878 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



many cases would have been doubled, and curves of seven or 

 eight chains radius would have brought up the cost of 

 Tasmanian railways to equal the most expensive railway in the 

 world. 



To apply the same principle in the opposite direction, and 

 so still further to reduce the cost of railways, is the object of 

 this paper. 



In flat country or reasonably flat country it would be 

 unwise to depart from the standard gauge, or even in country 

 where the sidling or sloping ground is regular, and where 

 gullies and spurs are absent, there would still not be sufficient 

 cause for constructing feeders or branch lines on a narrower 

 gauge. Light lines in such cases would effect the object 

 desired ; but in country characterised by steep mountain spurs 

 and gulhes such as Tasmania, Gippsland in Victoria, and the 

 hill portions of the other colonies, the question of the gauge 

 becomes the all-important one in the consideration of railway 

 extension. 



The author of this paper has within the last few years laid 

 out three railways in Tasmania, and two in the hill country 

 of Victoria, four of which, including the Victorian lines, 

 could be constructed on a narrow gauge at a materially 

 reduced cost ; and these four lines, involving the expenditure 

 of enormous sums, if constructed on the standard gauge, 

 may be considered as representing the character of the 

 greater portions of all future extensions in Tasmania, por- 

 tions of Gippsland, and probably the mountainous portions 

 of all the other colonies. The author of this paper was 

 called upon lately by the Hon. the Minister of Railways in 

 this colony to report upon the comparative cost of the 

 standard and narrow gauge in respect of one of the railways 

 named, viz., the proposed Mole Creek-Zeehan Railway, 

 which, although ti'aversing as difficult country as any in 

 Tasmania or the other colonies, and rising at the summit to 

 3300 fieet high, can be constructed to the standard gauge at a 

 cost certainly not greater than some of the lines already 

 constructed ; but when the narrow gauge principle is applied, 

 the estimated cost is so vastly reduced that other colonial 

 governments may well pause to consider, and follow the 

 enhghtened example of Tasmania in regard to future railway 

 extension in hill country. The preparation of the parts 

 being much more in the engineei-'s line than the preparation 

 of papers for scientific societies, I will venture to read the 

 Report named as giving a fairly approximate estimate of a 



