11 AUGUST 1849, Page 14

ON THE RIVER NAVPGATION OF INDIA.

No. L

WHEN the late Sir Alexander Rumes, some sixteen years back, published his narrative of a voyage upon the Indus from the sea to Lahore, consider- able interest was excited amongst the commercial community, at the open- ing up of what from the glowing accounts of the gallant sohlier they ex- pected would prove the great channel of commercial intercourse between Central Asia and Western India. Joint stock companies were projected to ran steamers from Bombay to Loodiana on the Sutlej and to Attack on the Indus with able statements of receipts, disbursements, and profits; and

everybody looked forward to the old land-route from Cutch to Mittankote as superseded. Fortunately for the speculators, the discovery that Burnes was a better diplomatist than surveyor was made in time to save their money; and except for military purposes, steam-vessels have not yet been placed upon the Indus. The annexation of the Ponjaub has revived the interest in its naviga- tion; and the whole subject of river navigation in India acquires fresh in- terest, now that our Western boundaries are a series of navigable streams, the five Punjaub rivers forming so many distinct lines of defence.

On a moderate calculation, there are 10,000 miles of river navigation in our Eastern empire open to individual enterprise and skill, their banks studded with towns, past and through which the tide of trade has rolled for thousands of years. They are Nature's highways-' difficult, indeed, to navigate, from their impetuous currents in the rainy and from their shal- low and tortuous channels in the dry season; but we look. to them for any real improvement in the means of transit throughout Our Indian possessions.

Upon the Ganges, the Company in 1834 established a line of steam- boats between Calcutta and Allahabad, for the transit of Government stores and the accommodation of passengers and a small quantity of pri- vate freight. The distance varies nearly 400 mfies according to the sea- sons: during the floods it is 787 miles, the steamers passing through the Bhaugirattee branch of the river; during the dry season, or for eight months out of the twelve, they have to make a detour through the Sonder- bunds, which increases the distance to 1,150 miles. On the upward voy- age, the time occupied varies from, twenty days in the flood season to twenty-four in the dry; and on the downward passage from fifteen to eight days. These boats have been and are remarkably successful in keeping up a continuous service. Up to 1844, private enterprise looked on and did nothing: in that year two joint stock companies were formed to compete with the Government boats. One, taking advantage of the experience acquired, following clonaly the models and machinery of the boats that had been used, have been suc- cessful, and are at present increasing their fleet; the other attempted to in- troduce the American plan of steamer; au& have failed. None of them, however, proceeded above Allahabad—that is the practical limit of steal" navigation on the Ganges to the present time. On the Indus, the East India Company have at present a flotilla of nine iron steam-vessels, of the collective power of 580 horses: only three of these vessels were built specially for the service; the rest were drafted from other quarters, as the necessities of the Scindian and Affghan wars re' quired; and they are not suitable for a river of so peculiar a character. One of these boats, the Meteor, has ascended the Sutlej to Roopur, some distance above Loodiana, and within a hundred miles of Iturnaul, the beta of the navigation of the Jumnal another, the Conqueror, reached to within twenty-five miles of Attack, on the main branch of the Indus, and has since ascended the Jhelum, to the town of that name. These are the highest points yet reached; but as there are now five steam-vessels above Moulton, we may expect to hear shortly that the Chenaub has been ascended to Aknar and the Raves to Lahore.

The fullest information on the navigation of these streams, embodied in able reports from the gallant officers of the Indian Navy in command of the steamers, has been received and made public; and in 1843, the Court of Directors personally superintended the trial of two experimental vessels—the Meanee on the Thames, and the Napier on the Mersey—in order to test their speed, capacity, draught of water, and steering qualities. These vessels have been at work upon the Indus since 1844; and a report from the Commander of the Indus flotilla on their qualifications and per- formances has lately been circulated amongst the leading engineers and iron-shiPbuilders, to enable them to tender for the construction of four iron steam-vessels, required for the navigation of the Indus and its tributaries. From this report it appears, that the Napier is the only steamer on the river capable of doing good work; that she carries 250 European or 300 Native troops, with their followers and baggage, on a draught of water of 32 inches; but with three days' fuel she can be used for carrying de- spatches or officenr on a draught of 27 inches only. The principle on which this vessel is modelled is recommended to be strictly adhered to in the construction of the new vessels now required; and steamers 200 to 250 feet long, capable of carrying a regiment with their followers on three feet draught of water, are declared suitable for the river between Hyderabad and Mittankote.

The East India Company have thus established the fact, that the Indus and its tributaries are navigable by steam-vessels of considerable size and power for an extent of 2,500 miles, and to a distance of 1,000 miles from the sea; that by this route supplies and reliefs can be forwarded not only to their newly-acquired Punjaub territory, but to all the upper provinces of Bengal; and, after trying a variety of models, similar to those of steamers employed upon the Euphrates, Ganges, European, and American rivers, they have proved that the model of the Napier, which is merely an adaptation of that of the native boat that has been in use since the days of Nearchus, is the only one that can be efficiently used on the classic stream. With these facts before them, the Court of Directors can reinforce from time to time their flotilla, with the certainty that the vessels they send out will answer the purpose they are intended for; the experiment they initiated on the Mersey in 1843 having been practically tested on the Indus, during all the military operations of the last four years.

That much larger additions to the steam flotilla than those now pro- posed will be required, there can be no doubt. True economy on the part of the Government of India points to the substitution of mechanical for physical force: gunnery upon land, steam-vessels on the rivers, are the cheapest and most humane methods of defending that country; for with a strong flotilla of steamers, the line of the Indus can be defended with one- third of the troops that would without them be required.

We take for granted that the assistance of the Government is necessary to any extension by private enterprise of steam navigation on the Indian rivers; and as it will manifestly strengthen the Indian Executive and bene- fit their subjects to have such an extension, it may be assumed that it will be liberally given. On the Indus there has hitherto been no trade; the po- pulation of the valley of the main stream is poor, producing little to ex- change; on the Lower Lotus, opium, indigo, and grain, are produced largely: to the Punjaub, now that it is in our possession, we may look for a rapidly increasing traffic; but for some years to mane, steamers could hardly be expected to pay without assistance. On the Ganges below Alla- habad, private enterprise exists and is flourishing where proper care has been taken in the selection of the vessels and machinery: above Allahabad, the Jumna is navigable to Delhi and Kurnaul; the Ganges to near Meerut. The traffic on the whole line of the Ganges and Junona is immense; but the difficulties of navigation are much increased, from shoals and changes in the bed of the stream above Allababacl, and at present no steam-vessels ascend beyond that town. As no other Indian rivers, though many are more or less navigable, have steamers upon them, practically any patronage from the Government will be for the present confined to them; and it is a subject of grave consideration how it is to he afforded in order to effect the greatest possible good in the shortest time. The object of the Government can only be attained by offering premiums to all, granting a monopoly to none. To make the reward depend upon the work being done, would bring all the talent of the country into play; and the Ganges steamers of 1834 would soon be as obsolete as the Gravesend boats of that zeta are now.

On the Indus, a premium might be offered for every voyage made in one bottom from Hyderabad to Attock, Lahore, or Loodiana; on the Ganges, for any vessels making the direct passage from Calcutta in Alla- habad through the Bhaugirattee channel in the dry season, and for vessels ascending to Delhi on the JUDI= or Meerut on the Ganges.

We believe that by adhering for seven or ten years to the open and im- Partial system of rewards we have shadowed out, the internal navigation (India will be more improved than by any other method; that every real improvement in river navigation will find its leery thither; and that indi- vidual talent, energy, and enterprise, will never be found wanting, under such a system, to insure ample competition on all the navigable streams of British India.

For the last twenty years, the East India Company have taken the lead ei fostering and improving steam navigation. They were the first to prove In the Hugh Lindsey, on the Red Sea, the posS 'IV of steam-vessels making long voyages; in 1834, by what was then' celled their obstinate Prejudices, they prevented the Suez route from being ruined by the adop- tion of a olass of vessel recommended by the Admiralty; and, after a two-years struggle against inefficiency, built the Atalanta and Berenice, end with them proved the practicability of a continuous steam voyage to indot round the Cape,—making that a fact which the great scientific nu- thenty of Whitehall in those days had just demonstrated, in the pages of the Edinburgh Review, to be a mechanical impossibility. They have uni- formly opposed the system of contracting for the conveyance of the mails over sea; and as a consequence, have got the finest and most efficient 6team-frigates afloat. They created a class of armed steamers in the Ne- Llecis, combining the qualities of sea and river vessels, which, to say the least, shortened considerably the Chinese war, and will entirely change the Character of future operations on an enemy's coast. In river navigation they have placed steamers on the three great rivers of Asia, the Euphrates, tile Indus, and the Ganges. They have spared neither trouble nor cost as pioneers in steam navigation. As a rule, whatever they have done has been done well: their steam administration bears as striking a contrast to the Home Government as their territorial does to that of the Colonial Office. Looking to its antecedents, we may safely calculate that from such a Government private enterprise will receive the most liberal en- couragement applied in the most judicious manner.