§ SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURNI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India—(1) how much has been spent up to the present time on Government buildings and offices at Simla; (2) how much additional expense is thrown upon the revenues of India by the annual removal of the seat of Government from Calcutta to Simla, and by the cost of communications and the transport of supplies to arid from Simla, a distance of nearly 1,200 miles; and (3) under what heads is the cost of this removal of the seat of Government, direct and indirect, shown in the accounts of the Government of India?
§ MR. HENRY FOWLER(1)The expenditure on the Government buildings and offices at Simla has been about Rx. 790,000. (2) The extra annual cost incurred by the transfer of the Government to Simla and back was shown as Rx. 72,415 in 1883–4, in Parliamentary Paper 17 (Sess. 2) of 1886. But in 1889 fresh rules were made, by which the allowances were reduced by Rx. 12,600; so that the gross cost is now about Rx. 60,000. But, as explained in that Paper, there are receipts to the extent of about Rx. 20,000, which may be set against this. No "supplies" are transported at the public expense, in consequence of the move to Simla during the summer. (3) The allowances given to the several Departments on account of the move are, in the accounts, included in the pay, &c., of those Departments, and are not shown separately. They were given in the foregoing Return, fur five years under each Department.
§ *MR. C. W. CAYZER, (Barrow-in-Furness)asked whether it was not necessary, on grounds of health, for European officials to move to Simla in the hot season?
§ MR. HENRY FOWLERsaid that that had been the opinion of successive Viceroys.