Report of a committee on a plan for cleansing the drains of Black Town.

Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of a committee on a plan for cleansing the drains of Black Town. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    there be for depriving the immense population of Madras of the advantages which it can so easily afford, merely because another locality is without some advantages which it needs, we might equally well argue, why do any thing for India while Africa is in such a savage state ? The simple fact is that both Government and the municipal authorities have been and still are spending more money annually in patch-work with tri- fling effect, than would be sufficient to carry out an extensive and well planned system of-works that would accomplish all the ends that are desired. We have an undeniable proof how abundantly remunerative Capital may be here, by the results of Cochrane's Canal which now yields 30,000 Rupees a year, the Interest of 6 Lacks, while such a work would be executed for a twen- tieth part of that sum. 11. With respect to the 3d objection (that Madras has already had large sums spent upon it) I answer, 1st.—It certainly has, and the consequence is, (as is usual) that it has now become of such value, that it is worth taking care of and improving. When you have collected such a mass of people into one place, it is only so much the more necessary and remunerative to take care of them. 12. And 2d.—That so much money has been laid out so advantageously although in so injudicious a manner, is the very thing that should encourage us to lay out the money in future on a more comprehensive plan, in the assur- ance that the results will be proportionably so much greater. All that has yet been done may he properly described, as a patch by the Justices here, and another by the Government there, without any reference whatever to a comprehensive plan, and the Avaste of money has consequently been immense. The most distinct proof of the mistaken system that has been followed is in the case of the Bulwark. For this work 150,000 tons of stone were brought from the Mount an'd Palaveram, at about 3f Rupees per ton for carriage alone, or 5,60,000 Rupees in all. If a line of canal had been made from Palaveram to the north beach, this might have been conveyed to the spot by an average of 15 miles of water and i mile of land carriage, at a cost of i Rupee a ton, or 75,000 Rupees in all, and if a Lack of Rupees be allowed lor completing the line of canal, there would have been a total expenditure of 1,75,000 Rupees, instead of 5,60,000 or a saving of 3,95,000 Rupees, on that one work, besides giving Madras the benefit of 18 miles of water communication, connected with Cochrane's canal, worth at least 50,000 Rupees a year, or in all since the construction of the bulwark in 1822, 15 Lacks of Rupees. But who can calculate what might have been done for Madras in this interval, if the granite quarries at the Mount had thus been made available for the Port at so trifling a rate per ton ?