May i, 1895.I THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
721 
employment here without them — so we hazarded 
the guess that he had somehow got into trouble 
and was glad to move to Ceylon — and there was 
no emphatic denial ! 
Our principal object in 
REVISITING NEW GALWAY 
at this time Was to get some idea of the course of 
THE PROPOSED NEW ROAD, 
about which Mr. R. Wardrop in particular,— sup- 
ported by all the residents in the district and 
by very remarkable petitions from native traders 
and agriculturists extending so far down as Wel- 
limadde, — lias taken so much interest and laboured 
untiringly. Starting from near the station by 
a pleasant pathway through patana and forest, 
we speedily found ourselves descending at a won- 
derfully rapid rate and in a few minutes, as it 
seemed to us, we weie through the jungle and 
emerged into the tea — the topmost held as we 
took it to be of 
WARWICK 
estate — and splendidly vigorous, fine tea it appeared 
to be. But here at once became apparent to us the 
extraordinary anomaly — for which the ( Jo\ eminent 
is responsible — as regards the relation between the 
Railway and transport from this district. The pro- 
duce of tea fields approaching we suppose to within 
a mile of the Ambewela Railway station has to 
be carried down and round and up to Nuwara 
Eliya and down again to Nanuoya station, a 
distance altogether of some 14 miles, while 
railway trains are daily whistling by, 
within easy distance of this group of estates. 
What was the object of establishing a station 
at all at Ambawela, we may well ask, if there 
was to be no road connecting it with the New 
Galway and Wellimadde cart road a few 
miles away '? It is the most extraordinary 
short-sightedness ever recorded of a Governor 
of Ceylon, that Sir Arthur Havelock when 
lie made his journey to Badulla in 1892 
to see and learn what roads were required to serve 
the Railway, did not first of all decide that there 
was at least one road to be made, in each case, to 
connect the Ambawela and Qhiya stations with 
some source of traffic. To allow such stations to 
be built, established and maintained, without any 
visible means of traffic or any proper outlet or 
inlet, surely, argues ignorance of the first princi- 
ples of developing railway traffic and profits such 
as has not been parallelled in the whole history 
of Ceylon and Indian Railways. The Rail- 
Way authorities are as much disgusted as 
the most neglected planter or native trader; 
for, it can be no pleasure to Messrs. Pearce and 
Perman, to keep stationruasters and stall's of 
porters, pointsmen, signallers &c., at such places 
Ambawela and Ohiya, while for as two or three 
years the traffic which should come to such 
stations is either diverted on the Haputalesidefrom 
tin- line altogether or in the case of the New Galway 
district, sent, round to Nanuoya. We most clearly 
disclaim responsibility for ever arguing that 
the New Galway or Welliiuadde traffic was 
entirely lost to the Railway : we, of course, 
always knew it got on at Nanuoya ; but why 
establish a station at Ambawela at all if it 
was not meant to have a connecting road and 
so to serve this very traffic ? The neglect of this, 
as of the Anipitiyakande and Passara roads, is 
just doing what sir William Gregory indignantly 
disclaimed in lS7">-(!, that is - spoiling the ship 
for a ha'porth of tar."' We maintain that there 
i* no planter or body of planters so interested 
in having each ami all of these roads made, as 
is the Government itself as trustee for the Rail- 
way. To return to the 
AMBAWELA-NEW-GALWAY 
road, it only remains to point out as a further 
justification for calling on the Government to 
bear the very moderate outlay required for this 
railway-feeding road that more than two-thirds 
of the traffic will be to, and from, the native 
districts of Wilson's Bungalow and Welliiuadde 
between which and Colombo, there is at present 
(via Nanuoya) a large traffic in rice, cloth, provi- 
sions and sundries up ; and coffee, vegetables 
and other produce down. It is a shame that 
this traffic should have to travel up so high as 
Nuwara Eliya by one of the steepest roads in 
the country when it might be carried along an 
easy gradient to Ambawela station, 300 feet lower. 
IN THE DISTRICT. 
We have thus plunged in medias res, before 
referring to our walk of 3 miles with a fall of 
700 feet down through the district. Much of 
it was new, but much also old, familiar ground 
to us. Above the tea on the opposite side of 
the Valley, close to the jungle and at an 
elevation not much below Nuwara Eliya, we 
noted the exceptionally Commodious mansion 
erected by Mr. A. H. Dingwall and now occupied 
by Mr. W. Milne, Inspector of Estates and chief 
local Manager for the Sylhet Tea Company and 
Messrs. Finlay, Muir & Co. Farther on, in the 
distance we bad glimpses of the tea-fields of 
Glenorcby, the property of Messrs. John Martin 
and W. Nicol and reckoned both for heavy 
yield and quality, one of the most valuable 
estates of its size in the country. But the chief 
proprietors now in New Galway — the district 
which we ventured to rename in honour of 
Governor Gregory — are the Sylhet Tea Company 
and on every side as we proceed, we have 
evidence of the energy with which they are 
developing and extending cultivation. On War-: 
wick, New Cornwall and Glenshee (a block of 
forestland just opened) the Company will shortly 
have not less than 600 acres in tea ; and this 
with the 500 acres opened or to be planted on 
Mandaranuwara in Maturatta should make a 
considerable addition to Ceylon crops by-and-bye. 
Then there will be a large area in Ballangodda 
which Mr. P. D. Clark, just retired from the I't ra- 
deniya Gardens, hasgone to open, apart from what 
is doingin the low-country through this enterprising 
Company. All we need say at present is that we feel 
sure that a good deal, if not all, of the 
Company's New Galway tea will be among 
their best to judge by the bushes and plants 
we saw. Some doubt may be felt as to 
Glenshee clearings being quite equal owing to 
exposure to wind and a varying climate,; but 
tea is a wonderfully hardy plant ami all that skill, 
care, first-class jilt of tea and general good man- 
agement can do to ensure success, wili certainly 
not be wanting. Mr. A. F. .lames is Chief Su- 
perintendent under Mr. Milne. 
Our destination, however, for the time is Am- 
bewela, (the Ambegolla of the Tamils) long the 
best known, largest and most valuable property 
in the district, and an estate which under coffee 
saw as many vicissitudes of ownership and man- 
agement as any in the island. It covers some oOS 
acres in all, running across and round the other es- 
tates at the entrance to the valley, and with cultiva- 
tion from below 4,000 feet to an altitude close on 
0,000 feet. A long, scattered ami on the whole dif- 
ficult place to work ; but including still some 
splendid coll'ee now bearing a heavy crop on line 
old vigorous trees which, we think, the Manager 
