CHAPTER IV.--- THE OPENING OF COMMUNICATIONS | About Perak

Is any one afraid of change ? I would gladly know what can be done without it and what is dearer and more suitable to the universal nature? Marcus Aurelius. 

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In a State having an area of 10,000 square miles, where the only means of communication were rivers navigable for native boats and jungle paths without bridges, it was natural that the first efforts of intelligent administration should be directed to the construction of roads. The only existing cart road in the State, from Taipeng to the Port of Matang (Larut District), was first put in order. Then it was continued to Kamunting, and within the last few years that extension has been carried South West through the agricultural District of Krian to join the Colony's road over the Krian pontoon bridge into Province Wellesley, and North West through an undulating country to Selama, where the promise of successful tin lode-mining has not been fulfilled. 

Whilst the needs of the miners in the neighbourhood of Taipeng were thus met, Kuala Kangsar (the seat of the Sultan on the Perak River and, for many years, the principal residence of the British Resident) was put in communication with Taipeng by means of a cart road, which joined the Taipeng - Matang road at Simpang. This highway crosses the range dividing the valleys of the Perak and Larut Rivers, and, for years, the road through the pass was hardly fit for vehicles, until the Ceylon Pioneers took it in hand and made it into one of the best sections of road in the State. 

Meanwhile, to encourage mining in Kinta, the Town of Gropeng 

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had been put in touch with the Kinta River by means of 10 miles of indifferent road, and, in the last six years, Kuala Kangsar has been joined to Kinta by an excellent road which, crossing the Perak River by a pontoon bridge, follows an agricultural and mining country to Ipoh, and, thence, traversing the Kinta district by way of Gopeng, skirts the western base of the mountain, Bujang Malaka, and, passing through Tapah and the Batang Padang District as far as Kuala Lipis, will eventually join the Selangor main trunk road at Tanjong Malim on the Bernam River. 

The most recently constructed roads are :--- one to open the Larut Coast District, and eventually give Setiwan and Lumut communication with the Perak road system ; a hill road by Waterloo Estate to shew what attractions the high lands of Gunong Ijau offer to planters ; a branch striking due North of the Kuala Kangsar road to Kota Tampan to be continued, it is understood, to the northern boundary of the State ; and a number of branches from the Kinta main roads to open promising mining fields. All these are cart roads, and it is matter of common notoriety that they have been well constructed with very flat gradients and that they are almost, without exception, in excellent order. 

The system is briefly a main trunk road through the widest part of the State from Province Wellesley to Selangor, --- the general direction being from North West to South East. --- with a northern road to Upper Perak and a southern road to Trong, (which is in the Matang District of Larut) and thence parallel to the coast to Bruas and Setiawan. The total length of the first class roads 

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finished is about 300 miles, coastnicted at a cost of over two and a half million dollars whilst, if ummetalled cart roads and bridle-roads be added, the total length is 750 miles. 

The opening of long sections of cart road have given some very interesting and instructive results of a kind that, some years ago, would hardly have been credited by persons interested in these States. The main lesson taught is that 60 miles of good, flat cart road between a port and a busy centre of production and consumption is not regarded as at all an excessive length of transport for bullock carts, and over this distance, that form of carriage appears to pay consumers and cart owners. At present, there is nothing to shew that, under the same conditions, the length of transport might not be extended to 100 miles, and the carts still be able to compete successfully with difficult river carriage or with a railway charging high rates of freight. The reason is mainly because the carts load from or into the ship, and discharge at or take from the door of the consignee or exporter. The handling is the smallest possible and therefore the cheapest, whilst the risk of breakage is also proportionately small. It is significant that, where a read between a market and a port runs parallel with a short line of railway charging very low rates of carriage. the carts successfully compete with the line. 

Again, time to a native is apparently not money, is only leisure, and it rarely happens either that the native passenger is in a hurry, or that it matters to him whether his goods are two or three hours or two or three days on the road. Money on the contrary is 

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everything, and the means of transport that costs least, taking into consideration everything, except time, is the one that recommends itself to him. There are numbers of bullock busses running on the main road in Perak now that carry passengers 23 miles for fifty cents a head, a rate which, under the strain of competition, was reduced to ten cents. It is needless to say that a horse coach, although subsidized by the Government, was unable to live with such opposition. The natural conclusion is that a railway in a Native State will only pay well when there is no effectual competition, --- either no road at all, or when it is so hilly, in such bad repair, or so round-about, that, practically, the railway has no serious opposition to contend with. Bullocks cost comparatively little to buy, very little to keep ; and the carts are rough and inexpensive, the harness nil, and the drivers are usually also the owners, and a very small sum will support them. The only thing they have to fear is a murrain amongst the cattle, an accident of not infrequent occurrence in years gone by, but from which they have had almost absolute immunity for some time.

To thoughtful people interested in the Native States, these considerations are of great importance, for they very seriously affect all questions of railway construction while they prove, as it has been proved in Perak where alone there so far exist the circumstances necessary, that a really good cart road, even a long one, will supply almost if not quite all the Native needs, and that, probably, at a cheaper rate than can be done by the much more expensive railway. On the other hand, the railway is a far quicker and

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pleasanter means of transport for travellers ; and, to those who find the capital for roads and railways (and that in Perak is the Government) the former give no direct returns while they are a constant and serious expense for upkeep.

The first railway ever constructed in the Peninsula was that between Port Weld and Taipeng, and the immediate reason for it was a murrain which destroyed almost all the draught cattle and threatened very serious difficulty.

The line, 8 miles long, has since been extended through the nearer mines to Ulu Sapetang or Blanda Mabok on the Selama Eoad. The line is now 17 miles long and the receipts exceed the expenditure by a sum equivalent to 3% on the capital expended. In this case, there is a parallel road competition with an opposition port at Matang, and the line, whilst very convenient, will probably never yield a large revenue unless extended to, or towards Kuala Kangsar.

Another line, 50 miles long, from Teluk Anson on the Perak River to Ipoh near tlie head of the Kinta Valley, is partly open and will be finished bv the close of next year. As Kinta is now the largest tin-producing district in Perak, is capable of considerable development, and the line will also serve another rich district. Batang Padang, the railway will probably pay well. Almost the only competition it will have to face is boat carriage by a very difficult and shallow river, that will be practically abandoned as a highway when the railway is opened. The fact that the main road runs parallel to the railway for a portion of its length is of no moment whatever, because the goods to lie carried are all imported into or

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exported from the State. Once in the train, they will not leave it until they reach, in one case, the point nearest the dwelling of the consignee, and, in the other, the port of shipment. The only effective opposition, therefore, will be the existing line of transport between Penang and Matang by sea and the 55 miles of road that join Matang with Ipoh and so with the rest of the Kinta District. If the sea carriage from Penang or Singapore to Teluk Anson and the 50 miles of rail cannot hold their own, it will certainly be curious.

Speaking generally, it may be said that there is no important village or mining centre in the State of Perak that is not now in communication with every other similar place by means of a first class road. Port Weld is in railway communication with Taipeng, the principal town in the State, and Teluk Anson, the other principal port, will shortly be in railway communication with Ipoh, the town of next consideration. The conception of the roads is systematic, comprehensive, and good. The Larut railway is convenient and may yet grow into a line of importance; the Kinta Valley railway has been wanted for years, will enormously benefit the Kinta and Batang Padang Districts, will give a fillip to Teluk Anson, and will prove a financial success.