would be most convenient if one of the two despatches were made to reach Kurnaul about six in the afternoon, and the other would then arrive early in the morning. At present, the Simla despatch waits at Umballa for the Loodiana mail, which frequently causes it to experience much detention. 35. I now proceed to explain my proposition for expediting the mail, by means of horsemen in the employ of Government. It is necessary to premise that the distance from Benares to Delhi by the trunk road, is, as per margin, 466 miles. The time in which this distance should be 74 performed, allowing for the requisite stoppages to take out and put in packets 84 at Allahabad, Futtipore, Cawnpore, Julalpore, Bhowgaum, Secundra Row, Total Rupees 466 Allyghur and Khoorja, ought not to 50 Benares to Allahabad..P. O.......... Rs. 76 ..... .... .... 100 82 exceed seventy-nine hours in the dry season, and ninety hours for the remainder of the year. 36. The weight of the upward mails may be stated as not likely to exceed : 37. Bhowgaum to Delhi,.............. ....... 13 to 17 Do. The weight of the downward mails is somewhat less, in consequence of their being fewer newspapers, and these not daily despatches. 39. I propose to divide this distance of 466 miles into stages, as nearly as convenient, of nine miles each-which, I find on enquiry, were those generally adopted by the late contractors from Allahabad to Delhi, Captain Mackinlay and Mr. Tritton, and to place four suwars in the pay of Government at each. Fifty-three stages would thus be required, with four horsemen each, ➡ 212 Benares to Allahabad 76 Futtipore... 74 Cawnpore... 50 horsemen. One spare horseman at every Stages. Suwars cost. third stage, is further necessary, in 36x16=576 order to provide for accidents, &c.—say 36x16 576 Bhowgaum. 100 11 Delhi.... 82 24X16–384 fourteen spare horsemen. The total 44X 16 704 number required would consequently 36x16 576 36x16 576 be 226 suwars. As the conveyance Total 212 Rs 3392 of mails is by no means an agreeable duty, and as the work is hard and constant and necessarily demands exposure at all hours, the pay of the suwars should be liberal, in order to ensure, as far as possible, good and willing work. I would, therefore, propose to give each suwar sixteen rupees a month, provided the mail within his range, was carried at least at the full regulated pace of six mails per hour; but liable to a fixed deduction per day, for every day such pace was not attained. This would make the aggregate maximum cost of 226 suwars rupees 3,616 per month, or rupees 1,884 more than the present establishment of runners. The gain in time would never be less than twenty six hours, and more usually from thirty to thirty-nine hours on each despatch up and down. The distance would be performed in seventy-eight or seventy-nine hours, in lieu of 104 to 116 hours. 40. In the foregoing, I have not adverted to the pay of the present overseers, stationed at every thirty miles. These will be equally necessary with horsemen as with runners, and I have left them out on both sides of the account, in calculating the comparative cost of the two systems. 41. In order, however, to to get the proposed system to work really well, it is necessary that the Superintendents of the horse post should derive some remuneration beyond what they now receive as Postmasters. The mode in which I would propose to effect this, is to divide the line into three or more portions, and to place each portion under a separate Superintendent. If in three portions, I would propose to place that from Delhi to Bhowgaum, 186 miles, under Dr. Ranken at Delhi; that from Bhowgaum to Allahabad, 224 miles, under Major Mackinlay at Cawnpore; and that from Allahabad to Benares, 76 miles, under Dr. Lindsay, Post Master of Benares. The two former of these gentlemen are old contractors, and well versed in the management of horse posts. Should 224 miles be thought too long a range, it might be shortened by placing the 74 miles from Allahabad to Futtipore, under Dr. Beattie, the intelligent Post Master of Allahabad, which would reduce Major Mackinlay's range to 150 miles. In respect to the question, of whether long ranges or short ranges of supervision are most efficient, it may be said that in the former, there is unity of control; in the latter, there is a greater range of personal observation, and more individual energy. But whichever plan may be adopted, I would propose that each Superintendent should receive an allowance of one rupee per mile for the extent of his range, provided the mail travelled full six miles an hour, including all stoppages, during eight months of the year, and full five miles an hour during the rains; and that he should receive only half such amount, if the pace fall below such rate. The maximum cost of this arrangement would, therefore, be rupees 466 per month. 42. There is one argument in favour of adopting the above arrangement, which may weigh in its favor, in addition to its other merits, and which I trust I shall be pardoned for adverting to; viz., it would afford to Major Mackinlay and Dr. Ranken, some small compensation for the losses they have sustained from abolition of their lucrative contracts. 43. The cost of the proposed horse post, from Benares to Delhi, would therefore be rupees 4,082 per month; and the additional establishment to Agra, Futtyghur, Muttra, and Meerutt, to provide for the double despatch daily, as per margin, rupees 120, making the 52 entire cost of the proposed plan rupees Jalalpore to Futtipore...... 4 runners = 13 Secundra Row to Meerut,.. 5 = = 16 20 32 4,202 per month, or rupees 2,472 more than the present charge, a sum which I trust will not be deemed unreasona Total Rs 120 ble, when viewed in connection with the very essential benefits, that will result from its adoption. 6016 45,466 44. It may not be uninteresting here to compare the above charge with that formerly incurred under contract. The total cost of contracts, for the post 15,477 from Benares to Allahabad, and of the post and bangy combined from Allahabad to Delhi, with branches from Jalala Benares to Allahabad,. 1864 2868 Total cost per annum Rs 71,691 bad to Futtyghur, from Mynporie to Agra, and from Khoorja to Meerutt, respectively, in 1836-37 was, as per margin, rupees 71,591. 45. The total cost of the proposed horse post, from Benares to Delhi, has 46. I have shown that the proposition I have now submitted, is cheaper than the former contract system. I have no doubt that it will be infinitely more efficient. The allowance to the Superintendents, if not so large as the former contractors' profits, are yet enough to enlist their best energies in the cause; and the establishments of suwars proposed, are not only far more numerous than those formerly maintained; (in order to admit of the second despatch, and provide for increased weight of the mails, which weight has been gradually increasing throughout the last year,) but they will also be better paid, and may therefore be expected to perform better work. In Major Mackinlay's contract, he was allowed but one horseman to convey the very heavy mails, and the pace consequently did not exceed five and a half miles an hour; while between Benares and Allahabad, it was not four miles per hour. Under the plan proposed, we shall have two dispatches per day, whether up or down, which as I have shown, will materially benefit every office en route, get rid of detentions to cross posts, and in very many instances save an entire day. But, moreover, we may expect a pace of full six miles an hour, including all stoppages and detentions whatever. Under these circumstances, I do most earnestly hope that the above proposition may receive the favourable consideration of the Governor-General in Council. 47. It is perhaps proper that I should state, that under the contract system, a large proportion of the Government payment was monopolized by the contractor. Major Mackinlay admits, that he cleared 7,200 rupees a year, and Mr. Tritton also netted rupees 7,300, making a total amount of rupees 14,500, per annum for the two contractors. Under the proposed plan, only rupees 5,592 will be allotted to the Superintendents, and the difference, or rupees 8,908 will go to procure additional establishments. 48. But whatever may be determined in respect to the foregoing propositions, I cannot too earnestly impress on the Right Honorable Necessity for immediate and the Governor-General of India, the paramount necessity for an large reduction immediate and material reduction of postage. The existing op. of postage. pressive rates more or less affect all commercial transactions, and have produced, and must continue to produce much of inconvenience, misery and wrong, to the great bulk of the people. To the vast majority of natives throughout India, our postage rates are an absolute prohibition of all communication between parties, whether separated by convenience, necessity or pleasure. High rates of postage operate prejudicially in very many ways, but there are two or three, connected with trade in this country, wherein they work especial mischief. First, in restricting within very narrow bounds, notices respecting prices at corresponding marts; secondly, in entirely, or almost entirely, stopping small hoondie transactions; and lastly, in causing irregularity and delay in transmitting, in respect to large hoondies, notices of drawing. The first, amid other drawbacks, has to a certain extent the effect of creating monopolies, by placing the ryot, or small zemindar, or minor trader, in the hands of the wealthy merchant, whose larger transactions enable him to support the heavy charges for postage, to marts with Post offices, or to send special messengers, to marts without Post offices, in order to procure the requisite information. The second, causes great privation and distress to families of thousands, who are absent from their homes, engaged in trade or private service, or in Government service, when not entitled to family remittances; while the last sensibly affects commercial credit, and causes the greatest uncertainty, confusion and inconvenience in all transactions of trade; for it is not the practice to accept hoondies, however good, until notice of drawing is received; and in consequence of our heavy rates, no merchant despatches a letter by our post, until that letter, by additional communications from his own bureau, or that of others, is made up to the exact standard of single weight. Days and even weeks sometimes elapse, therefore, before the letter written to day may find its way to the Post Office, especially if such letter be addressed to a place, with which correspondence is not general or frequent. But if our postage rates are injurious to those engaged in commerce, their effects on the vast numbers of the lower classes, who are necessarily absent from their homes, engaged in foreign or domestic service, for periods more or less long, men struggling forwards in life to earn a bare subsistance for themselves, their parents or their little ones, are perfectly desolating. The following simple incident, elicited by me in conversation with a petty salt trader in the Benares province, will illustrate this better than a more lengthened commentary. I should explain, that I was entirely unattended, and that the speaker could not possibly have guessed, that he was addressing one who was interested in redressing the evil he detailed. One evening about sunset, I walked into a village at some distance from my tents and sat down in the market place, where a crowd soon collected around me. I enquired into the rates of corn, salt and ghee, &c., and then asked how letters were conveyed to or from the village. They told me that letters between the village and the nearest neighbouring mart, Gopeegunge, were usually sent by cossid; but that to all places beyond, save when entrusted to some stray friendly passenger, no letters were ever sent, nor were such ever received. Among the party I remarked a person who seemed not of that part of India, and asked him if he never sent to or heard from his family. "Sir," replied the man, "my family are at Delhi. When the Mahajunee dak existed, I "used to write to them every month, and usually heard from them as often. "The charge was but two pice, and I could afford that; but now the Mahajunee "dak is abolished, and the Company's charge is nine annas. Where am I to "obtain nine annas? For the last fourteen months, I have never written to my 'family, never heard from them,-I know not if they are living or dead." 50. The foregoing requires no comment. It speaks for itself; such is the condition of thousands, perhaps of hundreds of thousands in this vast empire; and such it must remain, until Government shall resolve to adopt the only measure that can safely afford redress, a reduction of its present exorbitant postage; for I am decidedly opposed to the continuance of native dâks within our own Provinces. It should, I think, be the object of Government, which necessarily maintains an expensive and very extensive post communication, to regulate its postage with some reference to the value of work performed, and still more so to the wants and means of its people. In a word, the rates should be fixed at such standard, as will ensure the whole correspondence of the land being conveyed by the Government mails. If this be not done, the smuggler will thrive, and the Government revenue be evaded, despite of laws, proclamations |