“The small, but valuable, coal-field of Kurhurbali is about eighty miles distant from the Luckieserai station of the East Indian Railway. When the chord line from Luckieserai to Raneegunge is opened this colliery will be put into active working. Patches of coal or lignite have been found along the outer range of the Himalaya Mountains, and at the foot of the Darjeeling Hills. In Assam several good coal seams have been discovered. There is also very good coal in the Khasi Hills; but the coal beds exist at an elevation of 4,000 feet above the adjacent country. It is known that there is not any coal in British Burmah. On the whole, the East Indian coal, especially that accessible to railways, is so inferior in quality that it comes nearly as expensive as English coal. It is, therefore, evident that companies will have in the main to rely upon wood as fuel for their locomotives.”
[103] “The coal mines of the East India Coal Company Limited, situated in the district of Raneegunge, Bengal, were sold by auction to-day by Mr. Murrell for £20,000 under the Winding-up Act.”—Times (City article), 13th November, 1867.
[104] The Madras Railway continues to exhibit very striking results, both as regards its progress of development and its working expenses. During the half-year ending the 30th June, 1867, the number of passengers conveyed over the North-Western line was 1,019,164 as against 930,845 in the corresponding half-year of 1866. The goods were 164,334 tons as against 132,052 tons in the first half of 1866. The gross receipts were £241,010, against £213,676; the net £141,182, against £117,873. While the receipts had increased upon the half-year 12¾ per cent. the expenses had only increased by 4¼ per cent. Of the general goods traffic of the railway, salt still held its place as the largest item; the quantity carried in the half-year was 24,697 tons, yielding a gross receipt of £20,191. The quantity of cotton carried to Madras was 9,422 tons, against 3,486 tons in the corresponding half of 1866.
The receipts per train mile on the South-Western Line and Bangolore Branch were 6s. 11¾ d. in 1867 as against 6s. 9¼d. in 1866. The expenses, in 1867, 3s.½d. as against 3s. 1¾ d. in 1866. On the North-Western Line the receipts per train mile were in 1867, 7s. 10¾ d. as against 6s. 5d. in 1866, the expenses 2s. 5½d. as against 2s. 1¼d. in 1866.
[105] The following are the lengths of some of the European Railways open for traffic on the 1st of January, 1867:—France, 8,989 miles; Prussia, 5,483; Austrian Dominions, including the non German Provinces of Austria 4,001, excluding them 2,066 miles; Bavaria, 5,208; Saxony, 1,587; the total length of railways in Germany and the German Provinces of Austria were 12,450 miles, not including amongst them those exclusively used for coals and minerals; Belgium, 1,910; Italy, 3,040; Spain, 3,216; Russia, 2,893.
[106] The Debt of India.—“The public debt of India has expanded very considerably of late years. In 1840 it was £34,484,997; in 1841, £35,922,127; 1842, £38,404,473; 1843, £40,478,640; 1844, £41,833,451; 1845, £43,502,750; 1846, £43,891,849; 1847, £46,884,225; 1848, £48,757,213; 1849, £51,050,512; 1850, £53,934,768; 1851, £55,099,315; 1852, £55,114,693; 1853, £56,233,686. During several of the foregoing years wars of more or less magnitude prevailed. In 1854 the debt was reduced to £53,683,468; but it rose in 1855 to £55,531,120, and in 1856 to £57,764,239; then came the Indian Mutiny. In April, 1857, the debt was £59,461,969; but by April, 1858, it had risen to £69,473,484. In April, 1859, it was £81,171,308; April, 1860, 98,107,460; in April, 1861, £101,877,081; April, 1862, £107,514,159. By April, 1863, it had fallen to £104,495,235; April, 1864, to £98,518,145; April, 1865, to £98,477,555. During 1866 and 1867 there has been some increase of the debt, making it about £100,000,000. The charge for interest in 1840 was £1,595,778. In 1845 it had risen to £2,009,039; in 1850, to £2,558,939; in 1855, it had fallen to £2,189,433; in 1860, it had risen to £3,889,191; in 1865, to £4,482,385. The increased charge for interest in 1865, over that for 1860, was £593,194, whilst the increase of capital was only £370,095, thus showing that India pays a higher rate of interest on her loans than formerly.”—Times, 28th of August, 1867.
[107] The value of the imports into the United Kingdom only, from British India, £36,897,743, deducted from the gross exports from India, will show that our Eastern Empire has done trade of the value of more than twenty millions sterling with other nations. In 1865, the value of the British Indian merchandise imported into Great Britain was £37,395,425; in 1864, it was £52,295,595; in 1863, £48,434,740; in 1862, £34,133,551; in 1861, £21,968,752; in 1860, £15,106,597; in 1859, £15,244,869; in 1858, £14,989,030; in 1857, £18,650,223. The high price of cotton and the large imports of that staple from India since 1861 have, of course, swelled the totals of the last few years. But quite apart from this trade, our commercial relations with India have experienced both a solid and a permanent extension.
[108] The cotton importations of the first nine months of the present year have amounted to 988,314,096 lbs., being 9½ per cent. less than in the same period of 1866, and 62 per cent. more than in 1865. The supply of American this year, however, has been 5 per cent. beyond that of last year, while the quantity from India has experienced a reduction of 29 per cent. Of the total arrivals, the proportions this year have been as follows:—American, 46 per cent.; Indian, 33 per cent.; Egyptian, 10 per cent.; Brazilian, 6 per cent.; Turkish, 1 per cent.; and other countries, 4 per cent.
The total amount of the cotton crops of India is about 2,400,000,000; so that England only receives about a fourth of it. The average weekly consumption of cotton for all purposes in Great Britain is about 45,000,000 bales. The weight of a bale is 320 lbs.
[109] The only other British Colonies from which we receive cotton, are the West Indies, including the Bahamas and Bermuda. In 1852, they only sent to the mother country 703,606 lbs.; in 1865 the quantity had risen to 19,814,480 lbs.