454 EEPOET — 1891. 



companies' tonnages and add them together we get an 

 exaggerated view of the aggregate traffic of the railways which 

 is useless as a measure of the whole business. Similarly the 

 " through traffic " prevents our knowing the average distance 

 which goods are hauled in the aggregate. Each separate rail- 

 way is correct in stating its own average, but no correct 

 average can be stated for the United States railways as a 

 whole. Similar errors have occurred in the local Press about 

 Victorian statistics. Victoria divides its railways into four 

 systems in accounting. If a ton of goods or a passenger passes 

 over two or more systems in transit it would be reckoned as 

 many times. Out of a total tonnage of 4,000,000 shown in the 

 Victorian statistics 1,000,000 tons are shown to be reckoned 

 more than once for the year 1889-90, and 12,000,000 out of 

 71,000,000 passengers are similarly treated. 



A high cost per ton-mile is inseparable from a light short- 

 distance traffic. It is interesting to consider the causes which 

 lead to this result. On railways with large enough traffic, 

 continuous working throughout the twenty-four hours pre- 

 vails — every part of the railway machinery is fairly well 

 utilised ; while with a light traffic and population, such as we 

 have, the trains are run on the busiest parts only about sixteen 

 hours a day, and on the remotest parts once a week only. 

 These lines, then, are not, on the average, a fourth part 

 utilised. On the average, the running-time of a truck is not 

 more than one hour in twenty-four. The small number of 

 trains which the light traffic and population admits of conduce 

 to this. The excessively short average distances also make the 

 expenses due to shunting relatively very high. 



Owing to the direction of the traffic, the average non- 

 pacing load per waggon in New Zealand in proportion to the 

 paying load is as 2 to 1 ; on the great American railways it 

 is stated to be as 2 to If. 



The low average paying-load obtained in New Zealand is 

 because all the heavy traffic — namely, timber, grain, coal, fire- 

 wood, live-stock, meat, &c. — is towards the ports, v^'here the 

 population is concentrated. A Yovy moderate traffic in small 

 lots of goods of a few hundredweight each forms the greater 

 part of the return traffic. A business which takes full train - 

 loads of goods hundreds of miles, so that the running-time of 

 its rolling-stock is probably half or three-quarters of its life, 

 results in excessively low expenses for trucks per ton-mile. 

 Similar remarks apply to locomotives. Eunning light loads, 

 witli long standing liours, leads to very high expenses com- 

 pared with cases where continuous work, with full loads, is 

 obtainable. 



A locomotive capable of taking a 100-ton load costs as 

 much in running-wages as one which will draw a 500-ton load.. 



