INDIAN RAILWAY TRAFFIC.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 187, 15 March 1848, Page 3

INDIAN RAILWAY TRAFFIC.

From an aiticle m the last number of the "Calcutta Review.'Every source of income which railroads have in Europe, railtoads will have in India. In Europe their dependence i< not on the balk of the population, on the hewers of wood and drawers of waier ; though when the numerous classes travel in masses, as 'on lair days and holidays, railroad companies find it answer to carry them. In'lmlia, railroad companies will find analagous rather than similar oppoitunities. In Europe, ratlroads depend on the social and commercial activity of the people, taking them from home to the sites and scenes of exchanges and business and pleasure. Native merchants are numerous in all the great towns 5 the lower provinces of India ; their goods go to different markets, snd merchants travel wherever their goods do; that is, from one end'of India to the other. All the commerce of Upper India above Mirzapore, throughout Oude, Scinde, the Punjaub, Cashmere, Affghauuistan, (we mention these names as faxiliar) is carried on by natives ; and along the whole tract, in every great town for 2000 miles, to Cabul and beyond, the principals have connexions, and many have gomashtas and establishments, occasionally or permanently, in Calcutta ; all these people are travellers and woul 1 be greater, if there were roads and conveyances. Then there are the pilgrims to Muttra, Benares, Gaya, Puri, and other less known places with shrines less celebrated : it will depend on the railroad companies themselves whether they will convey the poorer : we now refer to the richer, who in great numbeis, present to the European eye on the Benares road such picturesque groups and processions mounted and in can iages with retinues of guard* and savants, in a sort of solemnity and state, well betokening how rare, how difficult, dangerous, expensive and religious is the journey, We are not painters ; we can at present but appreciate this picture in a commercial point of view ; whatever scruples might bo felt at first, a variety of interests would soon be found to concur, inducing these people to use the railroads ; until by diffusion of better knowledge, they be taught to use them for nobler purposes. SimiUr remarks might be made with reference to the multitudes of Mussulmen who assemble from distant parts to proceed from Calcutta on their pilgi image to Mecca. Then again in India, the grand trunk l ail ways have this peculiar advantage; nearly all the commeice between India and Europe ki(i but two great emporia, Bombay and Calcutta — one for the western, the other for the eastern side of India, which together, receive the wealth of a continent whose dimensions must be described by hundreds of thousands of miles : whose geology presents every variety of feature, and which, besides its peculiar and indigenous psoduct3, is capable of pioducing on hill, valley, or plain, on some diversity of Us length and breadth, almost anything which any other country produces:—of edibles, tea,* coffee, sugar, aall,f saltpetre, rice, wheat and other grains and seeds in uncounted variety, food for man and beast,, which would make the poor at home even envy our lioises : — of raw materials for textile and other manufactures, silk, cotton, flax, hemp, jute, caoutchouc, hon.s, and hid.es : — of dyes, indigo, shell, lac, lac dye, cochineal, &c., oils, in great vaiiety, — of gum-, in great variety, copal, arabiCj myrrh, &c:— of duigs md medicines, besides opium and tob-.cco, a rich but little known pharmacopoeia: — wood, stones of great bciuty, including mirble, besides coils, iron, and unexplored mineral treasures. India also has its manufactures . Dacca its muslins ; Murshedabad its silks. ; Patna its candles and cloths ot all descriptions; Miizapore its carpets, lugs and blankets; Benares its embroidered c'oths, shoei, and a variety of other articles ; Delhi and Cashmeie its shawls and jewellery ; Guzrat, in the Punjinb its Damascene blades, and almost every district some branch ofiudustry; — the objects of a i ommerce capable of vast increase if better means of transit were afforded. Great as is the traffic, the establishment of roads and railroads would vasdy multiply it. Li estimating; its actual amount we should wish to exclude all false ciiterea j but some idea, it appeals to us, may be formed from the official returns of export find impoit tonnage from Calcutta — meaninar, however, by tonnage, the tonnage of ships, which, however, we admit to be more than the actual tonnage of cargoes. The import tonnage in 1844-5 into Calcutta was, 255,323 tons, much of wh eh goea to the upper provinces ; the exports 275,939 tons; and the value tor the same year of imposts, 76 92G.298r5.(£7,592,G29 16,;) and of exports, 103,317, 91 2r5. (X' 10,3 31,7 91 4*.) Similar Bombay returns we have not. We fear not to be gamsayed m asserting that the cost on imports (which included manfartured goodo, the prime cost of wh'ch, thertfore, much exreeds that ot the expoits) averages twenty-five per cent, before they leach the markets of consumption, and the carriage of many of the exports forms the pi incipal part of their stated values. And whatever this amount may be, something may be added for carriage of produce of the country for local con, sumption from one part to another. Such is the trade and traffic, such the commerce, for whose convenience and extension the British Government will lend £120,000 per annum, which, in all probability, would not have been needed in the present day had not the bhores of India been till recently under blockade against the free immigration of our countrymen, m whom the commercial monopolist company of former days could see only hated rivals.

* We relei not to Assam, but to the Deyrah Dhoon. t The salt of Lahore is celebrated, ana is •iold retail m Calcutta at the rate of £0 per ton.

CLIMATE AND PRODUCE OF ENGLAND ABOUT THE YE/vR 1500. It was the cuitom for the Venetian ambassadors to the Court of England to make a report or " relation" to the doge and senate, on their return fiooi usually a three years' mission of the general character of the country and its peop'e, their hahits, manners, and customs. From an anonymous " relation" of this kind just printed for the Camden Society, the following particulars relative to England under the reign of Henry VIII. is derived :—" The climate is very healthy, and free from many complaints with which the island (Italy ?) is afflicted ; and, though so far to the north- wett, the ccld in winter U much less seveie than in Italy, and the heat proportionality less in summer. This is owing to the rain, which, falls almost every d'iy during the months of June, July, and Au, gust ; they have never any spiing here, according to the report of the islanders. In addition to their equa. lity of temperature, they have, as I have read, and which has been confirmed to me by the inhabitants thenuelves, a great abundance of large riven, springs, and streams, in which are found every specimen of Italian fish, exepptingj however, crab, tench, and perch; but, on the other hand, they have a gieat quantity of salmon, a most delicate fish, which they seem to hold in gi eat estimation, because those people greatly prefer sea fish ; of which they have many more than we huve. Nor are they without springs or hot water, wholesome and salutaiy for various disorders. 7 hey abound also in every description of tree, though, according to Caesar, they have not the beech, or the fir, TJiey have laurels and myrtle^ and all oilier

fruit trees, with the exception, however, of the olive, and the class of the orange. They are not without Tine 3; and I have eaten ripe grapes from one, and wine might be made in the southern parts, but it would probably be harsh. This natural deficiency of the country is supplied by a great quantity of excellent wines from Caadia, Germany, France, and Spam ; besides which, the common people make two beverages from wheat, barley, and oats, one of which is called beer, and the other ale ; and tho^e liquors are much liked by them, nor are they disliked by foieigners, after they have drnnk them four or sit times; they are mosr^ agreeable to the palate, when a yeisoi U by some, chance rather heated. Agriculture is not practised in this bland beyond what is required for the consumption of the people. ; becaube were they to plough and sow all the land that was c<qi°.ble of cultivation, they might tell a quantity of gram to the suriounuiu^ countries. Their negligence is, however, atoned for, by an immense profusion of every animal, such as stags, goats, fallow-deer, hares, rabbits, pigs, an I an infinity of oxea, with much larger horns than ours, which proves the mildness of the climate, as horns cannot bear excessive cold; whence, according to Strabo, in some northern countries, the cattle are without horns. But they have an enormous number of sheep, which yield them quantities of wool of the best quality. They have no wolves, because they would immediately be hunted down by the people j it is said, however, tliat they still exist in Scotland, as well as in the forest ot Caledonia, at the extremity of the islmd towards the north. Common fo vis, panfowls, partridges, pheasants, and other small birds abound here above measuie, and it is truly a beautiful thing to behold one or two thousand tame swans upon, the river Thames, as I, and also your magnificence have seen, which are eaten by the English like ducks and geese. Nor do they dislike what we sj much abominate, i.c , crow«, looks, and j ickdaws ; and the raven may croalv at his pleasure, for no one cares for the omen ; there is even a penalty attached to destroying them, as they s»»y that they keep the streets ot tlie town free fiom all filth. It is the same case with the kites, they are so tame that they often take out of Use hands ef little children the bread '•meaied with buttn, i in the Flemish fashion, given to themhj their motlu>rs and althongh this is general throughout the island, it I is more obseived in the kingdom of England than elsewhere. The island also produces a qunnt'ty ol non and silver, and an infinity of lead and nn ; ot tnc latter, which is of the purest quality, they make vessel* \as bulliantas if they were ot fine siher ; and these are I held in great estimation. A certain shell liali is taken I in the sea, called by the inhabitants muscles, in which many, though small, peaiUare found ; and I myself, \ dining one morning with the Milanese ambassador, discovered several ; but, as I have said, they were very minute, and not round, like oriental pearls, i believe what has been wiitten concerning the extreme shortI ness of the nights in summer is true ; for many persons of veracity tall me, and assuie me that it is a positive fact, that at , (the farthest extremity of Scotland, at the time of the summer solstice, oue may sea to read and write at any hour of the night, and that the days in winter are short in the same proportion. But this cannot be the case all over the island, because during the whole winter that I found myself there with your magnificence, I observed the length of the daylight with great attention, and there was never less than seven hours together, in which one could see aud read and wiite. How many hours the sun mi«ht be above the horizon, however, I cannot say, ha is so rarely to be seen in the winter, and never but ac mid-day; but our Italian Merchants say, that in London also, the nights in summer are much shorter than the days in winter ; and as London* where your fiiendship resided, is a place in the south of the island, and more than COO miles from the highest point of Scotland, the nights there may pessibly be much shorter ; but English authors uever touch upon these snbjects." The Power of the Press.— ln the year 1272, the wages of the labouring men were just three half.pence per day ; at the same period, the price of a Bible well written out was thirty pounds sterling. Of course a common labourer in tho c days could not have procured a Bible with less than the entire earnings of thirteen years ! — Now, a beautifully printed copy of the same book can be purchased with the earnings of half a day. The Library of the late Right Rev. Doctor Murphy, Rotnun Catholic Bishop of Cork, has been vulued by a competent judge from London, at j€2j,lOo.— Watchman.