East Indian Railway: 1906 History of the EIR - Chapter VII
Note: This is a sub-section of the East Indian Railway
The History of the East Indian Railway by George Huddleston. Published 1906 by Tracker, Spins and Co
CHAPTER VII. VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES TO INDIA - REDUCTIONS IN RATES - ECONOMIES IN WORKING - THE MADRAS FAMINE AND SHORTAGE OF STOCK - GENERAL STRACHEY VISITS INDIA - THE GIRIDIH COLLIERIES - PROSPERITY OF THE UNDERTAKING.
IN 1875-1876 His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales visited India and great preparations were made to afford him a Royal welcome. That the efforts made to ensure his comfort while travelling on the East Indian Railway were successful, is proved by the following extract from the Gazette of India, dated 22nd April 1876:—
"On the East Indian Railway, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales travelled in January 1876 from Howrah to Bankipore, and thence to Benares, also from Cawnpore to Delhi; and from Delhi to Ghaziabad, on going to the Punjab, and from Ghaziabad to Agra in returning thence. In February, His Royal Highness travelled from Agra to Aligarh, and in March from Cawnpore to Allahabad and on to Jubbulpore.
"The orders issued concerning the details of working the Royal train by the authorities of the East Indian Railway were such as to ensure punctuality in running, combined with all possible precautions for safety.
"On the conclusion of the journey to Jubbulpore, His Royal Highness was pleased to acknowledge his thanks personally to the Officiating Agent and Traffic Manager for their attention to him, and to commend the railway arrangements in connection with the several State ceremonials of arrival and departure of trains during the different journeys made upon the line by His Royal Highness."
The visit of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales resulted in a concourse of Native Princes and others visiting Calcutta, and led to a considerable increase in receipts from passenger traffic, but as a set-off there was a certain outgoing to be taken into account under the head of carriage building and outward demonstrations; a special train had to be constructed, as the Prince of Wales could not be sent about in an ordinary carriage, and stations had to be decorated in token of loyalty; all this cost money, but the Chairman in analysing the financial result to the Railway said: "I dare say we may put it down that if His Royal Highness had not gone to India we should have been about £40,000 worse off than we are." Seeing that the special train constructed for the Prince of Wales, was used for the next twenty-five years as the Viceregal train, this result was by no means unsatisfactory.
About the same time Mr. A. M. Rendel again visited India. The completion by the Government of the bridge over the Hooghly, between Howrah and Calcutta having rendered necessary considerable alterations at the Howrah terminus, Mr. Rendel was deputed to investigate the requirements of the case on the spot Mr. Rendel not only dealt with the question of Howrah station but went over the whole line from one end to the other and settled various details with the Company's officers in India.
Reference has been made in a previous chapter to the effect of the Bengal famine on the question of goods rates. Mr. Crawford, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, referred to this in his address to the shareholders in January 1877; he said—
"The experience of the famine traffic had shewn us that there was an enormous production of the soil in India of a very valuable character, but which had been for the most part necessarily retained in the districts in which it was grown, for the want of any other market than the local markets of the neighbourhood."
This was in some measure true, but we have seen already that a good deal of the surplus production of the soil found its way to the seaboard by river, and particularly by the river Indus to Kurrachee. In 1876 the Government took off the export dues, which up till then had militated against a really large export trade, and at about the same time silver began to decline in value. The depreciation of silver assisted the export of country produce and some encouragement in railway rates was alone needed to draw the traffic to the Railway. Reductions were accordingly made, and as Mr. Crawford in another part of his address added:—
"The effect of the reduction of the rates was to enable purchasers of wheat at Cawnpore, 684 miles from Calcutta, to rely upon their being able to get their wheat down to Calcutta for a sum not exceeding about 6s. 4d. per quarter. That taken into account with other elements of reduced cost has led to a very great and important increase in the trade of grain between India and this country. The same has been the case with seeds. The duty of the company was to assist by reduction of charge in facilitating the removal of this large produce of grain and seeds and our rates have enabled merchants to bring their wheat to England, together with their linseed and other seeds, at a cost which could not have been possible a very short time before."
"I do not see anything in the conditions in which this traffic has been carried on to deter me from expecting a continuance of it."
At about the same time arrangements were concluded with the line then known as "the Sindh, Punjab and Delhi Railway," by which purchasers of grain in the Punjab were able to bring their grain to Calcutta, a distance of 1,245 miles, at a cost of about 12s. 9d. per quarter, a rate which was then considered remarkably low. As illustrating the growth of the export wheat trade, the following figures of exports from Calcutta are interesting, more than one-half being brought down by the East Indian Railway:—
- 1874 18,926 Tons exported
- 1875 58,532 Tons exported
- 1876 170,240 Tons exported
The company was now enjoying a period of activity, and prospects were undoubtedly encouraging. The Railway was about 25 years old and past experience justified the feeling that it would continue to prove one of the grandest undertakings in the world's history. But the success of the East Indian Railway was not entirely owing to the measures taken to develop traffic; a large share of its prosperity was due to the economical conditions under which the line was worked. Mr. Crawford at the same meeting said, "we should never have arrived at a satisfactory net result, if our efforts on this side to inculcate economy had not been most actively and honestly supported on the other side."
His remarks had special reference to an outcry raised by the Indian newspapers of the day, as to the alleged injustice of replacing European by native labour. Mr. David Campbell, the Locomotive Superintendent, had recently promoted about 87 native firemen to appointments, previously held by Europeans, as shunters and drivers of goods trains on branch lines, with most satisfactory results. The experiment carried out in the face of much opposition led to a considerable economy and naturally had the full support of the Board.
Another economy introduced in 1877 was in connection with the maintenance of the telegraph. The Railway had established a line of telegraph wire on one side of the line, and the Government had a line of telegraph on the other side. This necessitated two telegraphic establishments, and it was obviously a waste of money that one establishment should be employed in keeping in order and repair the line on one side, while another establishment should be engaged in looking after the wires on the other. An arrangement was therefore come to with the Government, under which they undertook the repair and maintenance of the railway wires, and the Railway had no longer to keep up a staff of its own for the purpose.
A failure of the rains of 1876 led to another famine in India, this time in the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. A strong demand for food grains, pulses and rice set in in October 1876, and continued unabated almost throughout 1877. The great bulk of the traffic flowed over the East Indian Railway from the North-West Provinces and the Punjab, the largest proportion going via the Jubbulpore line and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, but there was also a heavy traffic to Howrah, for transmission to Madras by sea.
At the same time there was a large wheat and seed export trade, and consequently the usual sequence of a shortage of wagon supply. The papers in India teemed with expressions of disapproval of the East Indian Railway management, because it had not sufficient stock to meet the extraordinary demands made upon it. The facts were that the stock of wagons had amply sufficed to meet the famine requirements of 1873-74, but when it came to sending East Indian Railway wagons hundreds of miles away from the home line to distant Madras, it became impossible to meet all demands. Out of a total stock of 6,600 goods wagons, as many as 1,200 or say one-fifth were constantly absent from the line, conveying produce to the Bombay or Madras Presidencies. There would have been an abundant supply of wagons to carry our own traffic but there were not sufficient to carry grain to Madras as well as to Calcutta, and obviously it was beyond the bounds of possibility to meet this exceptional demand. The Board however at once applied for Government sanction to the provision of 1,000 more wagons and 50 additional engines, at a cost of a quarter of a million of money, and sanction was accorded after some short delay.
Towards the close of 1877 and at the beginning of 1878 shareholders were beginning to enquire what action the Government intended to take in respect to the purchase of the Railway. Mr. Crawford, although he could then make no official announcement, had already taken up the question and was in communication with the Government as to its intentions. The position was that on the 15th February 1879, and for six months afterwards, the Government had the power of giving notice to the Company of its intention to purchase the property, such intention to take effect on the expiration of six months' notice. The terms of purchase were the average market value of the stock of the Company for three years preceding the date on which such notice should be given. There was much conjecture as to the course the Government would follow, and when it was announced, early in 1878, that Lieut.-Genl. Strachey, R. E., a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India, had proceeded to Calcutta to consider, "with the Government and Railway authorities on the spot, certain propositions for the completion of the Company's system," it was not unnatural to associate his visit with the question of Government purchase of the Railway.
The Board thought it desirable that Mr. A. M. Rendel, the Consulting Engineer to the Company, should also proceed to India and take part in the enquiries to be made by General Strachey, as, setting aside the question of purchase, there were many important matters requiring decision. The rapidity with which traffic had developed in recent years rendered it essential to decide, without delay, what further facilities should be provided. In other words it had become very necessary that accurate information should be obtained as to the works needed to enable the Railway to meet the development of traffic. Among these works were the carrying of the line over the river Hooghly by a bridge at a convenient point above Calcutta, the idea then being to construct a passenger station in the Metropolis and so leave the whole of the Howrah property for the wheat, seeds and coal trade. Then again, there were the questions of extending the double line and of bridging the Ganges at or near Benares, so as to make a better connection with the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway. These were big questions and there were many others of minor importance.
It is not necessary here to refer in any detail to this visit of Genl. Strachey and Mr. Rendel to India. Genl. Strachey's visit was undoubtedly in connection with the question of Government taking over the East Indian Railway, and this will be more fully dealt with in another chapter. Mr. Rendel as usual submitted a very full report as soon as he returned, dealing with the engineering questions above referred to, but no proposals were made by the Board to the Government to enter upon the works recommended by him, because the intentions of Government in regard to the purchase of the line were not known until some time afterwards. Suffice to say here that in 1879 a Bill was presented in Parliament "to enable the Secretary of State in Council to enter into contracts for the purchase of the undertaking of the East Indian Railway Company and for other purposes in relation to such Company."
This Bill received the Royal assent on the 11th August 1879, and under its provisions a contract, to continue in force for a period of not less than 20 years from the 1st January 1880, was entered into, embodying the conditions on which the undertaking was continued in the hands of the Company.
Before giving any details of the growth of traffic during the period immediately preceding the purchase of the Railway by the State, there are one or two incidents to record. In 1878 the Company lost, through death, the services of two of its most valued officers. Mr. Robert Roberts, the Chief Auditor, died at Alexandria on his way to England, after a service of eighteen years, and was succeeded by Mr. R. C. S. Mackenzie, the first assistant of the Department. Mr. J. C. Batchelor, who for nearly twenty years had discharged with ability and zeal the duties of Traffic Manager, died suddenly in Calcutta, and Mr. N. St. L. Carter, Deputy Traffic Manager, was appointed to fill the vacant post. It may here be mentioned that Mr. Batchelor was formerly an officer on the staff of the London and North Western Railway and was considered one of the most able Traffic Managers the East Indian Railway ever had.
The net earnings of the East Indian Railway Company from 1876 to 1879 inclusive were:
- 1876 ... ... £2,110,286 10s 4d
- 1877 ... ... £2,770,667 11s 10d
- 1878 ... ... £2,344,942 9s 0d
- 1879 ... ... £2,665,751 16s 7d
Prior to the year 1876 wheat exports from India had been comparatively small, but in that year thew) was so great an advance in the trade that British India, instead of being at the bottom, took the third place in the list of countries from which the United Kingdom drew its supply, and there was every indication of a still further increase in despatches as facilities were enlarged and made available to commerce. The seed traffic was also growing in importance, but more important than either of these two was the, as yet, almost undeveloped coal traffic. It is true that it had already reached some magnitude, and was gradually growing, but this was chiefly due to the requirements of railways, which had to take coal, and not to the creation of an export trade, which followed years afterwards when a more suitable tariff was introduced.
In 1876 there was very little demand for local coal for seagoing steamers, and the chief consideration of the time seems to have been moderately cheap fuel for railway consumption.
The quantity of coal carried for the public during the three years ending 1876 was –
- 1874 505,519 Tons
- 1875 515,846 Tons
- 1876 520,262 Tons
Now in connection with the coal traffic of these days it must be remembered that the East Indian Railway collieries supplied a large portion of the public demand. The Giridih coalfield was discovered in the early years of the history of the East Indian Railway, and, thanks to the intelligence and foresight of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Macdonald Stephenson, the East Indian Railway Company acquired control over it. At one time there was a sharp controversy between the Government and the Company as to the use of this coal-field. The Government said they could not allow guaranteed capital to be used in working a coal mine, and in fact gave orders that the mines were to be closed.
What followed is best described in Mr. Crawford's words:—
"We on our part were not prepared to submit to this, and as the Government would not alter their determination we brought out what was called 'The Auxiliary Railway Company', by which we proposed to make the Chord line, and to develop the Giridih property. A letter was written to Sir Charles Wood, in which we pointed out to him, from what I may call the commercial aspect of the case, how absolutely necessary it was that we should take the course we proposed to take. We told him the great advantages that in our judgment would arise from it. Sir Charles Wood gave way, authority was given to make the Chord line, to get access to these mines, and you see the result. We get our coal at 7s. 5d. a ton."
It was not, however, the East Indian Railway that alone benefited by the cheap coal made available by the construction of the Chord line. The East Indian Railway did not require for themselves all the coal that was raised from their mines, and was able to place at the disposal of Government and of other railways connecting with them, the whole of their surplus raisings, for which cost price was charged in addition to railway freight. There were, however, other coal-owners in India besides the Railway Company, and these people took exception to the course pursued by the Company and, in the words of Mr. Crawford, threatened "all manner of things." "They talk," he said, "of getting an interdict from the Government. In fact they threaten legal proceedings; but they are not aware of this, that we are entitled under our constitution to work and to win and to make profit out of coal and minerals. It was one of those things for which we are indebted to the foresight of our colleague, Sir Macdonald Stephenson, who after thirty years' connection with us, is still happily with us. He foresaw the advantages that would arise from this; therefore in the deed of contract we have the power to do these things, and that deed has been approved by Government; there is therefore no doubt as to our legal authority to deal if we choose in coal. How we came to possess the coal was in this way. We were engaged some twenty-five years ago in constructing our line along the Ganges, where a large quantity of brickwork was to be done. Our people were at their wits' end for fuel wherewith to burn the bricks. As the Americans say, they prospected the country, and it resulted in finding coal. When found, Sir Macdonald Stephenson took measures immediately to acquire control over the coal. That was obtained and we have now legal control over the coal pits. There are other coal deposits, and other people can work them if they like, as well as ourselves. Our purpose in relation to coal is this - to use as much as we require for our own purposes at the smallest cost, having done this we wish to supply our neighbours with as much coal as we can, they paying us merely the profits of carriage. There is the Oudh and Rohilkhand, which is comparatively speaking our nearest neighbour in one direction, and I hope we shall be able to keep them continually supplied with the coal they require on terms satisfactory to them, and the same with the Great Indian Peninsular."
How the controversy regarding the sale by the Railway of its surplus coal ended it is needless to recapitulate, at the time the words were spoken the Company was on the eve of negotiations with Government as to its future. It was feared that the Government might not only purchase the undertaking but work it also. Mr. Crawford held the view, apparently accepted by Government, that "no railway of this magnitude is likely to succeed if it is administered by departmental officers of Government." The Railway was already paying the Government handsome profits, in the year 1877 the Government share amounted to about £600,000, and on this Mr. Crawford said,
"Gentlemen, if you will turn to the pages of a certain book called the Fables of Aesop, you will see the story of a countryman who was fortunate in possessing a goose which laid every day a golden egg ? You know what the countryman did with the goose. We, the East Indian Railway Co., are the goose; the golden egg is the £600,000 which the Secretary of State will get out of this Railway for the year 1877; but whether Lord Salisbury will be the countryman or not remains for the future to discover."
Let us look for a moment at the goose as described by Mr. Crawford in a previous speech. It shews how the Railway was then regarded and what expectations were held for its future. He said "with regard to the undertaking itself, you will bear in mind that there is perhaps no railway enterprise upon the face of this earth, traversing so great a distance, that is more favourably placed than ours is. We have little or nothing to contend with in the way of unfavourable gradients; we have a plain and level country to pass through. We have a river, it is true to compete with, but which I think will be found in the long run will be less of a competitor than a coadjutor with us. We serve a country densely peopled - a people living in a state of tranquillity, who are able to devote themselves to the exercise of all the arts of life, whatever they may be, which they pursue, whether agriculture or manufactures or whatever else; and we have arrived at that time now when the cultivators of the soil in India, and the traders into whose hands the produce of the cultivators passes, have found that the supply of every article, wherever produced along the East Indian line, exceeding the local consumption, is carried to market by rail. A man can enter upon the cultivation of land with confidence that his produce, if in excess of that required for the supply of the immediate neighbourhood, will find a market elsewhere. All this arises in a great measure from the fact that the produce there raised is of a kind readily taken by other people than the people of India. There are acres upon acres, districts of land in India, which are now covered with wheat cultivation. There are large areas in the lower, independently of the Upper Provinces of India, where the cultivation of oil seeds, linseed and rape seeds, and other things of that kind is carried on to a vast extent. There is nothing whatever in the ordinary circumstances of India which can prevent our enjoying to the full extent the full benefit as railway carriers."
During the period we are now dealing with the growth of the passenger traffic and the measures advisable to encourage it were also being considered. The increase in the passenger traffic was thought not so great as it might have been and the question of reducing the third class fare was a subject to which consideration was being given. Mr. Crawford in his address to the shareholders in 1878 said:—
"I do not know whether our rates are higher than they ought to be, but to carry a passenger eight miles for 3d. cannot inflict a very great burden upon him. The Southern of India Railway, I am told, however, carry passengers at two-thirds of our rates and their traffic is increasing. If that be the case it certainly behoves us to see how far the principle of lower fares can be applied with success upon our system. It is not to be forgotten that it is a dangerous question to meddle with, and we had better be cautious in what we do."
What was done a few years later is related elsewhere, in the meantime we need only mention that the Railway was carrying over six million passengers annually in 1875 and that, in 1879, the figures had gone up to more than seven and one half millions, of whom nearly seven millions were of the third class.
The working expenses were still decreasing, in the second half of 1879 the percentage to gross receipts for the main line was down to 31.86 and in whatever way regarded the general outlook was most favourable.
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