HL Deb 02 June 1851 vol 117 cc335-43
LORD WHARNCLIFFE

rose, in pursuance of notice, to move for Papers relating to works of irrigation, public works, and internal improvements in India.—(Minutes of Proceedings, 51. 52.) As he believed that the noble Lord on the opposite benches who presided over the administration of affairs in that country concurred in the propriety of producing these papers, and as he did not believe that any Other of their Lordships would object to their production, he might perhaps have abstained from offering any remarks to their Lordships; but, considering the nature and importance of the subject, he hoped that he might occupy the attention of the House for a short time while he explained the grounds on which he made, his Motion, and the position of the country which would be elucidated by acceding to it. It had been said on a former evening by the noble Lord opposite (Lord Broughton), that the East India Company were the trustees of the Crown for the benefit of the people of India; and if that were true, he trusted that he might add that the Legislature and the Crown were also the trustees of Providence for their benefit. Such being the case, and there being no question as to the importance of the Motion, he must remind their Lordships that in the year 1842 the late Sir Robert Peel, then at the head of the Government, in proposing a plan for the arrangement of the finances of that part of our empire, called the attention of the House of Commons to the manner in which the condition of England was influenced by the flourishing or depressed condition of the finances of India. He (Sir Robert Peel) spoke of the condition of India in a financial point of view; but he (Lord Wharncliffe) should proceed to view it as a great social, moral, and commercial question. He was justified in asking for these papers on those grounds, but he had also other grounds for requiring their production. The communications made to Parliament respecting the internal improvements of India were singularly rare. There had been an objection to proceed with any public works in that country without the previous consent of the Government at home; and the consequence had been that amid all the multiplicity of papers transmitted by the officials of the East India Company to the Directors at home, on commercial, judicial, political, and military subjects, there was only to be found one single paper from 1834 to 1851 respecting public works. That in itself was a sufficient reason for requiring further information. In the time when the ancient dynasties of India ruled over that vast empire, large canals and other works for draining and irrigating the country existed in the north-western provinces of India and near the sources of the Jumna and the Ganges. It was a reproach to the present Government of India that such works had been allowed to fall into decay and ruin. The noble Lord referred to the canals which have been constructed in India, and was understood to say that they not only contributed to the wealth of the country through which they passed, but yielded a revenue equal to 24 per cent on their cost; and that, therefore, if it were true that the investment of capital in such undertakings would yield so large a revenue, it was the direct interest of the Government, not loss than their duty to their subjects, to accomplish these improvements. As to roads, there appeared to he very few parts of India in which good practical roads existed, and where they did they were often rendered useless by streams which there were no regular means of crossing, so that the difficulty of removing from one part of the country to another was exceedingly great. The stoppage of internal traffic from the want of good roads and bridges was so great that grain was sometimes sold at a famine price in one part of India, while at another, not more than 300 miles distant, it was selling at the lowest conceivable price: though the necessity for grain in one place was most urgent, and though it might be most abundant in another, the want of the proper means of communication rendered it impossible to supply the deficiency. It was a singular fact that in Mysore the roads were in far better condition generally than in any part of the British territory. He contended that as a matter of principle it was the duty of the East India Company to proceed as far as it possibly could in the execution of public works in that country, so as to develop to the utmost extent its great and growing resources. Of course, the means of doing so must depend very much upon the state of the Indian finances. He found that from the close of the great Burmese war down to 1838 there existed in the Indian Exchequer a considerable surplus; in the years 1835–36–37, it amounted to 3,470,000l. From that time to this, however, there had been a succession of military events by which the Company had necessarily been driven into great expenditure, and in 1848–49 the surplus had had been converted into a deficiency of 2,800,000l. This state of matters was, no doubt, inimical to the construction of public works; but, nevertheless, he could not help thinking that much more ought to have been done, and that the cessation of public works had in itself proved injurious to the Indian revenue. For the last 20 years the annual revenue of the East India Company had been 16,000,000l., making an amount of 320,000,000l. during that period, while the greatest sum expended by them in any one year on public works was 230,000l. It was but justice to the Indian Government to say, however, that there were several canals now going on, and that great exertions were making to promote public works. He trusted that the prospect before them was better than for some years past—that they would not have so many military calls upon them as unfortunately had been the case—and that therefore the East India Company would be able to enter upon the execution of public works in that country with more vigour and earnestness than hitherto had characterised the administration of India. The noble Lord concluded with moving for correspondence, &c., relating to the subject.

LORD BROUGHTON

said, that he quite agreed with the noble Lord who had just resumed his seat, that it was impossible to overrate the importance of this subject, and he thanked him for the terms in which he had prefaced his Motion, which he believed was the wisest course he could have adopted to attain the object in view. The noble Lord had done the East India Company no more than justice in what he said with respect to their anxiety to improve the present condition of their territory. He would not say that, upon the whole, more attention might not have been paid by the Indian Government to the construction of public works; but the noble Lord had very fairly told the House that, during the nine years from 1837 to 1846, they were engaged in expensive wars which prevented them prosecuting these great works with the same earnestness with which they had been previously carried on. But even during those years the annual expenditure upon public works had amounted to 253,000l. This certainly was no great sum; but it at least showed that even in those days of great exertion and sacrifice, the Governors General of India were not unmindful of their duty in proceeding steadily with the work of internal improvement. The noble Lord had referred to several works now in progress; and in order to show their Lordships the extent to which these works were now in course of construction, he might state that the Indian Government were now proceeding in the Bengal Presidency with the Delhi or West Jumna Canal, twenty-four miles in length, and upon which 352,000l. had been already expended; and the East Jumna Canal, 160 miles in length, and upon which 190,000l. had been expended; and there was another small canal on which 12,000l. had been expended, making a total of 554,000l. Added to that was the cost of the Great Ganges Canal (a most important work), which would be 452 miles in length, besides a branch, and the estimate for which was 1,500,000l. In the Madras Presidency there was the Tanjore Canal, which would cost 30,000l., with other smaller works, the total cost of which was estimated at 250,000l., with 100,000l. for irrigating tanks, &c. In Scinde there would be some, though not a very large, outlay; and in the Punjab the present Governor General had devoted 50,000l. a year to the construction of canals for irrigation. Nor were these the only works of great national importance that had been undertaken of late years in India; for the trigonometrical survey of the country was in progress, on which 341,000l. had been already expended, and with respect to which a very interesting report had been presented to the other House of Parliament in April last. It was quite true that the finances of India had gone through a process of exhaustion which was much to be deplored, but which was the natural consequence of the wars which had been carried on there for some years, and which he maintained to have been absolutely necessary. It appeared, however, from accounts which were laid upon the table of the other House of Parliament, in February last, that the state of the finances was improving; for, according to the "Sketch Estimate" of 1849–50, not only would the revenue not be deficient, but there would be an actual surplus of 77,000l. He would not, of course, undertake to say that at the end of the year the accounts would actually turn out so well as this "Sketch Estimate" represented; but it at any rate showed that the prospect was much better than we had any reason to expect during the past year. The noble Earl (the Earl of Ellenborough) had asked about the 5 per cent loan: that loan had been closed. With respect to the observations made by the noble Earl on the guarantee for the Bengal Railway, it was not a guarantee of a dividend, but of interest upon a million of capital expended. The estimated cost of the Bombay line was half a million; but in consequence of its having been determined not to proceed with the whole extent as at first proposed, it would not cost anything like that sum. He thought that the noble Lord (Lord Wharncliffe) had undervalued the state of the Indian roads; he believed that the great road of Bengal, 800 miles in length, was in good condition, and that there was no ground for making any complaint of it. He joined in the wish expressed by the noble Lord that the continuance of peace in India would enable these great public works to be carried on with vigour. We had had wars enough in India. He believed, however, that they were inevitable, while they had certainly for the most part terminated to the honour and glory of the Indian empire. We had acquired two great provinces, Scinde and the Punjab; the former having come in most opportunely to assist the latter. He trusted that there was little doubt that these acquisitions would be of the greatest importance to our Indian empire; and from the inclination which the Government had already shown to promote great public works, he thought there was no reason to despair of the future. He not only had no objection, but, on the contrary, would be most happy to furnish the Returns moved for by the noble Lord.

The EARL of ELLENBOROUGH

thanked his noble Friend who sat near him (Lord Wharncliffe) for having called the attention of Parliament to this important subject, and expressed a hope that when next year their Lordships would be called upon to consider in what position the government of the East India Company was to be placed, they would have the benefit of his Lordship's experience and knowledge of all subjects connected with our Eastern possessions. His noble Friend had referred to roads and canals as important instruments for improving the condition of the people of India; nor could there be any doubt that while in this country drainage was the great means of agricultural improvement, in India irrigation was absolutely essential, not merely to the fertility of the soil, but to the production of any crop whatever. He was, therefore, disappointed to find that there had not been a greater expenditure on these works, considering the great increase of revenue derived from the sums which he mentioned as having been expended on these works. In consequence of the construction of some irrigation tanks in districts in Rajpootana, under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Dixon, the revenue had during the last three or four years increased 200 per cent. With respect to canals, he had been informed by the native chiefs who possessed the largest part of the land along its banks, that the effect of the Delhi Canal (or the Hastings Canal as it should be called) had been prejudicial to the health of the population through which it passed, although it had improved the revenue. He entertained great doubts with respect to the Great Ganges Canal, as it was at present pro- posed to be constructed. He had always insisted that it should be a canal for irrigation as well as navigation, for although one for the former purpose might improve the revenue, what was that to the importance of the navigation of the Ganges above Allahabad, whence it was now proposed to take a great part of the water for the canal? Whatever surplus water there was might have been used for the purpose of irrigation; but he thought that the means of conveying troops, Government stores, &c., up into the country should not have been allowed to be perilled, as he thought it was by the Government plan, for it was intended to pass by the foot of the hills in such a manner as to expose its flank to all the torrents which would pour down upon it from the higher regions. There could not, indeed, be found in India, a line of country in which a railway could be laid down more easily; and if that could be substituted for the Ganges, there would no longer be any necessity to insist that the canal should be navigable. Wherever, however, the nature of the country would allow it, he thought that tanks were a more convenient mode of irrigation than great canals, while he did not hear of a single case of malaria occurring in the neighbourhood of a tank. On the other hand, the filtering of the water from the Delhi Canal rendered the neighbouring district so unhealthy that he had been obliged, when Governor General of India, to remove the European troops from it, and construct barracks elsewhere. There had been a great improvement in the Indian roads of late years. The state of the Bengal road, to which reference had been made, varied considerably, for, while some portions of it were as good as any road in England, others were in by no means a satisfactory condition. He had heard with the greatest satisfaction from the noble Lord that there was some hope held out—even although it was only held out by a "Sketch Estimate"—of a surplus in India. Still he could not himself entertain any decided expectations on the subject. What he had done when in India with the view of reducing the expenditure and raising the receipts, did not make him very sanguine of their obtaining a surplus. Yet the state of things was very different there when he left than when he arrived. He had increased the revenue five millions, found six or seven millions in the Treasury, and he left about ten millions; and he had kept that amount in hand for the purpose of reducing the interest of five per cent, an object which ought always to be kept in view. The great mass of the debt of that country was the four per cents, and the effect of creating the five per cents was almost immediately to reduce the four per cents, sixteen and a half, or, in other words, to strike off at once four millions of capital. So long as they held out a five per cent guarantee for railways, so long they could not expect the four per cents to rise to par; and he, therefore, hoped the Government would bear that consideration in mind with respect to their guarantees for railways in India. He would much rather that the Government of India had at first, if it thought railways advisable, dispensed altogether with foreign speculators, and taken the whole matter into its own hands. No doubt the establishment of railways by the Government must be of great benefit, not merely as regarded the transit of troops and stores, but in bringing the raw produce of India to the seaboard. A vast proportion of the produce of India was raw produce, and the greatest difficulties to its profitable disposal was the heavy charge of transporting it to the seacoast. If a railway was constructed from Bombay into the cotton districts, and arrangements were made by the Government to encourage the growth of cotton in India, they might effect what he took to be the greatest commercial object connected with India, namely, the independence of this country in its supply of cotton from the United States. Those portions of India where the best cotton was to be obtained might not be our own territory; but it mattered very little whether the territory was our own, or that of our Indian allies: what England wanted was, to be independent of the United States; for cotton was in a manner as important to us as food, and we could as little stand the interruption of the import of corn as we could the import of wheat. He had examined all those persons who had been sent out to investigate the cotton question in India, and he had sent home the result of the best consideration that he could give the subject; and let the noble Lord read the answer which he received, and he could not wonder that he (the Earl of Ellenborough) felt disgust that the earnest endeavours of a public servant to serve his country in one of its most important commercial as well as political interests should be met not only by captious objections, but even by sneers against him, his arguments, and his observations. Indeed, he was so disgusted that, he confessed, it was with faint-heartedness that he applied himself again to the subject. But all these questions, which were more fitted for a Committee, would come under consideration again next year, and he had perhaps now better terminate his remarks, again expressing to his noble Friend (Lord Wharncliffe) his heartfelt thanks for calling the attention of their Lordships to that subject, and his earnest hope that he would continue to give the House the advantage of his industry and ability in considering all matters connected with India.

The EARL of HARROWBY

said, that in India it was left entirely to the East India Company to do everything as regards the formation of roads, canals, and other public works, and private enterprise did nothing. The consequence had been that the whole amount expended for these purposes during twenty years among a population of 100 millions, was a pitiful sum of something like three millions. The radical defect was, that it was not considered the first duty of a Government, especially in India, to provide the extension of roads and irrigation, without which it was impossible that there could be a development of industry or progress in civilisation. These objects the Mahometan conquerors of Hindostan had made their first duty; and their exertions in this respect, as compared with ours, placed this country in a most humiliating contrast. He had read a few years ago, with shame, a picture of the state of the Madras territory, with its hundreds and hundreds of tanks, all raised by the industry and enterprise of these Mahometan conquerors, but which were lying in ruin and decay. Whatever wars the East India Company might have been engaged in, this primary and most paternal duty of providing the first elements of civilisation ought to have occupied the foremost and most prominent place in their administration of the vast empire of India committed to their rule.

On Question, agreed to; and ordered accordingly.