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'GENERAL REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY FOR THE YEAR 1865-66' [214v] (420/541)
The record is made up of 1 item (278 folios). It was created in 1865-1866. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
«*i
408
[ Bombay^
INDO-EUROPEAN TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.
19. Any details might now be premature. I reserve
the estimate of cost, and a draft of proposed Convention, until
the further instructions of Government are received.
20. I have alluded to probable opposition on the part
of governors of provinces and mullas in Persia. To the
last named an innovation like the electric telegraph must
foreshadow detriment in every Mahomedan country. Any
new light from the West is antagonistic to the bigotry and
prejudice upon which the spiritual guides of the people
thrive. With the first I think that the adverse feeling
would give way to argument. The governor of Yezd,
Mahomed Khan, has been in Paris and London, speaks
French, and readily accepts, in some sense, the customs of
Europe. But like most of his fellow-countrymen who have
just looked in at the threshhold of civilisation, he cares little
about applying his knowledge to the profit of the mass: and
if his advisers tell him that his interests will be affected by
the introduction of the wires into his capital, he believes
them, or at least acts under their advice. The
wazir
Minister.
of
Kirman is a man of different stamp, and swayed by different
impulses. Naturally shrewd and intelligent, possessed of
great local experience, thoroughly acquainted with his own
people, and fairly so with Europeans, energetic and perse
vering in a patriotic, however questionable policy, Mahomed
Ismael Khan, the merchant minister of a Shahzada, but in
reality the plenipotentiary himself, foresees in the telegraph
a means of constant interference in his government on the
part of those whose power he must acknowledge, whose
ignorance he must keep from harm, and whose covetousness
he must satisfy. He does not wish to be shackled with this
chain in addition to those which already restrain his move
ments, and few that will not admit the justice of his fears.
At the same time I believe that he may be brought to see
benefits in the telegraph which will more than outweigh
96
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Annual administration report of the Bombay Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. , providing a summary record of the main events and developments in each department of the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. during the financial year 1865-66.
The report is divided into the following headings, some of which are further divided into sub-headings:
- ‘JUDICIAL’ (ff 7-30), consisting of: Legislative; Civil Justice; Court of Small Causes; Criminal Justice; Police; Jails
- ‘REVENUE’ (ff 31-42), consisting of: Land Revenue; Alienated Revenue; Income Tax; Customs, Salt and Opium
- ‘FINANCIAL’ (ff 43-50), consisting of: Finance; Mint; Paper Currency
- ‘POLITICAL’ (ff 51-58), consisting of: Political; Kattywar [Kathiawar]; Kutch [also known as Kachchh]; Rewankanta [Rewa Kanthar]; Khadeish; Surat; Sind [Sindh]; Aden; Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- ‘PUBLIC WORKS’ (ff 59-117), consisting of: Military Army; Ordance; Commissariat; Military Finance Offices; Civil Buildings; Public Improvements
- ‘PUBLIC WORKS – RAILWAY’ (ff 118-134) consisting of: GIP [Great Indian Peninsular] Railway; BB and CI [Bombay, Baroda and Central Indian] Railway; Sind Railway; Indus Valley Survey; Indus Steam Flotilla
- ‘MILITARY’ (ff 135-161)
- ‘PENSIONERS’ COLONY AT CHALLISGAUM [Chalisgaon]’ (f 162)
- ‘INDO-EUROPEAN TELEGRAPH’ (ff 163-251). This section gives details on the Mekran [Makran] Coast and Musandam telegraph station. This section also has appendices: A (letter from Colonel Frederic John Goldsmid, Director in Chief of Indo-European Telegraph, and a report by Major Smith on the Island of Angaum [Hengam]); B (a report by Colonel Goldsmid of his journey through Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. [Ottoman Iraq] and Asia Minor [Turkey]); C (a letter from Colonel Goldsmid and reports by himself, Major Smith of the Royal Engineers, and Mr Johnstone, British Agent at Busrah [Basra], of the journey from Ispahan [Isfahan] to Gwadur [Gwadar] to survey the land for connecting the Persian [Iranian] and Mekran Coast land lines of the telegraph); and D (a letter from Colonel Goldsmid with enclosure proposing an alternative land line from Gwadur to join the main Persian line between Bushire [Bushehr] and Tehran).
- ‘PUBLIC INSTRUCTION’ (ff 252-258)
- ‘MEDICAL’ (ff 259-260)
- ‘SURVEYS’ (ff 261-265), consisting of: Revenue Survey; Topographical Survey
- ‘FORESTS’ (ff 266-268)
- ‘EMIGRATION’ (f 269)
- ‘MILLS’ (ff 270-272)
- ‘MUNICIPAL’ (ff 273-275)
- ‘ECCLESIASTICAL’ (ff 276-277)
- ‘COTTON FRAUDS DEPARTMENT’ (ff 278-279)
- ‘POPULATION, SIND’ (f 280)
- ‘AGRICULTURE, SIND’ (f 281).
A table of contents listing the headings and sub-headings of the report is on folios 5-6. There are two maps relating to surveys of the Indo-European Telegraph line.
- Extent and format
- 1 item (278 folios)
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'GENERAL REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY FOR THE YEAR 1865-66' [214v] (420/541), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/V/10/280/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100137004135.0x00001e> [accessed 8 August 2026]
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- Reference
- IOR/V/10/280/1
- Title
- 'GENERAL REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY FOR THE YEAR 1865-66'
- Pages
- 3r:29r, 30r:41r, 42r:90r, 91r:166r, 167r:235r, 236r, 237r, 238r, 239r, 240r, 241r, 242r, 243r, 244r, 245r:267r, 268r:270r, 271r, 272r:281v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence