PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



695 



against the year. This curve indicates great activity of construction during the 

 period 1850 to 1870, with a regular but gradually decreasing addition of mileage 

 from year to year afterwards. 



At the end of 1908 there were 23,205 miles open, corresponding to 53,669 miles 

 of single track, including sidings. Of this, 85 per cent, was standard 4 feet 

 8£ inches gauge, 12-3 per cent. 5 feet 3 inches, and 2-2 per cent. 3 feet gauge. 

 The remainder was made up of small mileages of 1 foot II5 inches, 2 feet 



3 inches, 2 feet 4 inches, 2 feet 4£ inches, 2 feet, 2 feet 9 inches, 4 feet, and 



4 feet 6 inches gauges. 



The two lower lines of the diagram show respectively the number of passengers 

 carried and the tons of goods carried from year to year. 



The curves of mileage, passengers carried, and goods carried increase regularly 

 with the increase of capital, indicating that up to the present time the possibility 

 of remunerative return on capital invested in railway enterprise in this country 

 is not exhausted. It is true that there is a maximum of goods carried in the year 

 1907; but the sudden drop in the curve between the years 1907 and 1908 suggests 



Unit fd Kingdom 



Fig. 3. 



that the drop is only of a temporary character, and there is every reason to believe 

 that the curve will resume its upward tendency with time. In 1908 the railways 

 of the United Kingdom carried 1,278 millions of passengers, exclusive of season- 

 ticket holders, and 491 million tons of goods ; the quantity of goods carried in 

 1907 was nearly 515 millions of tons. It is curious that very approximately the 

 companies carry per annum one passenger and about 0"4 ton of goods for every 

 pound sterling of paid-up capital. 



The proportion of the gross receipts absorbed in carrying out this service is 

 shown by the upper curve of fig. 3. The proportion has increased, on the whole 

 regularly, from 47 per cent, in 1860 to 64 per cent, in 1908. 



The lower curve shows the net receipts as a percentage of the paid-up capital. 

 From 1899 onwards the curve ab shows the net receipts reckoned on the paid-up 

 capital exclusive of the nominal additions. It will be observed that the net 

 receipts have not declined more than half a per cent, since 1870, notwithstanding 

 the increase in working expenditure. 



Fig. 4 indicates the cost of working the traffic calculated in terms of the train- 

 mile, no data being available regarding the actual work done as represented by 



