PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. ade 
the banks of the rivers. At a later stage, though contrary to 
expectation, railways competed with the water for goods as well 
as passenger traffic, and obtained, and still hold, the great bulk 
of the carrying trade. 
Railways diminish the time and cost of locomotion so as to 
fulfil the prediction of George Stephenson that it would be 
cheaper for a workman to travel by train than to walk ; and they 
convey goods to places where they would not otherwise be used. 
Such considerations as these are, after all, more important 
than calculations as to the number of tons lifted 1 ft. and the 
horse-power exerted on our railways, or even as to the number 
of men it would take to do the same work without railways. I 
shall, however, venture to adduce a few averages, showing 
broadly the comparison of countries in train miles per man, 
railway revenue per man, and number of men per mile of rail- 
way, merely premising that differences as great exist within 
each country as appear on comparison of their averages one with 
another. 
In India, the number of train miles in a year per man em- 
ployed averages 230; in New Zealand, 600; in the United King- 
dom, 700; in New South Wales, 800; in Victoria and in Aus- 
tralasia, 900 ; in South Australia and in the United States, 1000. 
The averages per employee of railway revenue per annum are: 
—For India, £60; for the United Kingdom, £150; for Ger- 
many, £180; for New Zealand, £230; for Victoria, £260; for 
New South Wales, South Australia, Australasia, and for the 
United States, £280. 
For the world’s 450,000 miles of railway, the average number 
of men per mile is 9. In the United Kingdom it is 25; in Ger- 
many, 15 ; in India, 14; in the United States, 5; in New South 
Wales, 4; in Victoria, 3}; in New Zealand and in Australasia, 
3; and in South Australia, 2. Some idea of the cause of this 
wide range may be obtained by bearing in mind the differences 
between a big metropolitan goods yard, or a station like Rich- 
mond, Victoria, with 500 trains daily, and a quiet out of the 
way station such as Oodnadatta, in the back blocks of South 
Australia, where one train is despatched in a fortnight. 
WAGES. 
A comparison of the wages of railway men in different coun- 
tries would form a most interesting investigation. It should be 
accompanied by a consideration of the prevailing rates in the 
respective localities for other works. 
