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Leader (1850-1860), 7th August 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 24, BANK - Q'B EGrYPT. The Bank of Egypt has...

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      Madeas Eailwat. Railwatts In India Begin...

      hitherto had small opportunity of effecting , forming new posts and improving the old posts . Thus the commerce of the country-will be improved , not only by bette-, quicker , and cheaper means of conveyance being provided , but by ne * r outlets being opened for produce , and consequently the expenses of transport being thereby reduced . . It is by means of the railway system in England that Southampton , Milford , Seaham , Middlesborougb , Fleetwood , Pyle of Foudrey , Ardrossan , Britton Ferry , and many a port of the Northumbrian coast and of South Wales has been made the scene of vast commerce .

      Thirty years ago , the towns off Middlesborough , Fleetwood , and Barrow were represented each by one or two cottages or a rabbit-warren . By railways , traffic has been brought to these places and natural harbours made useful , or artificial harbours created to supply the want , the harbour and dock due 3 repaying the advances for greater improvements . Hence there has been in England a vast increase of harbours , docks , piers , and hydraulic works , from whkh the Government has

      shrank . In India , we remember with some compunction , how many plans for an out-harbour of Calcutta , at Saugor , Diamond Harbour , & c , have been talked of and nothing done , and of the talk about Mangalore , Bey poor , Coctrin , and Porto Novo , Kurrachee is the solitary case of progress . The remedy is the encouragement of railway companies by the Government in the prosecution of public-works , and among these tie proposed measures for the improvement by the Madras Railway Company of Beypoor and Cochin .

      A meat interesting feature in the Madras Bailwav accounts is the increase of the mileage rates of passenger and goods traffic Thus the average traffic of passengers in the last half of 1856 was 16 / . per mile , and of 1857 1 . 8 L per mile , and of goods 1856 , 9 L per mile , aad 1857 , 13 * . per mile .

      784 Thb _Ji Baj)> ' R. ^_ __ Jno. ^, Ato...

      784 THB _ Ji BAj )> ' R . ^_ __ jNo . ^ , Atowi 7 185

      Bank - Q'B Egrypt. The Bank Of Egypt Has...

      BANK - Q'B EGrYPT . The Bank of Egypt has been established in consequence of our growing intercourse with that country as the high road to India . Tlie Alexandria Railway and the proposed Bed Sea Telegraph-will confirm the hold the Peninsular and Oriental steamers have given us on Egypt . The chief operations of the Bank of Egypt hitherto have been at Alexandria , but measures have been taken to carry on the Cairo branch , which was opened in April . In time , we presume , there will be an agency at Suez , and there are other openings for business in Egypt . One great advantage of Alexandrians

      a seat of banking operations is , that there is a large European mercantile community , and that there are large commercial transactions with Europe , so that Alexandria may be considered in this sense a European city , and the Government business may likewise be carried on with advantage , but there are places in the East where banking cannot be carried on with propriety or safety , as the individuals concerned and the state of the law would occasion heavy losses by the repudiation of engagements .

      The full capital of 250 , 0002 . is now paid up , the last call being appropriated to the Cairo branch . The moneys of the public in hand amount to 340 , 610 / ., and these will be increased , as -with the growth cf confidence , the Turkish and other inhabitants find the benefit of such a place of deposit . With judicious management large funds will be received from classes to whom no large advances can with prudence be made . The cash kept in hand is 44 , 626 / ., and the amount advanced on the discount of bills and securities , & c , 558 , 894 / .

      The profits declared for the half-year are 16 , 4 O 2 £ , from which 8000 / . las most judiciously been written off the preliminary expenses—an item which it is always desirable to extinguish as early as possible—8750 / . paid in a dividend at the rate of 7 per cent per annum , and 6020 / . is carried forward as a balance . The profits so declared exceed those of the foregoing half-years . In the next half-year the late and last call will be made productive , and the Cairo branch will be at work , bringing in further funds and therebv increasing the profits , though Alexandria-will of course be the chief place for the employment of the funds . There i « , therefore , little doubt the dividend , even in the ensuing half-year , will be considerably increased .

      Notes On Indian Progress. Colonel, Arthu...

      NOTES ON INDIAN PROGRESS . Colonel , Arthuk Cotton having been reported at Madras , is gazetted as Chief Engineer , and we shall look forward to his active exertions foT the promotion of public works , and we hope that none will be delayed under his administration . He has been to the north , examining the junction of the Nuddea rivers -with the Ganges , and ho reports that they can be improved , wnd made available for navigation . The railway companies , among other incidental mea _ sures of improvement , are extending the electric telel

      graph , so that besides the Government lines , we shall have a large system of telegraphy by the railways . The Madras Railway has in this way laid out . up to the end of last year , 4574 / . The Government has directed that the bridge of boats over the Jumna at Delhi shall be made permanent , but we hope a better means of communication will in time be found . ¦ ' From Hopetown , Darjeeling , it is reported that seven more allotments have been disposed of , and that a hundred thousand seedling tea-trees have this season been put in at that settlement .

      An interesting report has been published by Dr . Cleghorne , on the important subject of planting the Neelgherries . This district , like many others , has suffered by the destruction of timber , and Captain Campbell , two or three years ago , called the attention of the Madras Government to it , and obtained the assistance of Dr . Cleghome , and a grant for planting Australian and Himalayan trees . Dr . Cleghorn has chosen a site of 600 acres , about three miles and a half from Jackatalla , and mado arrangements for acquiring the freehold aa a Government plantation . As yet he has only planted about six or eight acres , but lie has put in about a hundred thousand seedlings , which will , in due course , he planted out in the adjoining ground . Captain Campbell himself has put in a large number of trees around the barrack .

      Mr . E . - . B . Thomas , the collector , has planted eight thousand Australian trees at Ootakamund . Tbese worthy co-operators have taken effectual measures for increasing the new trees , arid a further conservancy force is to be employed to check the destruction of old timber by the natives . The Government has liberally supported these operations , which have been effected at a very moderate expense . . The intercourse between Madras and Rangoon has now become so important that Messrs . Gladstone , Wylie , and Co ., have put on a line of steamers , so as to open a regular communication twice a month . Two steamers are at present employed . This will , among other things , serve to open an outlet for Madras labour . The Ceylon Railway managers have been rather embarrassed in their labour operations , but have made arrangements to obtain the requisite supply from the

      mam . Matheran has this season been the residence of Lord ElpMnstone , the Governor of Bombay , but on the setting in of the rains , he left . This hill district is , like many others in the south , and like Chirm Ponjee in the north , very disagreeable during the rains , from the excessive damp . The applications for the Bed Sea Telegraph shares this week flowed in so fast , that on Wednesday the list was closed . The shares were quoted £ to ^ premium . The deposit of 21 . per share was paid into the bankers by the applicants . At the Madras Railway meeting on Monday a very satisfactory report was presented .

      It will be seen with some satisfaction that a municipal commission has been created by the Bombay Government for the city of Poona . The commissioners are—the executive engineer , the civil surgeon , and the superintendent of police , exqfficio ; and five government nominees—the assistant collector , the assistant judge , the Mam commissioner , the assistant ftlam commissioner , and the superintendent of the engineering : school , so that the official element reigns supreme . We hope the next stage of progress will be the appointment of settlers as commissioners , and before long an English municipality . With the advance of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway from Bombay , Poona will now become of still greater importance as an up-country residence .

      Notwithstanding the revolt , such is the progress of enterprise in India , that the new year was inaugurated by the publication in Bengal of an engineering periodical , brought out fortnightly at Calcutta , and styled the Ent / ineers' Journal and Rmlway and Public Works Chronicle ^ The first copies have now reached this country . It will be remembered thnt the engineering college at Roorkee issues some useful engineering publications . The great obstacle to our import trade for months past has been the difficulty of procuring carriage for merchandise to the interior . Colonel Cotton , who has gained such celebrity for hydraulic works in the Madras Presidency , has , at the request of Government , examined the subject of connecting Calcutta with the Ganges by a canal ; and having inspected the country , he a

      few days ago submitted the result of his observations to the Chamber of Commerce . His proposal is , to form a canal from Itajmchal , passing by Moorshedabad and Kishnjghur , to Calcutta the facilities of construction , he states , are greater than in similar works ; which have been executed in the deltas of the Cauvery , Godavery , and Kistna , while the advantages to bo expected are much greater . Tbo extraordinary success which has attended similar undertakings in the Madras Presidency gives those who have considered the question the greatest confidence in tho undertaking , and the Chamber linvo resolved to petition the Government to carry it out . Except a deep cutting near the head ( it R « ijmehal , tho canal would be carried between embankments above the lovel of tho country , no excavations being necessary

      except just sufficient to form the embankments tT " canal would be navigable for large steamers »* * speed , or boats of fire hundred ton * and would L ?/ same time supply water for irrigation to VS 5 l £ V 5 acre * . The cost of the work is estunated at SSooo / while the annual increase in the produce of a mill- * acres from irrigation would be 100 , 000 / ., and theTav I !* on the present goods traffic 75 O , OO 0 i , or more than n ^ per cent , on the cost J When we mention thal the c 0 Bt of transit by the proposed canal would noTexcLn i rupee per ton hence to Rajmehal , the time occulS being only two to three days , while the river tteSSS this season charge 120 rupees per ton for light flK * and take at this season nine days to perform the IS !! distance , the saving in time and expense oftamjj »?! be imagined ; to which advantages must be added the avoidance of risk , which alone is equal to 6 to 8 per cenU

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      ? ' ¦ ' ¦ Trade: Progress And Prospects....

      ? ' ¦ ' ¦ TRADE : PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS . The price of Consols since the payment of the dividends at the commencement of last mouth has been gradually rising-, and with good harvests , quiefc politics , capital flowing into the country , and not

      much required in trade , the price seems likely to continue to rise . Railway shares , though the traffic returns arc not very favourable , and other securities are affected like Consols , or even show in general a greater comparative rise in their value . Tlie price of commodities , on the contrary , continues to tend downwards , as if it were the complement of tlw other price . Prices are both the means of

      distributing commodities aud the guides to industry in producing them j and a knowledge of the conditions on which they depend may make us less impatient for the revival of trade , and enable us to form correct opinions when this is likely to take place . We are about to refer briefly , therefore , to the course of trade in the last few years in connexion with prices , in order to explain its present , and give us a ehie to its future condition . Not till 1849 did trade recover from the

      commercial convulsion of 1 S 47 and the political convulsion of 1848 . The declared value of the exports then , for the first time , exceeded the value in 1845 , and was 03 , 596 , 025 / . The value of the exports rose in the following year to 71 , 3 ( 17 , 885 / ., in 1 S 51 to 74 , 448 , 722 / ., and in 1 S 52 to 73 , 076 , 854 / . In 1853 , however , it jumped up nearly 21 , 000 , 000 / ., and was 98 , 933 , 7 S 1 / . These figures arc quoted as an illustration of the rapid expansion of our trade , which was accompanied by an expansion of trade throughout Europe . The discoveries of gold on

      the shores of the Pacific , in conjunction , with the removal of restrictions , gave a great impulse to enterprise . A great addition was suddenly made to the wealth to be exchanged for the produce of Europe . Increased consumption followed increase of enterprise , and a i * ise took place in prices . The average price , for example , of a quarter of wheat in the becinninor of 1852 was 38 s . 4 d .: in November , V 14 ^* 1 ^ % ^ t aM 4 Aff * » 4 ¦ B ^ S ' ^ " ^ ^^ ^^ «> w - ^^ - *^ -w v a— - y — — *

      1853 , xt was 72 s . 5 d ., the highest price of the year , a rise of nearly 90 per cent . In the same period the price of cattle rose 8 per cent ., of silk 30 , of wool 14 , of coffee 24 , of iron 80 , and of tea 90 per cent . The crop of sugar was very abundant , ana the price declined ; but before the close of 1353 there was a general rise in prices , though not in all cases equal to the rise in the price of ' wheat .

      Whatever might be the consequences of the war with Russia , as it did not begin till the end of March , 1854 , it was not the cause of the previous rise in prices . Before it began the monthly average price of wheat rose , in February , 1854 , to 80 s . lOd ., and continued hi g h , again reacliintf 80 s lOd . in November , 1855 , till after tho harvest of 1856 . Then it fell to 60 s ., and was below Unit

      figure all through 1857 , falling to 48 s . at the close of the year , while the average price of tho year was 5 Cs . 4 tl . At present the average price is 43 s . 9 d . The price of other commodities , particularl y of tliosc affected by the war , rose in 1854 , and following , though at a distance , tho wheat-market , fell ui 1857 , before the general discredit , of which the fall was tho precursor . The following table states tho price of severul articles in the first week of April , 1857 , and the prices of the same articles in N-o vember of the same year : —

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 7, 1858, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07081858/page/24/