HC Deb 09 July 1889 vol 337 cc1825-6
SIR RICHARD PAGET (Somerset, Wells)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether early sanction will be given to the construction of a railway along the East Coast of India, to connect the Northern Circars with Madras; (2) whether several municipalities, and many of the Rajahs, and other local representatives of the millions who inhabit the Circars and Orissa, have publicly brought the pressing need that exists for the railway to the notice of the Madras and Bengal Governments; (3) whether the Engineers, lately despatched by the Government of India to reconnoitre the country, have reported favourably on the scheme, so far as it relates to the country between Beyrada and Cuttack, and whether Lord Connemara has strongly urged the importance of the work; (4) whether the Famine Commissioners of 1880 suggested that a railway might be made between Calcutta, Cuttack, the deltas of the Godavery and the Kistna rivers, and Madras, to obviate the recurrence of the distress of the years 1824, 1833, 1865–6, and 1876–8; (5) whether, since distress is again showing itself in Ganjam, this work will be placed first among the railway projects of the Peninsula; and, (6) whether he can lay any information upon the Table regarding the financial prospects of the line?

* THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Sir J. GORST,) Chatham

The Government have de- cided to survey the line from Beyrada to Cuttack, beginning on the 1st December next; (2) and (3), yes; (4) yes; (5) the matter is at present receiving the careful and earnest attention of Government; (6) some Papers bearing on the subject could be laid before Parliament if moved for; but until the probable cost of the line has been more nearly ascertained, no reliable forecast of the financial prospects of the undertaking can be made.

SIR R. PAGET

How soon will the Papers, which are ready, be laid on the Table?

* SIR J. GORST

The hon. Member can have the information in our possession at once, if he will move for it; but I can give the House no information in regard to the financial prospects of the undertaking until the survey is complete.

MR. BRADLAUGH (Northampton)

Will information be given as to the number of natives who have been dying of cholera and starvation?

* SIR J. GORST

At the instance of the hon. Member himself the Secretary for State has been publishing that information every week.