The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-15 00:00:00

PROSPECT U O.

The circumstances under which subscriptions are now
invited by this Company, to a further issue of capital, are
peculiarly favourable for investors, and present the
strongest evidence of the sound and profitable character of
the undertaking, to complete which an additional outlay
is required.
This work, known as " The Orissa Undertaking," con-
sists of a very extensive scheme for irrigation and navi-
gation throughout Orissa and the adjacent districts, em-
bracing an area much larger in extent than England and
Wales the whole of such works having been most skil-
fully designed on behalf of the Company by Colonel Run-
dall, then their chief engineer, and now chief engineer of
Bengal, and the generat,.plan has received the approval of
tGoy etlino euno so e
t., 't whilsto hf ivy ,3deuta d plans of nearly the ,whole of
bo t
which
it is divisible hive been
prepared,
~.Vtom'the entire soherno mere have been selected for first
-iand Cossye, and five navigable
'construction Certain sections, consisting of head works
subsidiary channels tra-'
(ihat is, stone wCirS4olocuts) across the rivers Maha-
alc, to the harbonrs of Pa se lhoir
of Bengal. 2: The Toldundah
Iteraing the :country; 'therOjr commanded, viz, -The
Iteudraps,a OitnAl it'd branch 'extending froth ttie
from Cuttack to Poore() on the same coast.
3. The high Level Canal from Cuttack to Budnick on the
Salundee River, being the first portions of an intended
tePinalual)ll:llegassnirteeniatdYilini°ngf t'Che.utlaaY
canal toconnect Cuttack with Calcutta. 4. The Midnapore
and Hooghly Canal, extending from the large and important
town of Midnapore to the Hooghly River, and connecting
that town with the port and city of Calcutta, and forming
the terminal portions of the line connecting Cuttack with
Calcutta; and 5. The tidal canal from the river Roopnarain
to Baltigai, a manufacturing town, and bringing the latter
into communication with Calcutta. When it is known that
the ports of False Point and Dhauarah have been reported
by qualified officers to be the finest harbours ou the whole
of the Indian Coast between Bombay and the Hooghly,
and that the Kendrapara Canal will not only connect these
with the city of Cuttack itself, but by means of the Maha-
nuddy River, with the vast and fertile upper districts of
Chuttesgur, &c., the capabilities of which have been lately
most ably and conclusively shown by Sir Richard Temple,
now the Finance Minister of India, to be enormous, the
vast importance of such a main artery for traffic will be
apparent to all. The Midnapore and Hooghly Canal,
bringing into connection with each other, as it will, to such
important places of trade and population as Midnapore and
Calcutta, is also manifestly calculated to be highly profit-
able. In addition, however, to their great value as means
of transit, these two canals are not less promising as main
i
The present state of the works now under construction
is as follows:--The expensive masonry weirs and head
:works require-bat little, additional outlay for their corn--
prrreigseantitnlyg channels, regarding which more will be said
potion, and 'ultimately their cost will- be apportioned over
the various channels in course of construction, and to be
constructed, for the irrigation of the land to be first sup-
plied, and over such additional acreage as May hereafter
Cie provided fot. There is now, or will be immediately,
opened for navigation and supply of irrigation, ltlof miles
of main canal, with 34 more miles in progress towards
completion. There have also been constructed with
masonry works, and capable of supplying water, about 131
miles of main subsidiary channels, and 791. miles additional
are drawing closely towards completion. The main works
thus far executed command about 200,000 acres, requiring
only the addition of some of the subsidiary channels to
apply water to the land. There have been opened, suffi-
cient for navigation at stated periods, but not continu-
ously, some portions of the Midnapore and Hooghly Canal,
and the tidal canal, and during last year (1867) the tolls
collected upon them in their incomplete state, without
locks and with accommodation for traffic during high tide
only, showed signs of gradual and certain increase, the
average of the whole year being over £5O per mile gross,
and of the latter months much higher. The locks required
to render these sections navigable at all times are fast
drawing towards completion, and then it is confidently
estimated that a vast increase of traffic will arise. The
Kendrapara Canal
the chief engineer reports, bo
opened for navigation to tidal water, and thus to the port
of False Point by the end of this year.
As they are now planned, and being constructed, the
five canals above-named will, when completed according
to the estimates of many engineers most competent to
judge, including Colonel Randall and the present chief
engineer of the CompanY, convey water for the Irrigation
of about 700,000 acres,
At the outset the
of its water at three rupees
Company, with the sanction of the
Government of India, fixed the rate to be paid for a supply
per acre for one crop, or five
rupees per acre for two crops, which charges were ad-
mitted by all to be very
moderate towards the cultivators,
and capable of being increased thereafter; but it was
found, as a measure of policy, advisable that a temporary
reduction should be made, in order that the native culti-
vators might be induced to take the water, and so to be-
come aware of the great benefits which they would inevi-
tably receive from the Irrigation of their land, and which
would, it was known, be such as to render a speedy return
to the original rates a matter of certainty without creating
dissatisfaction.

Adopting the reduced rate of charge for irrigation, and
estimating the returns from navigation at the very mode-
rate total of three per cent, upon the outlay (the present
chief engineer has just reported that he estimates the re-
turns upon the Tidal Canal will be at least ten per cent.),
and allowing the high charge of five per cent. for repairs,
maintenance, establishment, &c., the net returns from the
sections now to be completed ould be altogether twelve
per cent., which, by the re-establishment of the original
rate of five rupees per acre for irrigation, would be made
'up to twenty-one per cent, net.
These are figures the accuracy of which can bo easily
demonstrated, and any
the Company's offices will be at once replied to, and every
information given. inquiry made regarding them at

irrigation, and therefore of a satisfactory increase .upon
the existing returns, is highly encouraging. For some
little
an immediate and extensive spread of
a:fives, ignorant of the value of irrigation,
and fearing an increase of the Land Assessment, abstained
re o s p
the e c
nt
from taking the Company's water, but the renewal by
Government of the existing Land Settlement for a further
The
timp
period of 30 years, the judicious temporary reduction of
water rate and other measure; such as this
employment by
the Company of some of the Zomindars, Sze., have dis-
persed these impediments, and each succeeding recent
mail has brought intelligence evidencing a practical eager-
ness on the part of beta Zemindars and Ryots to secure
the immediate Irrigation of their lands ; and by reports
received on the 3d of the present month, and dated the
. 30th March, it appears that there had then been signed,
connected with the liendrapara Canal alone, leases (prin-
cipall:i for 3 years) for about 26,000 acres ; that:applica-
fleas from cultivators of land under the same canal were
being received at the rate of from 2,000 to 5,000 acres
daily ; and that the natives were cutting the smaller
channels necessary to convey the water to their fields
with earnestness; further, that in the vicinity of the high
level canal meetings were being hold by the Zemin-
dars, and other unmistakable signs exhibited that
the same favourable state off affairs there as
that connected with the Kendrapara Canal was
a mere matter of a short time, and that before the coming
season large demands will be made for water. Upon the
Midnaporo Canal the effect of the reduction of the water-
rate, &c.r had not, at the end of March, been thoroughly
aecortained,cbecaese the irrigating portion of:that 'canal
had been closed 4orseme ' time previous for construction'
purposes, and had•than only been reoponed, but the chief
engineer of the CompanY •
and the executive engineer in
charge reported that applications for water, in addition to
the 4,000 acres supplied last year, had commenced and
were confidently expected to be added to largely.
From the foregoing it may fairly be assumed that the
works already constructed have now entered upon their
stage of revenue, and that they offer to capitalists not only
a safe investment, but one which will, most assuredly, be
very profitable ere long ; and here it may bo added, as
confirmatory of this :tiniest immediate prospect, that the
portions of the works now in hand remaining to be exe-
cuted, consisting mainly of channels for the distribution of
the water, will necessarily be the easiest of construction, as
well as the most productive, and will add materially to the
percentage of returns on the whole outlay.
It is important to add here that the profits mentioned in
this prospectus have been estimated upon the whole of the
capital expended and now to be raised by the Company,
although in the event of the entire scheme of works being
hereafter carried out, of which there can be little doubt
seeing its promising character, much of that expenditure
will have to be taken from off the present works and
charged to the other sections when undertaken.
There is also another feature of great importance, which
must not be omitted in the consideration of the fitness of
this undertaking for an investment. By the contract it is
expressly provided that the Company shall be paid for the
water supplied for irrigation to the cultivators—not by the
cultivators themselves—but by the Government of India;
and that the price to be so paid by the Government to the