The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-18 00:00:00

COST OF CARRYING COTTON IN INDIA

(From the Friend of India.)
We have been so blinded, since the secession of
the Southern States of America, by clouds of com-
plaints and reports, of facts and figures, regarding
Indian cotton, that we hail with satisfaction the
resolution of the Government of India to intrust to
a competent authority in each Presidency the pub-
lication of a hand-book of information regarding
Indian cotton, compiled from every available source,
whether Indian records, Parliamentary blue-books,
scientific transactions, or independent works on the
subject. At present the only trustworthy books to
which the public can refer for information are the
Report of the Select Committee of 1848, and the
volumes of Mr. Alexander Mackay and Mr. John
Chapman, issued 10 years ago,
The discussions of the past six months have
ended, as they began, in the unanimous opinion
that the export of sufficient cotton from India is
merely a matter of price, and that price is largely a
question of roads. When a pound of cotton fetches
as much in Calcutta as it would in Liverpool there
is no inducement to send it home. The question to
be determined is whether we will wait till Man-
chester is compelled by dire necessity to give us a
higher price, or set to work to reduce the cost of
production and conveyance to port
. and improve the
quality. The former remedy is indefinite. The
latter is so mnch in our own hands that it at once
recommends itself as the one which should be
ado ted. Could a reduction be effected in the price
at which cotton could be laid down in England, an
immediate and incalculable impetus would be im-
parted to the export. A large quantity of even
such cotton as we are now sending would be a
benefit to the manufacturers of Manchester, as well
as to the producer and exporter here. To raise a
better quality of the article would certainly be de-
sirable, but this is an end that cannot be attained
in a day. It will be many years before there are
sufficient European planters in India to give a
new name to Indian cotton, and it may be many
more before the natives will adopt any other sys-
tem of cultivation and preparation of the staple than
that which has been handed down from generation
to generation, even though Lord Ellenborough's
chimerical scheme were adopted.
If the most effectual method of increasing the
trade is to reduce the cost of carriage from the cot-
ton-growing provinces, we must agree as to the
cheapest mode of transport, and then consider how
that may soonest be rendered available. However
valuable railways may be as channels for the rapid
conveyance of goods from one place to another, they
will never absorb one-tenth of the traffic which the
cotton trade must create. At present their rates
are too high. Cotton is carried on the East Indian
line for 11d. per ton per mile, on the Great Indian
Peninsula for ltd., and on the Madras line for lid.
But Mr. Bazley stated in the House of Commons
that he hoped the railways would not charge more
than one-third of a penny per ton per mile on cot-
ton making its way to the seaboard. Whatever be
the cost, however, at which the railway can carry
cotton, it is evident that for long distances railway
carriage is too expensive, and that some other mode
of conveyance must be looked for. The present na-
tive mode of land carriage is out of the question.
The only other mode of conveyance. and the one best
suited to this country, is water. Railways may
supersede the existing modes of land transport, and
create a new traffic in goods and passengers where-
ever they permeate, particularly in localities to
which water communication does not extend, but
they must not be expected to supersede the use of
rivers and canals. India is said to be like America
in many of its physical aspects. If we wish to
make India resemble her still more by becoming in
turn the great cotton supplier of England, we must
study the means by which America has attained to
her present position. We find from Captain. Haig's
letter to the Secretary of State, dated Sept., 1859,
when no one bad the least suspicion of the events
which have since transpired in that country, that
most of the traffic of America is carried on by
means of the large and numerous rivers, and at
prices with which the cheap railways cannot
compete. This is especially the case with cotton.
The rates at which goods are carried on American
rivers are so low that she possesses in this respect
an immeasurable advantage over India. On the
Lower Mississippi the rates are 1-7 d. to id. per
ton per mile; on the Upper Mississippi, 1-3 d. to
7-10 d.; on the Ohio, 1-sd. to 1-3 d. ; on the Mis-
souri, 4-sd. to 1 1-10 d. ; on the St. Lawrence, 2-sd.
to 3-5 d.; and on the Hudson, 1-3 d. The rates on
Indian rivers vary from 21d. toad. per ton per mile.
Capt. Haig, who is so enthusiastic on the naviga-
tion of the Godavery, estimates the rate at Id. to
Zd, per ton per mile. Supposing it to cost at from
Id. per ton to send cotton from Hinginghat, on the
Godavery, to Coringa, a distance of 440 miles, the
total expenditure will be about £1 7s. 6d. Tha
cost of sending cotton to Calcutta from Jubbulpore
via Mirzapore, which is a distance of 460 miles by
land and 700 by river, is stated to be not less than
.£ll per ton. The difference between the two is so
great as to be almost incredible. The whole of the
northern bank of that river is now in our territory,
and all tolls and transit duties have been abolished.
The cotton capabilities of Berar are so enormous,
and its proximity to the East Coast is so tempting,
that the Bombay Railway from Negpore or Oomra-
wuttee will not suffice to take off one-half of the
produce, even if it can carry cotton for 500 miles as
cheaply as the native boat for 1,500. The best
cotton, we are told, in Mr. Stanbrough's letter
recently published by Government, is grown on the
banks of the Wurdah, a tributary of the Godavery.
We do not believe now, any more than we have
ever done, that any engineering will remove the
rocks which impede the navigation of the Goda-
very so as to permit steamers to ascend its upper
waters. But native boats find these rocks no
impediment, and Captain Haig may succeed in
opening the river to steamers by cutting his 60
miles of canal parallel with the most difficult
part of the channel. The Ohio river at Louis-
ville is obstructed by rocks somewhat resem-
bling those on the Godavery. Water communi-
cation was urgently wanted. A company was
formed, and a lateral canal cut along the obstructed
part at a cost of a million of dollars. In 12
years the whole capital was returned besides inte-
rest. Sir W. Denison, who has just returned from
visiting the spot, should once for all settle this
vexed Godavery question.
Having by a wise policy now secured extensive
trunk lines of railway, which are as much a poli-
tical necessity as a commercial boon, and having
spent or pledged ourselves to spend more than fifty
millions sterling of English capital upon them, it
is time to devote all our attention to these smaller
and less imposing projects of canals, locks, tram-
ways, and roads, both as feeders to the railways and
and as means of transit where no railways exist.
'For this purpose there are road and ferry funds and
1 per cent. cesses in every district of India, which
have hitherto been wasted or misapplied by each
district officer or committee according to their own
fancy. For the first time the Lieut.-Governor of
Bengal collected these funds and applied them on
a system, supplementing them by State grants.
This should be done throughout India, and every
district officer should be made to feel that, to stand
well at head-quarters, he must be as zealous in
opening up communications which will create re-
venue as in collecting revenue already made. We
hope little from our Public Works Department.
which Mr. Smollett, a retired civilian, lately de-
scribed in the house as " the most expensive, the
most corrupt, and the most profligate in the world."
We do not go so far, but none are more ready than
the department itself to admit that, for little works
such as every square mile of India now wants and
private enterprise supplies in England, the " P.
W. I)." is hopelessly useless.