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Conditions and Doings in India.

14th March 1912, Page 13
14th March 1912
Page 13
Page 14
Page 13, 14th March 1912 — Conditions and Doings in India.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

(From Our Calcutta Correspondent.)

I have just been having a chat with the representative of Commercial Cars, Ltd., who has conic to India to sec what can be done in the way of extending the use of commercial motors in this part of the sleepy East. He came with a letter of introduction to me from the Editor, and I had much pleasure in giving him a few hints as to how he might proceed and in which direction he might look for possible customers.

The Cheapness of the Bullock Cart.

He will experience no difficulty in finding concerns which ought. to use commercial motors, but it is rather another matter to induce them to do so. Mr. Wilkinson finds, as others have found before him, and as I have stated in THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR before to-day, that the real difficulty consists in persuading would-he users that it would pay them to substitute motor lorries for the present form of transport. The trouble in the way is the number and cheapness of the bullock carts available, and the fact that no one seems to be in a hurry out here. To-morrow or next week is generally just as good as to-day ; and if the bullock cart did not indulge so largely in transport work, it would be idle on the farm in the off season. So, on the principle of a half-loaf being better than no bread, the bullock-cart driver is prepared to work at a price that goes far in foreign countries to `• stagger humanity," if I may use a famous expression of the late ex-President Kruger.

Its Universal Employment.

On paper, at all events, Mr. Wilkinson can figure out to one's satisfaction that the commercial motor is capable of doing not only immensely-superior work, but ata price with which the bullock cart cannot compete. I could find no flaw in the argument, as he worked it out, and I only hope that he will be able to give a real impetus to motor transport in the principal centres of India. I have all along felt that it only needs a good start to be made to induce others to fall into line, for, if such and such a firm with motor vehicles can deliver or transport urgent goods much sooner than another competing firm, custom is more likely to go to the firm with the motor wagons. As things stand, people out this way are simply content to use bullock carts, apart from their cheapness, because all other firms in the same line use bullock carts, and there is no competition in the matter of rapid transport arrangements.

The Railway Stations in Calcutta.

Already I see an important change in this direction. First of all, one of the railways started a motor parcel service from the city to their main station, which is a couple of rinks distant.. Now the competing railway has done likewise. Home readers will. in this connection, possibly be astonished to hear that we have no railway stations in the city of Calcutta. When we need to travel by rail, we have to drive a couple of miles to the suburbs of Sealclah for the Eastern Bengal State Railway, or an equal distance to Howrah for the East Indian Railway, which two connect with all the other railways in India. The reason why we have no central station in the city is due to two causes the great difficulty of railway bridging the Ffooghly, which is a fierce and tidal river responsible for no end of lives and wrecks ; and the high cost of land. A way out of these difficulties will have to be found, some day. In the meantime, the distance of the railway stations from the city affords an excellent opening for motorvans, and am glad to see that it is being taken advantage of. Happy With Their Motors.

To give another instance, one of the petrol companies here, whose stocks, being explosive, are required by law to be kept some distance out of the city, went in some. time ago for a covered motorvan to bring in supplies to their local depots, and also for delivery to large customers. At first, they seemed to be half sorry that they had invested in an expensive vehicle of this sort, and they were also half inclined to believe that this form of transport did not pay. Now, a competing firm is coming along with similar transport arrangements, and both concerns seem to be extremely happy—possibly because they are now on level terms.

Openings in Native States.

In my opinion, there are orders for commercial motors of sorts to be had in nearly all parts of India, and in the Native States as well, only it requires a persuasive individual to secure them. For instance, one or two of the fire brigades in this country have gone in for motor fire-engines and motor hose-vans. Other important fire brigades are almost bound to follow suit, sooner or later, but they require coaxing into giving orders. After all, motor transport is fairly new and still relatively costly, and it is not to be expected that a backward people like those of India will rush in for it in the absence of still more reliable information on the spot to show that such transport is exactly suited to their particular part of the country. Here it is that a little judicious canvassing would be of use, and it would be all the better done by someone who thoroughly understands the people and their ways. Stay-at-home makers will suffer for their pride.

Scarcity of the Agricultural Labourer.

Then, again, India is a great agricultural country, one of the greatest in the world ; and, as is the case in practically all countries that grow extensive crops, labour is often scarce and costly. Hence, there is an opening for labour-saving agricultural machinery of the motor type—ploughs, reapers, mowers, threshers, winnowers and so forth. A start has already been made in this direction, in the Punjab, and other orders are bound to follow, but the purchasers in this part of agricultural India are almost all natives, and a canvasser who can speak Hindustani fluently is absolutely essential, though the Director of Agriculture in that province is always ready to lend a helping hand. It will be uphill work, just for the present ; but, of course, when the advantages of agricultural machinery are more generally realized, the flow of orders should leave little to be desired. All new fields, whether they be commercial or agricultural, are generally difficult to prepare, but they bear fruit in season, the quantity depending largely on the alOOtillt of preparation.

Help for the Busy Hospitals.

There is still another field here in which we are. pretty certain to see the power of the motor before long, and that is in connection with the ambulance service to and from our hospitals. India is a country in which one may be perfectly well in the morning and yet be buried the same afternoon I Cholera and plague, to mention only a couple of horrors, are always ready to do that much for one. In other words, there is no country in which a fleet and comfortable ambulance service is so very badly needed as in India, for several of our diseases are so rapidly fatal that. the only sporting chance a patient has is immediate treatment, and this he is very unlikely to

iset if he has to depend on our slow-moving, mostly ..out-of-date ambulances, which are often referred to in your newspapers by their vernacular name of -doolies, a fact which reminds me how unconscionably sensational your great morning dailies can sometimes -be. At the time to which I a,ni referring, we had one -of our little frontier wars on, the fighting being Against the troublesome natives that infest our north-western borders. The war correspondents were -there all right, and they were sending their cable-.grams on to the London papers all right, but the sub-editor of one of them knew little about India and less about Hindustani, and the result was an extraurchnary blunder. One of the correspondents explained that our wounded were removed by dooliee. _Next morning, the good people of England were sstartled with the following soul-stirring headlines :

Horrible outrage in India : British wounded carried off by ferocious Doolies."

Why Not a Motor Dooly ?

What we require now is the motor (holy, and I :think it would not be very hard work to induce some sof our leading hospitals to make a start. I say this because doolies seem to be fairly largely used, and --..the price for the use of one is high. I, myself, the -other day, had the honour of paying Ss. for half-an:hour's use of one. At this rate, motor ambulances ashould pay " hand over fist " as the saying is.

The Amir's Caution.

Such are a few of the openings for trade that saceur to me, to-day. I shall mention a few others on -:another occasion. I see that the A rnir of Afghanistan is forging ahead with his scheme for a motorbus lorry and car service between his capital and the frontiers of India at Peshawar. It seems that his Majesty is of opinion that a railway to Kabul would be highly dangerous, because it might be forcibly used by the British for military purposes„ and a railway to the Russian or Persian frontiers stands condemned in the Amir's eyes for similar reasons. In other words, his majesty lives in an atmosphere of dire suspicion, which no assurances on our part can dispel. A tramway, he considers, would only be a trifle less dangerous, and so it comes about that an extensive motor service has been ordered, as I was the first to report,

and should now soon be in full swing. As I announced, this contract is in the hands of the Bombay Motor Co., and is another support to my contention that there are good orders to be picked up here if trouble be taken to secure them. The Amir of Afghanistan, however, is not the only native ruler out this way who can boast of a commercial-motor service. The Maharaja of Gwalior has a fleet of Daimler and Hallford-Stevens motorbuses, each carrying some 20 passengers. It was the Maharaja's first intention to have an electric tramway, but he gave up this idea in favour of the motorbus, which service is considered to be cheaper and better. The roads in that part of India are good, and the service is said to give satisfaction. That being so, why not induce some other native ruler to emulate the motorbus service of Gwalior? It most certainly could be done. Who is going to do it? THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR, I hope, for it has already been responsible for much out here. A journal and its correspondents can do much, but not all. A. or C.

Tags

People: Wilkinson, Kruger
Locations: Kabul, London, Peshawar, Calcutta

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