xx THE UGANDA RAILWAY 195 



to a figure below which they cannot be carried at a 

 profit. 



It is a truism to say that the success of the railway 

 has altogether exceeded the most sanguine expecta- 

 tions of its projectors ; while the opinions of the great 

 majority who condemned it as a regular money-sink 

 have been quickly revolutionised. 



Before April, 1903, most of the goods carried con- 

 sisted of railway material. In 1903-4 the total 

 earnings of trains and steamers were ^131,567, and 

 the year's balance sheet showed a deficit of more than 

 £60,000. This deficit was decreased during 1904-5 

 to some ,£3,000. 



In 1905-6 the receipts were in excess of the 

 expenditure by more than £42,000. At this figure 

 they more or less remained till 1910-11 when they 

 were increased to more than £73,800. During this 

 year the total tonnage carried increased to more than 

 77,000, being an advance of more than 17,000 on the 

 previous year, which was in itself a record. 



This sudden advance, so far from dropping, looks 

 like being increased at an almost more rapid rate 

 during the present year. 



Pleased though the average settler is at this sudden 

 access of prosperity to the line, he is even more 

 delighted with the concessions granted to him in the 

 reduced export freights of certain staple crops, namely, 

 maize, beans, and wheat. 



During the early days of the railway, and of litera- 

 ture connected with the same, it would seem to have 

 been inseparably connected with lions. Everyone knows 

 that man-eaters held up the construction, terrorised 

 the coolies, and enabled Colonel Patterson to write an 

 intensely interesting book. It is a matter of common 



o 2 



