§ MR. RODENsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, What number of miles of Railway the Government propose to construct in India, and the estimated rate of construction per year?
MR. GRANT DUFFSir, I regret that I have no means of answering the hon. Gentleman's Question. If he will refer to the 41st paragraph of the despatch of the Government of India, and the 15th paragraph of the Secretary of State's despatch in reply, to which I called his attention last week, he will see that the expenditure on the State lines is not to exceed, for the present, £3,750,000 per annum; but we have not yet received any estimate for the first year. Vast projects like these State railways are not launched in a day, and I should have hoped that my answer 1736 given to the hon. Gentleman a week age would have been sufficient for the present.