payment of the principal required immediately, and. conse- 

 quently, this impracticability, and also the necessity of securing 

 a just an.l equitable share of burden to all who in the future 

 derive benefit from the original outlay, the method of only 

 charging inteiest on capital to each year's current revenue has 

 invariably been adopted in all civilised countries. He illus- 

 trated, by reference to the United Kingdom, how capital in- 

 vestments were developed. That Australia, latterly, has not 

 been investing capital in this direction, either absolutely or 

 relatively to population, at as great a rate as the United King- 

 dom was indicated by the fact that during the last five years 

 inv< sted capital of the kind referred to in the United Kingdom 

 represented a sum of 62s. 6d. per head per year; while in 

 Australian States, in a country nearly as large as Europe, and 

 as yet scarcely begun to be developed, the corresponding 

 capital investments only represented a sum of 28s. iod. per 

 head per year. Would the present population, with its rela- 

 tively high "standard of living" and its vastly increased 

 wealth, have existed had the " retrenchment-and-ruin " cry of 

 the year 1870 succeeded in forcing upon the states, at the time, 

 the retrograde advice, " no borrowing " and " retrenchment." 

 This, though eminently prudent, from the standpoint of a pri- 

 vate individual, lmght still be open to question or qualification, 

 when applied to the economics of a corporate body. He was 

 of opinion that the state taxpayers of the day stand, in relation 

 to the ever-changing individuality of the state taxpayers of the 

 past and future, in exactly the same ethical and economical re- 

 lation to each other, as do the existing shareholders of a 

 private railway corporation to past and future shareholders of 

 the same concern; and, consequently, there is neither moral 

 nor economical grounds why either taxpayers of the state or 

 railway shareholders of the day should, in addition to their 

 own equitable share of burden, mulct themselves in additional 

 heavy taxation or expense (as by sinking fund contributions) 

 for the purpose of lessening the fair and equitable share of 

 burden of their future personally disconnected representatives. 

 The author of the paper, in conclusion, affirms as his strong 

 opinion that sinking funds for the absolute redemption of 

 loans invested in railways, harbours, and other great public 

 works, should be restricted to the portion of such loans whose 

 assets are short-lived, and, like the short terminable life of 

 marine vessels, cannot be permanently preserved in their pris- 

 tine value and utility by the ordinary yearly contributions from 

 current revenue funds to maintenance, renewals, and repairs, 

 by which means the Whole permanent way, machinery, and 

 other equipments of railways are ever kept up to their pristine 

 value and utility as bona-fide state assets. 



Mr. T. Stephens said that the Fellows of the Society must 

 congratulate themselves that, although Mr. Johnston had been 

 away on a visit to the old country, he had returned to them 

 with no loss of that force with which he had many times pre- 

 viously interested them. The subject upon which he had ad- 

 dressed them that night was such a big one that it would be 

 well to postpone the discsusion upon it in order that the 

 Fellows might have an opportunity of seeing it in print. 



