THE FIRST INDIAN TRAMWAY

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 104, 21 October 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE FIRST INDIAN TRAMWAY

MADE BY A NATIVE PRINCE. ('From the Illustrated London News.) All those who are acquainted with India and its affairs must recognise a new *' sign of the times" in the fact that a native Prince has at last constructed a railway at his own cost, and has thus, we may hope, inaugurated the investment of native capital in great public works. The Times of India summary, of February 28, notices tbe event as follows : — lt is not very creditable to European enterprise that the Batftla Prince ha 3 been allowed to ake the start of us in this matter. On 'be small 2 feet 6 inches tramway betweeu Meagaum and Dauboi, now being constructed by the Guicowar, whose intelligence in thus initiating this enterprise is truly admirable, loads of six tons, exclusive of the waggons, are to be seen drawn by single pairs of bullocks with greater ease and speed than we can now convey half a ton over any Government road in the district. So much is this tramway appreciated, we are told, by the people along the line, that during the monsoon of last year, when a small part of it only had been completed, no less than three rupees per bale were offered and given for the conveyance of cotton for a distance of eight miles. The transport was impossible from the state of the roads." Thus new prospects seem to be opening for Gujerat. The rude native cart, with its lazy bullocks and drowsy driver, are, we may now expect, soon to be placed throughout this rich province by these busy little tramways — so cheap and so admirably adapted to serve as the byways of its traffic and feeders to the great trunk line of the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway. British rule has hitherto contented itself with drawing large revenue from this most fertile of India's districts and doing little or nothing in return. If the Manchester men could see with their eyes the hideous ruts of the old roads they would no more wonder that the cotton should be so deteriorated aft ;r lying, as it docs, for weeks together in the ratu and damp, and trampled down in the earth to keep it from blowing away, while the wretched owners ww at: t till the tracks are passable, lt was under such circumstances last year that the inhabitants of the villages near this tramway came in crowds, offering any sum to have thsir bales of cotton taken by the ballast Waggons. And out of pity for them some Were thus conveyed, till the proceeding wa3 stopped as irregular. His Highness has ordered small engines for this line ; but he will probably find animal power better adapted to the traffic, which is exclusively in l^^opassengers and goods. One pair 1< aded wagons to