30 EXPENDITUEE ON INDIAN ROADS. 



developing their natural agricultural resources, but are 

 also an index of the zeal of those who govern in behalf 

 of this fundamental interest of a state, and of their 

 wisdom in encouraging the means most likely to promote 

 it, we shall be inclined to look upon the governors of the 

 poor thinly-peopled province of New Brunswick as 

 much better friends of agricultural improvement than the 

 servants of the great commercial company which directs 

 the destinies of the rich and densely-peopled provinces 

 of India. According to the recently published accounts 

 of the India Company, for the year 1847-8,* there was 

 expended upon &quot; buildings, roads, and other public 

 works,&quot; in the four presidencies respectively, the follow 

 ing sums : 



Expended on 



Roads. Population. 



Bengal, . ^45,000 1 ? 



North-Western, 48,000 ) &amp;gt;,000,00 



Madras, . 23,000 16,000,000 



Bombay, . 38,000 3,000,000 



New Brunswick, 30,000 210,000 



If the East India Company be thought to have done 

 enough for this branch of economy, we cannot withhold 

 from the legislature of New Brunswick the commenda 

 tion it appears to merit. I may add, however, for the 

 benefit of the provincial grumblers, who think we quiet 

 home people neglect them and their geography, that I 

 scarcely found a single person in the other parts of the 

 province, who knew anything about the roads and 

 country I have come over during the past week. Even 

 at Bathurst, numerous parties had to be sought out and 

 interrogated before it could be ascertained that I should 

 be able to take a carriage by that route all the way to 

 Miramichi; and, after all, I had to start under some 

 degree of doubt. 



* Extracted from the Times for August 26, 1850. 



