§ MR. HART-DAVIES (Hackney, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to the fact that the amount of wheat arrived at Karachi for export in the month of June, 1906, was only 155,426 tons, as against 175,728 tons in June, 1905, and 186,873 tons in June, 1904; that this decline in the Karachi export trade is owing to the deficiency of rolling stock and of locomotive power on the North Western State Railway; and whether he will cause steps to be taken to prevent this injury to the prosperity of Karachi, as a commercial port, occurring again in the future.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) The arrangements for dealing with the grain traffic to Karachi were personally investigated last year at Karachi by the Railway Board in conjunction with the manager of the North Western Railway. The provision of a large amount of additional rolling stock was sanctioned, including 125 locomotives and 1,600 wagons. In the calendar year 1905 the expenditure on rolling stock for the North Western Railway was £257,000, and the expenditure this year will probably amount to a much larger sum.