982 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H. 
than has hitherto been the case, judging from the way the matter 
is generally discussed in Parliament, and in the Press. What 
are called the indirect advantages, which, as regards saving in 
transport, are always calculable, are not indeed absolutely ignored, 
but they are merely alluded to as indeterminate general collateral 
advantages, instead of their being the only ones. 
Tf all these matters were considered, instead of the mere depart- 
mental or shareholders’ profit and loss view, which is alone 
regarded in the published figures, and hence in the popular 
estimate, the complaints, which we hear so often, of the existence 
of a number of, so called, non-paying branches, would cease, as 
many of them would, on the contrary, be found to be returning a 
substantial dividend. 
An example is then given, applying these principles to 422 miles 
of light railways, authorised within the last few years, and partly 
constructed, in New South Wales and Victoria, and more 
particularly the 230 miles, comprising five lines, in the former 
colony, more figures heme in this case aailole: It is shown 
from official published figures, which are given in detail in the 
paper, that the working expenses of these five lines, with interest 
on cost of construction, will be about £200 per mile per annum. 
Taking the average cost of conveyance of passengers by road at 
6d. per mile, and of goods at 10d. per ton per mile, and assuming 
the quantity of these to be as estimated officially, the gross saving 
in transport, that is to say the amount hitherto spent in road 
carriage will amount to £570 per mile per annum, giving a net 
return, on this method of calculation, after both working expenses 
and interest have been paid, of nearly 11 per cent. on the estimated 
capital. This, moreover, does not include the saving in cost of 
conveyance of live stock, nor the credits, Nos. 2, 3, and 4, men- 
tioned above, all of which are difficult to estimate, but which must 
necessarily amount to a large figure. 
The official estimate of receipts, by rates and fares, on these 
five lines, shows, as compared with the working expenses and 
interest, a small loss ; but these lines were apparently sanctioned, 
not because these receipts were disregarded altogether, as they 
should have been, and the proper credits, as shown above, substi- 
tuted, but because it was thought that by the hastening of the 
development of the country, through the making of the lines, this 
imaginary loss would soon be converted into an equally illusory 
gain. That this popular impression is illusory, and that decisions 
are frequently better than the reasons given for them, is confirmed 
by the fact, that nearly half the total railway mileage of New 
South Wales, at the present time, is working at a nominal loss 
of £284 per mile per annum, most of it being working for many 
years without reaching the desired turning point, nor is it likely 
