350 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



ligent commercial conditions, but political interference was too 

 strong for him. He was finally glad to return to England to as- 

 sume control of one of the largest railway companies, where he could 

 exercise an unchallenged authority. The disastrous results of 

 Government management would of course have landed any pri- 

 vate company in hopeless insolvency. The average loss in working 

 the system during the last decade of the century was about 1,000 

 per day, allowing for the interest payable on the borrowed capital. 

 For the year ending 30th June, 1896, it reached the startling 

 figure of 528,000. These accumulated deficiencies amounted at 

 the end of 1900 to more than 9,000,000 sterling, and as the Gov- 

 ernment has no means of writing down lost capital, which has been 

 mainly subscribed by the British investor, this debit balance has 

 perforce to be carried forward indefinitely. The hope that such a 

 stupendous sum might be liquidated out of future profits is a very 

 slender one, for with the first year that shows a surplus there will 

 arise an irresistible demand for reduced fares and freights. Apart 

 altogether from the important questions of the cost, the suitability 

 or the efficiency of the various lines, the bare results of Government 

 management are as above stated. And yet experience does not 

 teach, for the cry of the multitude still goes up for Government 

 supersession of all important industrial enterprises. 



In spite of all the shortcomings of the too numerous and too 

 frequently changing administrations, Victoria has progressed, with 

 many a set back, into a position wherein, though there is little 

 affluence, the average lot of the community is marked by a high 

 degree of comfort in a material sense. This is rather attributable 

 to the inherited characteristics of the people than to anything 

 done for them by experimental legislation. Indeed, it may safely 

 be said that such success as can be recorded achieved its results 

 in spite of unfavourable legislation, and of a distinct subordination 

 of the interests of the whole community to those of the favoured 

 few. The avidity with which the workers declared for Protection 

 to local manufactures deposed Victoria from the pride of place on 

 the Australian continent. In 1866, when the first protective duties 

 were levied, the population exceeded that of New South Wales 

 by 200,000. Thirty years later it had fallen nearly that number 



