QUESTION. (Hansard, 20 July 1860)

§ SIR WILLIAM GALLWEY
said, he had a notice on the paper to put certain questions to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, regarding the Ceylon Railway; and he wished to express a hope that some statement would be made that might tend to tranquillize the minds of the colonists in that Island, who were excessively disturbed at the prospect of an enormous railway expenditure which threatened them; and that some measure would be suggested, if possible, to extricate them from the position in which they found themselves; very much owing to the mismanagement of the Colonial Office. He would say a very few words as to the origin, progress, 2274 and present state of the Ceylon Railway. In 1856 the Governor in Council passed what was technically called an ordinance for reviving the Ceylon Railway Company, and calling on the Island to grant the sum of £1,200,000 to complete it. The decision of the Governor and of the Legislative Council was received in the Island with the greatest consternation. It was alleged that was not the result of a free expression of opinion on the part of the Representatives of the Island in the Legislative Council. The Council consisted of eighteen Members, eight of whom were official persons, on whom the Government could bring influence to bear; and the ordinance was carried by a majority of only one. The matter was referred home, and the Secretary for the Colonies was called upon to send out a competent engineer; and if he decided that the line could be made for £1,200,000, that then the Colonial Office should make arrangements with a Company to carry it out for that sum. The Colonial Secretary sent out Captain Moor-som; but unfortunately, as he was informed by that gentleman, with no instructions to make a working survey. Captain Moor-som made what was called a "flying survey," and declared that the line could be made for that sum; and by that course the agreement became an absolute one, and the colonists found themselves pledged not to make a railway for a definite sum, but pledged to a company to pay six per cent on an indefinite sum. The Company caused their own engineer to make another survey, when, to the horror of the colonists, he reported that the railway could not be made for a less sum than £2,250,000. When he stated to the House that this would entail an addition to the export duty on coffee of from 2½ to about 8 per cent, they would see that the consternation of the colonists was very natural. It might be said that Sir Henry Ward's somewhat rash conduct in regard to this railway was confirmed by subsequent addresses from the colonists. But at the time of the great railway excitement in Ceylon, there was a Cambridge house in Colombo, and he was told that the festivities held there produced these addresses in support of the Governor's proceedings. The railway had also been negligent and extravagant in carrying on its works; and he appealed to the hon. Baronet, the Member for Portsmouth (Sir James Elphinstone), who was connected with the direction of the Company, to afford some explanation of its conduct. When 2275 the colonists referred to the Home Government for a complete survey, and an agreement defining the sum they were to pay, they also expressed a strong desire to have some gentleman possessing the confidence of the Island, and well acquainted with the locality through which the line was to pass, appointed on the direction of the railway to take care of their interests. To their great surprise and extreme disgust, however, instead of their request being complied with, they found the Government sending out a précis clerk from the Colonial Office to undertake that duty. He wished, therefore, to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies to suspend all expenditure on the Ceylon Railway, except such as is absolutely necessary for the preservation of works in progress; to inquire, in the event of the connection between the Railway Company and the colony being severed, whether the Government will submit to a strict audit all claims for repayment made by the Ceylon Railway Company; and whether the recent expenditure on surveys (swelling the sums expended under this head to above £100,000) was undertaken by the desire, or with the knowledge, of the Colonial Legislature?

§ MR. P. W. MARTIN
asked what reason there could be for expending £2,000,000 upon an undertaking which a responsible English contractor was prepared to complete for a much smaller sum?

§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONE
said, that the House was not the proper place for discussing railway politics. The general meeting of the Ceylon Railway Company would be held next week, when he believed explanations would be given which would be satisfactory to the public in regard to the position of the undertaking. The cost of the surveys for the line was £39,000, not £100,000, as had been stated.

§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE
said, he must protest against the assumption that this railway project, though unfortunately not now in a flourishing position, had been in any degree forced upon the people of Ceylon by the Colonial Department. The Government had been repeatedly urged by the colonists to promote the making of a line between Kandy and the port of Colombo; and on their application Lord Taunton, when at the Colonial Office, entered into a provisional agreement with the Ceylon Railway Company. It was true that the provisional agreement was sanctioned only by a majority of one 2276 in the Legislative Council of Ceylon; but the Governor made its adoption an open question in the Council, and it was strongly opposed by the then Colonial Secretary, and present Governor of Ceylon. After Captain Moorsom's report was received, stating that the project might be carried out much within, the limit of £1,200,000, the feeling of the colonists generally was decidedly favourable to the undertaking. The hon. Member was very naturally disappointed at what had since happened; but there had certainly been nothing approaching to a wish on the part of the Home authorities to force this project on a reluctant community. Some months ago his noble Friend at the head of the Colonial Office consulted the late eminent Mr. Stephenson upon the subject of this railway, and by his advice suspended all works upon the line, with very few exceptions. At the same time he ordered home Mr. Doyne, the resident engineer, and sent out the agents of two eminent contracting firms, in order that materials might be prepared for offering a contract. Since then the whole matter had been submitted to Mr. Hawkshaw, who recommended that the railway should be proceeded with at an estimated cost of £1,800,000. Certain offers for the surrender of the contract had been made by the company to the Colonial Office, and these, together with all the circumstances of the case, would be submitted to the Legislative Council, and to those commercial bodies which were entitled to be consulted in the matter, before any decision was arrived at. He apprehended that no such offer would be accepted without a thorough investigation of the affairs of the company. That statement nearly amounted to an answer to the second question of the hon. Baronet. With respect to the third question, he begged also to say that nothing would be done without consulting the wishes of the colony.

§ MR. BUCHANAN
complained that, although this railway had not been made, the planters had for some time been subjected to an additional export duty on their produce on its account.

§ MR. DUDLEY FORTESCUE
said, that as one of the ill-used planters referred to, he thought that the complaints which had been just made were well founded.