452 EEPOKT— 1891. 



railways as those we have to deal with, with our population 

 of 600,000, and the railways which serve the great Continent 

 of America. 



As another example we may instaiice the Ohio and Chesa- 

 peake Eailway, which carries nearly 1,000,000 tons of coal 

 an average distance of nearly 298 miles, while it also carries 

 600,000 tons of through freight an average distance of 424 

 miles. 



Now, we have no traffic in any way resembling this, nor 

 are the physical conditions of the country such that a business 

 like this is ever likely to arise, so far as we can judge at pre- 

 sent. 



What the United States railways pay in interest on their 

 cost we cannot learn from any published statistics. So many 

 millions of capital have been lost by investors in railways 

 which have gone bankrupt, and have been sold for a fraction 

 of their cost, that the present capital does not indicate any- 

 thing like the whole cost. Large land-endowments and large 

 subsidies have been granted to many companies, which further 

 interfere with correct estimates being arrived at. The water- 

 ing of stock also affects the question. 



Where the State builds the railways it has to pay the 

 interest on the whole cost. In many countries, where they 

 have been done by private enterprise, private capital is sunk, 

 and the State has not to bear the burden of unprofitable 

 speculations. The United States railroads, on the average, 

 earned 3 per cent, on present capital in 1889. The New Zea- 

 land railways shown in the tables earned 3 per cent, on their 

 cost for 1889, but, for the foregoing reasons, we cannot com- 

 pare these results on the same basis. 



There are other material points connected with compila- 

 tion of accounts which prevent comparisons on a common 

 basis in many respects. 



The "express traffic" in America, which covers parcels, 

 small lots of goods, and perishable freight, is transported by 

 the railways in bulk. Express companies generally receive, 

 pack, despatch, and deliver such traffic. The cost of these 

 operations is thus usually excluded from United States rail- 

 road statistics, while in our practice the work forms a material 

 part of the railway service. Although express companies do 

 business of this kind on a small scale here, the greater part of 

 New Zealand merchandise-traffic is such as in America is done 

 by the express companies. 



The live-stock traffic in the United States is enormous. 

 The practice in many cases is to waybill at a fixed weight per 

 truck-load, which is largely in excess of the actual weight of 

 live-stock carried. Tonnage quantities are thus swelled, and 

 the cost per ton-mile appears correspondingly lower. 



