISION AT HOME.—The duties of official di-
rector at the various railway boards have hitherto been per-
formed by the same person, and he has, under the terms of
the contract, a power of veto over all the proceedings of the
beard, but it does not appear that this power has ever been
exercised; indeed, until a comparatively recent period, his
functions appear to have been confined to giving information
to the Court of Directors upon points on which they might
require it, and to co-operating in the promotion of the
various undertakings ; but authority has been lately given
to him to sanction all indents (or requisitions) for stores and

materials approved by the local Governments in India, and
the acceptance of tenders for the supply of the same.
" Previous to this important extension of the powers of
the official director, every indent was submitted for the
direct sanction of the home authorities, by a process thus
described by Sir James Melvill, the official director :—‘ The
indent came from the railway authorities in India to the
railway board in this country ; the railway board then came
to their decision upon it ; and if they proposed to comply
with it, they sent a resolution to that effect to the Court of
Directors; the Court of Directors came to an opinion upon
it, and their opinion was submitted for the concurrence of
the Board of Control, and when the indent was returned
with the opinion of both authorities, the decision was com-
municated to the railway board.' Such a system necessarily
entailed a very considerable amount of delay and corre-
spondence, and the best results may be anticipated from the
judicious changes lately effected in this respect.
"The process of forwarding instructions from the railway

boards to their agents in India also seem to your committee
to require improvement. Sir James Melvill thus describes
it :--` The railway board prepares a draft of the instructions
to its agent in India, and every such draft, without excep-
tion, is submitted to the Court of Directors; the court, ex-
pressing an opinion upon it, submit it to the Board of
Control, and when both authorities are agreed, the letter is
returned to the railway board, with an intimation that the
Court of Directors offers no objection to it.' Considerable
delays have not unfrequently resulted from this cause; and
though it is, no doubt, important that instructions to their
agents in India ehould go out backed by the whole weight
and authority of the approval of the Home Government,
your committee would confidently expect that the contem-
plated consolidation of the departments of the India House
and the Board of Control will materially expedite the future
transaction of railway business. Before leaving this branch
of the subject, your committee would remark that the har-
mony which has prevailed at the railway board seems to be
in no small degree attributable to the judgment and discre-
tion exercised on all occasions by the official director, and
to the respect shown to his opinion.
"SUPERVISION IN INDIA.— Under the terms of the
contract the Government have an almost unlimited power
of control over the acts and operations of the railway com-
panies, the inspection and supervision of the works being
in every case delegated to a military engineer, whose duty,
as described by Col. Baker, is, in the first instance, to ex-
amine the line of country over which it is proposed to con-
struct a railway, to examine all the designs and estimates,
to audit all expenditure, to report upon completed works,
and to maintain a real check over all the acts of railway

officers.
" Your committee hesitate to express any opinion as to
the policy of employing military men in the inspection of
railway works and the control of civil engineers, but it is
quite clear that to ensure cordial co-operation no small
amount of forbearance and discretion must be exercised on
both sides. Too minute an interference in details, while
unnecessary for practical economy, involves constant con-
troversy, lengthy correspondence, and consequent delay,
besides engendering irritation and discord where friendly
and united action ought to subsist. Your committee are de-
cidedly of opinion that to ensure the speedy and efficient
completion of railways in India the utmost freedom of
action ought to be allowed to the efforts of the different
companies, consistent with the control necessary to protect
from undue expenditure the Indian Exchequer, upon which
the payment of the guaranteed interest must for some time
remain a heavy charge.
4, Complaints of too minute an interference on the part
of the Government consulting engineer have been strongly
urged from the Madras Presidency, for the further details
of which your committee would refer to the evidence,
which complaints appear to be in part well founded ; on
the other hand, your committee cannot think that the
proceedings of the chief engineer of the railway company
have been wholly free from blame. Directions have
been sent out from the Home Authorities to the Madras
Government to relax the extent of supervision in force
there ; but it does not appear in evidence that those
instructions have as yet taken effect. Your committee,
however, have had no opportunity cf hearing an explana-
tion from the Madras Government on the subject.
" Other complaints, but in a minor degree, have arisen,
both in Bengal and Bombay, though in the latter Presi-
dency the relations between the Government and the Great
Indian Peninsula Railway officials appear to have been, for
the most part, of a harmonious and satisfactory character.
" The delays incidental to the construction of railways
in so distant a country as India are of various kinds and
degrees of magnitude. The cost and means of obtaining
freight must always be regulated, and, in the opinion of
many competent authorities, actually limited by the home
demand for Indian produce ; hence the transport across
the sea of the vast mass of dead weight] necessary for
the construction of thousands of miles of iron way, besides
locomotives, iron work for bridges, and other materials,
forms a cause of delay second only in importance to the
difficulties which impede the conveyance of these ma-
terials up the country, where the means of internal
communication are in many places very imperfect,
to
where river navigation during the dry season is liable

constant interruption, where boats are scarce, and native
boatmen untrustworthy. To these difficulties may be added
the want severely felt in many districts, and especially in
Iliengal, of fuel for lime and brick burning, and of timber
suitable for sleepers, large quantities of which are now
being supplied from England : the effects of Indian climate
upon European constitutions ; the f, equent failures of
contractors, unaccustomed or incompetent to undertake
such extensive works ; and, lastly, the circuitous and
lengthy correspondence carried on between the railway
boards and their agents on the one hand, and with the
various Government eepartments, both here and in India,
on the other; all these appear to your committee to form
sources of delay more or les serious, and must be classed
among the main impediments to the rapid progress of tail-
way enterprise in India.
" Delays from political causes have been of frequent
occurrence. In Bengal the Santhal tehellion in 1355 is
described as having thrown back the wot ks in the Rajmahal
district for fully 1.2 months, and the evil influences resuliing
from it are not even yet at an end. The mutiny snbsequenly
suQpended railway operations in Upper Bengal and the
north-west provinces from May to December of last year,
and its disastrous consequences must be felt for some lime
to come, although the actual damage done to the woks
appears to be less than might have been anticipated. Rail-
way operations in the other Presidencies have hitherto been
happily free from the disturbing influences of insurrtc ion
and war.

"Lastly come the delays arising from the natural features
of the country, such as the bridging of large rivers, and the
surmounting of the emits. Mr. Noa4, in his evidence,
states that the whole question of the completion of the East
India railway resolves itself into the rapidity with which i he
enormous number of its heavy bridges and flood arches can
be constructed. Along the Ganges Valley line, between
Burdwan and the river Soane, a distance of about 400 miles,
there are described to be no less than 47,000,000 cubic feet
of brickwork, including the substructure of the gigantic
bridge over the Soane.
"On the Bombay and Baroda line, between Surat and
Ahmedabad, three large and rapid rivers, the Taptee, Ner-
budda, and Mhye, present considerable engineering diffi-
culties, and require costly and extensive bridges; on that
important portion of the line between Surat and Bombay
no fewer than 18 rivers have to be crossed, one of which,
known as the Bassein Strait, is described to be 11- mile in
width. On portions of the Madras line, also, the bridging
works are described to be very heavy; but even the great
works thus enumerated appear insignificant in comparison
to the stupendous task undertaken by the Great Indian
Peninsula Company of carrying their railway across the
two mountain passes known as the Thull Ghaut and the
Bhor Ghent, the former on the north-easterly the latter on
the south-easterly portion of this line. On the Thull Ghaut
the ascent is nine miles, the total rise in that distance 972
feet ; the steepest gradient, 1 in 37 for a distance of 11 miles
44 chains ; and the works include 1,062 lineal yards of tun-
nelling, and 614 yards of viaduct, at an estimated cast of
£49,988 per mile. On the Bhor Ghaut the steepest
gradient is 1 in 67 for a mile and 38 chains, the total dis-
tance is 15 miles 68 chains, the total rise in that distance
1,831 feet, the tunnelling is 2,535 yarJs, and the viaduct
888 yards, the estimated cost being £48,188 per mile.
" With the exception of the ghauts and rivers, however,

the general face of the country seems favourable for rail-
way construction, presenting for the most part easy gradi-
ents ; and the very low price of labour keeps down the cost
to an average for the whole country of about £lO,OOO per
mile, while many of the less expensive lines are being con-
structed at a cost of £6,000 per mile.
" Upon an impartial review of the early history of In-
dian railways, there can be no doubt that much valuable
time was lost in the preliminary negotiations for the intro-
duction of railway enterprise into India, and also on ac-
count of the commercial crisis having arisen while these
negotiations were still incomplete; the novelty and mag-
nitude of the undertaking, the remoteness of the scene of
operations, and the natural difficulties of climate and
country might well have raised doubts and hesitation in the
minds of the Indian authorities at home; but your com-
mittee are decidedly of opinion that had the matter been
taken up at first with the earnestness that its importance,
both political and commercial, deserved, in accordance
with the proposal of the Court of Directors in 1846
to the Board of Control, and had the proposals of the
originators been met with the same liberality which
has been displayed in the agreements with the different
companies, our Indian possessions might ere this have
been provided with many hundred miles of rapid internal
communication, the value of which would have been felt

in the facilities afforded for military concentration, and the
more speedy development of their resources. But your
committee have no means of judging of the considerations
by which the Government were actuated in these proceed-
ings. With reference to the actual prosecution of the works

Your committee cannot in fairness omit to observe that,
though some cans have been cited in which the Govern-

went superintendence has been productive of vexation and
annoyance to the railway officials, and has tended to im-
pede that harmonious action between the Government and
the companies which is essential for the rapid completion
these great works, no very material delay in the construction
of the various lines appears to have resulted therefrom.
From the evidence adduced, your committee are led to be-
lieve that the progress of railroads under construction in
India will bear favourable comparison with that of English
lines. Willing tcs!imony has been given by many of the
railway authorities to the value of Government control to
the interests of the companies themselves, when rationally
and temperately exercised.

"Your committee have not thought it necessary to enter
into any comparison of the respective merits of the contract
and departmental systems of construction, the adoption of
which must always materially depend on the circumstances
of the district ; and it appears highly necessary that both
systems should have a fair trial before giving any decided
preference to either.

" In conclusion, your committee are of opinion, liist,
that the Government has acted wisely in committing to
private enterprise the execution of these great public
works; secondly, that a guaranteed interest on the requisite
capital was indispensable to induce the public to invest their
money in undertakings of this magnitude and novelty;
and thirdly, that in order to protect the Indian revenue
from undue expenditure, Government control over the
railway operations is requisite, and even valuable to the
interests of the shareholders themselves. At the same

time, your committee would observe that, under a system
complicated iu its character, and necessarily somewhat
cumbrous in its machinery, a system, moreover, the greatest
defect of which is the facility it affords for the evasion of re-
sponsibility, a clear and distinct definition of the duties, re-
sponsibilities, and extent of jurisdiction of all heads of de-
partments, and those under them, is essentially requisite for
its smooth and successful working ; always as,mning that
due care be taken to entrust discretionary power only to
men who are to he relied on as competentlo distinguish an
effective general control from too minute an interference in
details. By a judicious adherence to the spirit rather than
the letter of the contract, your committee feel assured that
arrangements may he simplified, united action for ono
common object secured, and railway enterprise in India may
before long assume proportions commensurate with the vast
commercial agricultural and mineral resources of that
coun try." •

The COLLISION ontheOXFOR D, WORCESTER,
and WOLVERHAMPTON RAILWAY.

The adjourned inquest on the ill-fated persons who came
by their death on Monday week in consequence: of the col-
lision of two excursion trains on the Oxford, Worcester, and
Wolverhampton Railway, near Brettell-lane, will be held to-
day, before the coroner, Mr. T. M. Phillips, and experi—
ments have been made on the incline where the collision
took place, the results of which will no doubt be given in
evidence.

The Goverament inspector of railways, Capt. Tyler, has
visited the locality and witnessed the experiments. lie has
been occupied two days in making the most minute in-
quiries into the condition of the line, the plant, rolling stock,
&c., and has been attended by the secretary (Mr. Adcock),
the manager (Mr. Sherriff), and the engineer (Mr. Nilson).
Some important evidence will be brought forward to-day.
It is stated that several of the injured parties have already
been liberally compensated by the company.
The points to which the inquiry has now to be mainly
directed are as to the service of the brakes used on the train
and the competency of the guard who was entrusted with
their working. It is certain that when the coupling chair.s
broke, and the hinder part of the train b€catne detached, its
already acquired momentum caused it to continue on its
journey for a short time until that momentum became ex-
hausted, when the detached portion of the train. must for a
moment have come to a stand, after which it began to recede
down the incline. At this point a small pressure of the
brake ought to have stopped the train ; c.nd if the guard
applied the brake, and it acted in a proper manner, the
train would have been kept in a stationary position on the
line, and would not have receded down the incline. The
question, therefore, is, whether the brake was an efficient
one, and whether the guard applied it as it was clearly his
duty to have done. These are the points that ought to be
cleared up, if possible. The van with the brake was smashed
to pieces by the collision.

THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY'S SIIOW AT ABERDEEN.
—The proceedings connected with the Highland and Agri-
cultural Society's show commenced at Aberdeen on Monday.
Everything gives indication that the meeting will, while t
doubt, be the greatest the society ever held, and, in some ruc-
spects, probably the best ever held in Britain. The number
of entries far exceeds those at any former show, the total
the Glasgowsociety's
lost
h
yseaorfw ith
beingwhile
in 1847,
At
i
when o
entook total
place w'a
ins 2
032
3
N Aber-
deen, the number was only 030. Priaments there are
802 entries, including 10 reaping mach'
machines. Monday was occupied l'aes and 27 thrashing
-
log machines, and arranging the in ',tie trial of the thrashyard on the Links. The mcg,r lmplements in the show
ni,nrg
were entertained that the w
however, the day w
suc-
cess of the meeting consid was very wet, and fears
ev-t iler might damage the
as b Srsi.!,)ly. When our despatch left,
r7,-gli t and sunny. A great many
straugers have alread
•
Y arrived in the city, and every train
brings crowds of fresh arrival, s.