on that subject states that carly in April the Kyga Ghaut had been completed to a width of twelve feet; that the nine miles of road between the foot of it had been sufficiently cleared to permit carts to pass; and that several carts from the Dharwar districts did descend the Ghaut, reaching Mullapoor without difficulty, and returned laden. So much has already been done that a quantity of cotton may be brought down that Ghaut in the course of next year. On the Abyle Ghaut line a company of Sappers and Miners, together with all the labour procurable, had been employed since the middle of February; and by a recent official report we learn that the road was opened for traffic to the village of Konay, in the Sedashevaghur Bay, within half a mile of Beithal, on the 14th ult., and that on that day the executive engineer's office and establishment reached Konay from the Abyle Ghaut in carts with out the slightest difficulty. The greater part of my hon. Friend's speech referred to his favourite river, the Godavery, which is, no doubt, a great line of communication with an extensive cotton district. He says that I would not borrow £300,000 for the opening up of that river. Now, if the expenditure of that sum would effect the object in view, I should not have had any difficulty in providing the necessary funds. But, as we have been told, many Indian engineers are sanguine men, who come forward with very tempting estimates, which are sometimes found to be very inadequate for their purpose. It is there fore necessary to use a little caution in these matters. I have always been of opinion that it is desirable to open up the Godavery, although I do not anticipate the wonderful effects from it which the hon. Member for Stockport appears to do. I thought that, looking to the difficulties which might arise, from having to deal with the Nizam's Go vernment, it would be better that the work should be carried out by the Government. But the Government of Madras having recommended that it should be intrusted to private enterprise, I consented about a year ago to the members of a provisional company undertaking it. I found, however, that those gentlemen were not quite so sanguine when they were to spend their own money, and they declined even the enormous prospective interest which my hon. Friend anticipates from such an investment. Therefore, do not let my hon. Friend imagine that his calculations of the cheapness of the work and its great profitableness are unquestionable, and that it is only an obtuse Secretary of State who can doubt their accuracy for a moment. My hon. Friend, however, may depend upon it that the Godavery will and shall be opened; and, more than that, that everything has been done that can be done for opening it. Captain Haig has only been stopped by circumstances over which we had no control-namely, the fever which has reduced his effective staff of workpeople, and the refusal of the Nizam to allow several artificers whom he had engaged to come from Hyderabad ; and, also, the want of timber. The Madras Government has, I think, taken the wisest course it could takenamely, to do what was in its power to meet the pressing demands of this year's crop; and it has made arrangements for bringing down, and also for taking up, one thousand tons at one-third of a penny per lb. in the present year. Government boats will be placed on the river for the purpose, and no doubt we shall lose money by it; but the urgency of the case is so great that I cannot refuse, for the sake of a small outlay of public money, to consent to the establishment of this means of communication. Beyond this, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway will penetrate the whole of these cotton districts. I hope a considerable part of the line will be finished by the end of the year, but it is difficult to answer for the completion of such large works. The last report states that they are being carried on with the greatest energy and rapidity, that there is plenty of money and plenty of labour. I trust that the works will be executed as fast as they properly can be; and when that is done, there will be a railway on the one side, and the Godavery on the other. Upon the whole, I believe as much has been done, is in course of being done, and will be done, as is in our power for the purpose of facilitating the growth and transit of cotton in India. That much can be done in order to produce a great supply in the course of the present year, I am afraid I cannot hold out very sanguine hopes. Last year the stock of preceding years was swept away, and I fear the crop of this year is not so good as we could have wished. But I hope that in the next year or two the supply of cotton from India may be increased to a very considerable extent. I believe that both individuals and Government are alive to the necessity of doing all that in them lies for the attainment of this great national object. So far at least as Government is concerned, all that is in our power directly shall be done, in what is our more immediate province the improvement of communication, and, indirectly, in facilitating and encouraging the natives and agents who are being sent into the country for the purposes of stimulating the culture and improving the machinery for the cleaning of cotton. By private enterprise and Government working to gether, all that is possible will be done in order to meet the emergency, and to meet the demands for cotton, and to mitigate, as far as possible, the distress which presses on our manufacturing districts, and which is undoubtedly of a very formidable character. With regard to the papers which have been moved for, there will be no objection to their production. COLONEL WILSON PATTEN said, he had listened with great pleasure to the speech of his right hon. Friend. It was quite clear that the attention of the Government had been seriously directed to the Indian colonies with the view of increasing the supply of cotton, and he believed, with the measures which had been taken, there was a better prospect of supply from that district than they ever had before. He had accompanied a deputation yesterday to the India Board, with reference to the great distress which existed in the cotton manufactories in Lancashire; and the right hon. Gentleman did no more than justice to the operatives who composed that deputation when he said that they conducted their case with the greatest good sense and moderation, and urged their arguments with an ability which must have surprised any one who was not acquainted with the character of those whom he had the honour to represent. One of the arguments then used he had taken the liberty of urging on the attention of the right hon. Gentleman. He referred to the great importance of a very trifling percentage on the manufactures of this country, in the competition their manufacturers were obliged to maintain in the different markets of the world. It was stated that even 1 per cent would often turn the scale; and as the cotton manufactures of England had been subjected by the Government of India to the duty of 10 per cent, which he was grate. ful to think had been reduced to 5 per cent, he hoped the right hon. Gentleman would be enabled to reduce that percentage still lower. With a 10 per cent protection, or even with a 5 per cent protection existing against us in their own colonies, they might be unable to compete with them. Having introduced the principle of free trade into this country, they could not find fault with any competition that could arise in India; but it would be most inconsistent if they should allow a duty for the protection of Indian native manufactures, to raise a competition against the English manufacturers, who had to contend with them on the principles of free trade. Above all things, he hoped that the Government would not allow it to be understood in India that these duties were likely to be continued as permanent duties. MR. BAZLEY said, the object of his hon. Friend the Member for Stockport had his cordial approval, but he wished to correct one or two slight mistakes into which his hon. Friend had fallen. The Governor of Madras was not only convinced that cotton of the required quality could be grown in India, but he was engaged in giving every possible assistance to effect the required improvement. He was happy to state that only a few days before he had the satisfaction of receiving a letter from the Governor, dated the 24th of February, 1862, in which he said- "I have arrived at the same conclusion as yourself, that the cotton you require in England, I mean cotton equal in quality to the average New Orleans, may be grown in Madras.” A more satisfactory declaration could not be made at the present conjuncture to the starving people engaged in the cotton industry of Lancashire. In reply to the deputation which yesterday waited on the Indian Minister, the right hon. Gentleman had expressed his willingness to give every possible facility to procure an increased supply of cotton from India. Similar facilities were promised by the Foreign Office. Nothing less than an abundant supply of the raw material would relieve that branch of industry which was so seriously imperilled. They were in an exceptional position, and the Government ought to give every facility for increasing the supply of the raw material from India. He could bear tes timony to the great exertions made within the last two years in increasing the supplies of cotton from India. The consumption of Indian cotton in Lancashire and Lanarkshire during that time had increased five-fold. They ought to feel grateful that they had such a resource in their own great dependency, for it was lamentablo that they had relied so long upon the Queensland, as far as quality was conAmerican supply. It was doubtful whe. cerned, was pronounced by competent ther that supply would ever again be so judges to be superior to anything ever large as it had hitherto been, and hence seen in America, and that the yield was the importance of doing everything we estimated at 400 lb. of clean cotton per could to increase the supply of Indianacre. At the prices which usually precotton. Ile was afraid the Indian Minis- vailed in England the value of the proter had not sufficiently realized the im- duce, as thus estimated, was not less than portance of reducing the cost of carriage £40 per acre; at the prices which now in India. So long as more than 100 per ruled it exceeded £70 per acre-the value cent upon the first value of the article was of the freehold of some of the best land in expended in merely sending it to the sea this country. Truly, they had great reboard, they should experience great diffi- sources in their colonies, but they required culty both in improving the quality and to be developed; and he was convinced increasing the quantity. It was also to that until Parliament gave encouragement be regretted that considerable delay had to the cultivation of cotton in their postaken place in giving effect to the Minute sessions abroad, the distress which now issued by the late Earl Canning with re- existed in the north would increase in spect to the tenure of land in India. He intensity, and would scarcely be borne had been recently assured that applicants with patience by those who were now suffor land adapted to the cultivation of cot- fering without complaint privations of an ton could obtain no satisfactory reply from almost unexampled character. It rested the Indian Department. It was desirable with the Government to make efforts on every account that the delay should not which could not fail to be attended with become a permanent one, for he knew there success. If the cotton industry of this were capitalists in England who would be country were altogether suppressed, the glad to invest in the cotton cultivation of loss of revenue would exceed £20,000,000, India if the needful facilities were granted and the continuation of the present distress to them. So with respect to the introduc- for twelve months would result in a loss tion of an increased water supply to Ma- to the Exchequer of £10,000,000. They dras. Water was the treasure of India had every reason, therefore, to encourage if rightly stored and distributed, but he the cultivation of cotton in India and elseunderstood the Indian Department were where, assured that by such means they raising difficulties of a trivial kind. He would not only protect the interests of the trusted the Indian Minister would attend revenue, but likewise restore the prosto that matter also. He felt constrained perity and happiness of large masses of to plead for the development of the re- the people. sources of other British colonies. They had vast resources, not only in India, but likewise in Queensland, New South Wales, and the West Indies. The hon. Member for Salisbury had that evening placed in his hands a beautiful sample of cotton grown in Queensland. In the great valley of the Murray they had a district inviting cultivation, and he believed it could alone sup ply more cotton than the whole world consumed at present. If by any means half a million of Chinese could be introduced into that country, he was persuaded that from that source alone they might obtain in a year or two all the cotton we required. The Governor of Queensland was making every possible effort to increase the supply of cotton. From him the agent of a Manchester company who had embarked in cotton cultivation in Queensland had received the most gratifying support. In a letter, dated Brisbane, April 12, the agent stated that the cotton grown in MR. ARTHUR MILLS said, they had tolerably clear evidence that the Indian Government were thoroughly in earnest in doing all that could be done to facilitate the transport of cotton in India. He could not agree with the hon. Member for Dumbartonshire that India could not be regarded as more than an ancillary field for the production of cotton, and that they must always depend mainly upon the Southern States of America. He believed, on the contrary, that they must in future look to India and their other dependencies for the great bulk of our cotton supply; and he, for one, would not regard the civil war in America as an unmixed evil if it should lead to the development of the material resources of India. Nor could he concur in the sarcastic remarks of the hon. Member for Dumbartonshire relative to a late Governor of Madras. Sir Charles Trevelyan had proved himself in the long run no bad prophet in matters of finance, and it would have been well for India if his views had prevailed and been acted upon long ago. Many of the financial projects brought forward by others had yielded very small results, and it was now admitted on all sides that success was to be achieved in India not by increased taxation or by the application of European modes, but by reduction of expenditure. really one of price. If the Lancashire If MR. FINLAY said, that a more important subject than that under discussion could not occupy the attention of the House. He had himself attempted to im prove and extend the cultivation of cotton in India; but he had always found that, even where the best seed was used, the crop deteriorated in quality after the first year or two, a result which one might expect from the nature of the soil and climate. He did not think, therefore, that Indian cotton would ever equal that grown in America. Still the quality might be very much improved, so as to render the cotton of a useful character. It would be necessary, however, to act directly with MR. CAIRD said, it was one of the the ryots. They were so poor that they first duties of the Government of India to could not cultivate until they got advances form roads and open up the communica to buy seed; but those advances would be tions with the interior. If that had been made if some security were given to pur- done, we should now have been able to obchasers over the growing crop; and some tain from India much of that cotton which law should be passed in India for that was now so much required. The right purpose. He thought that many hon. hon. Gentleman had read a letter, stating Members were too sanguine in expecting a that in Upper India the ryots were ignolarge increase of Indian cotton within the rant of the fact of an increased demand on next two or three years. The improve- the part of England for Indian cotton. ment and the extension of cultivation in this were so, it must be owing to the negany country were slow processes, and he lect of the officers of the Indian Governconfessed that he did not see where sup- ment, who should have made the native plies were to be got from unless from cultivators acquainted with a fact of such America. With respect to the means of great importance. He doubted whether communication, he suggested that in dis- the Government realized the immense imtricts where regular roads could not be portance of the present crisis. In his made for want of stones and other ma- opinion, the famine in Ireland was not to terials, tramways to be worked by horses be compared with the existing danger. A Icould be laid down at a small expense. quarter of the whole population was directCOLONEL SYKES said, that in the Be-ly dependent on the supply of cotton for rar district the finest crops of cotton could be produced-cotton equal to the production of any part of the world. The hon. Member for Manchester (Mr. Bazley) had inspected specimens of cotton grown by Dr. Reddell at Hyderabad without irrigation, the value of which the hon. Member fixed at 19d. per lb. There could not be a doubt, therefore, that India was capable of producing any quality of cotton; but the question arose whether the farmers could reap a greater profit from the culti vation of cotton than from sugar, indigo, or oil-seeds. The matter, therefore, was its livelihood, and what seriously affected one important interest of the country could not fail to affect others also. With regard to our future supply from America, it had been said that not only the last crop, but the crop now in the ground would pour in upon them as soon as peace was re-established. But he had had, on the preceding day, the opportunity of conversing with a gentleman from one of the Southern States of America, who said that not an acre of cotton had been planted in his district the present year. The Southerners refrained from planting, not merely from fear of being Even this was but half the acreable produce of America, and yet, if attained on only the present extent of cotton land in India, it would supply all we required. It was difficult to introduce a new system of agriculture, but not difficult to improve an existing one. That was all that was needed in India. He hoped the Government would do all in their power to improve the cultivation of cotton in India. They might give legitimate assistance by providing the Natives with a supply of the seed of the improved plant, by making roads of access to the cotton districts, and by repairing and restoring the ancient reservoirs and canal irrigation works of the country. overrun by the North, but because there | 90 lb. to 200 lb. was a pressing demand for corn and no outlet for cotton; and because, even if an opportunity should occur of disposing of their cotton, they felt that if the two crops were brought into the market, the price would be lowered, and therefore it was in every respect to their advantage to sell the single crop at double prices. It therefore appeared that we should not have much more than last year's crop to rely upon, and of that a great deal would be destroyed by falling into the hands of the troops, and from other causes that were likely to arise in the present convulsed state of the country. It should be borne in mind that the Southern States offered a field for the cultivation of cotton superior to any other on the globe. The water they must supply in other places by irrigation nature gave them in the Southern States of America. When the slave system was well managed and profitably conducted, it was self-supporting, and in that the planters had another great advantage in the production of cot ton. Thus, cotton could not hitherto have been grown in India for the same price as in America, and the price at which it could have been grown in India would not have been given by Manchester. But the times were changed, and Government should take measures to make up for the deficient supply of cotton from the Southern States. It was probable that neither the one nor the other of the parties in America would cease the conflict until the question of slavery was settled, and then the advantages which the Southern States had hitherto derived from slave cultivation would to a great extent be at an end. Consequently, the cultivation of this product in the South would be limited by the restriction or abolition of slavery, and we should have to look elsewhere for much of our supplies. The whole yield from Algeria, Egypt, &c., would not provide for more than six weeks' consumption. In case they should lose one-fourth of the supply from America, India would have to double her supply to make up even that small portion of the American deficiency. It was, therefore, necessary that they should draw out the power of cottonMR. VANSITTART could not admit growing in India; and the fact that India that past Governments had done nothing had sent them this year such an enormous to promote the growth of cotton in India, supply disposed of the argument respecting because it was distinctly proved before the her capacity to produce cotton. In the Colonization Committee, that all that was district of Dharwar, by the simple intro-needed was that English capitalists should duction of New Orleans seed, the produce prove to the natives that they were in per acre had been increased from 80 lb. or earnest in this matter, and were not pre MR. GREGSON said, it was unfortunate that we had not earlier considered the danger of depending almost entirely on one source of supply; and he believed that if enterprise and capital had been expended on India in former years, the supply of cotton from that country would have been sufficient to meet all the demands that could be made upon it. Last year the western side of India supplied nearly a million bales. He was afraid, however, that if the affairs in America should be settled, we should neglect India as before. All that was wanting to ensure the cultivation of cotton in India, was that the native cultivators should feel assured that there would be permanency in the demand, and they would easily raise the production to two or three million bales a year. What he recommended was that the capitalists should themselves take up the matter. Instead of crying to Jupiter for help, let them put their own shoulders to the wheel. If they would but supply capital, the skill and labour necessary would be easily forthcoming. He sympathized greatly with the distress of the manufacturing districts, and he regretted that the finances of India would not permit the removal of the duty on English imports, but, at the same time, he thought they should remember that India had herself reason to complain. It would be only too glad if her sugar, for instance, was taxed no more than 5 per cent, instead of 50 per cent. |