RAIL WA YS A ND TRA MWA VS. 273 



To the energetic reforms initiated hj this body is largely due the 

 fact that at the present day the New South Wales railways are the 

 most efficiently maintained, the best managed, and the most profitable 

 of all the State Railway systems of Australasia. Of course, Railway 

 Commissioners, however efficient, cannot create a traffic which is not 

 available, or can only do so by a very slow process, and it may be 

 argued that New South Wales, as the richest colony, should possess 

 the most profitable railways. But that does not follow. The costly 

 nature of the works necessary to reach the wide interior, the extremely 

 heavy gradients on the mountains, the competition of the river and 

 waggon traffic in the direction of Victoria and South Australia, the 

 hunger shown by Victoria for traffic from Now South Wales, which is 

 attracted by excessive reductions in through freights to Melbourne, 

 and the considerable concessions granted upon certain descriptions of 

 produce brought from the interior, even now make serious inroads upon 

 the net returns. Beyond these, the past few years have proved anything 

 but prosperous to the colony, and the Commissioners have consequently 

 had to contend against a very remarkable reduction in the first-class 

 passenger traffic. Through it all they have steadily refused to be led 

 into any short-sighted policy of restricting repairs, renewals, and even 

 improvements at the expense of revenue, and the result is that now, in 

 the face of the depression, they have a permanent way, which for rails, 

 ballasting, and maintenance in all respects, a rolling-stock, which for 

 power, suitability and comfort, a system of signalling, which for 

 reliability, will stand comparison with the admirably maintained rail- 

 ways of the Old Country. The Commissioners have aimed at reducing 

 train mileage as far as possible, by increasing the power of the engines 

 and the capacity of the carriages and waggons, and the power of the 

 express engines, weighing 56^ tons, apart from the tender, of the goods 

 Consolidation engines, weighing 62 1 tons, and the capacity of the 

 bogie waggons, which can each deal Avith a load of 23 tons, are points 

 which, by men like myself who have studied the working of the rail- 

 ways of the United Kingdom and elsewhere, cannot fail to be viewed 

 with admiration. Such rolling-stock can only be worked safely upon 

 a thoroughly reliable permanent way, and then it tells with great 

 advantage. In the United Kingdom there are, I believe, no locomo- 

 tives possessed of such power as the New South Wales Consolidation 

 Engines. 



But the Railway Commissioners have accomplished much more than 

 this. Unlike the other railways of Australia, rates of wages have not 

 been reduced since the financial depression set in. But the aim has 

 been to get the most profitable work out of each employee; and 

 whereas in October, 1888, when the Railway Commissioners took office 

 there were 11,393 hands employed upon 2,152i miles of railway and 

 tramway, in 1894 there were 1,042 fewer employed, although the 

 lines operated had increased by 400 i miles, so that the employees were 

 reduced from an average of 5-3 per mile in 1888 to 4 per mile in 

 1894. Yet they adequately dealt with a traffic which had increased 

 in the interval by £583,000 in money value, and by a larger pro- 

 portion if tonnage and the numbers of passengers were taken mto 

 consideration. While doing so, considerably more in the shape of 

 new materials have been put both into the permanent way and rulhug- 



