212 REPORT — 1875. 



The interest upon £352,000,000 at 5 per cent, amounts to £17,600,000 per 

 annum ; although we are aware that the required capital could he raised at 4 per 

 cent., we have allowed 5 per cent, interest, as it offers a premium for private enter- 

 prise to enihark more readily into Indian railways. 



Assuming the average gross receipts of the whole of the Indian railways 

 amounted to only one half of the average receipts of the Irish lines, or say to £'572 

 per mile per annum, or £11 per mile per week, and allowing tlie working expense:', 

 sav, to be GG per cent, of the gross receipts, the net amount available to meet the 

 above 17,600,000 would be £0,724,000, leaving a deficiency of £7,870,000. 



The deficiency on account of the guaranteed interest for the year ending March 

 1875 is £1,428,442, which deducted from the £7,870,000 shows an increased charge 

 when the works are all completed, say some 25 years hence, of £6,447,558 per 

 annum. This would be provided for by the surplus of the revenue, which, as 

 before shown, would in the first year be about £4,000,000, and Avould be increasing 

 yearlj". 



The author proposed that the same principles which have been found by expe- 

 rience successful in private industrial enterprises should be applied as far as 

 possible to those of the State. 



Close personal attention must be given to details, in combination with a capacity 

 for generalizing those details so as to mould the whole into an effective and com- 

 plete organization. 



As the author believes it is a first essential for the successful development of 

 Indian railways that the spirit and enthusiasm of private enterprise should be en- 

 listed, he suggested that a scheme somewhat similar to the following might be 

 adopted \\dth advantage. That the railways should be the property of the State, 

 and the Avorkitg of the trafiic within certain specified limits to be under its supreme 

 control. 



It will be necessary for obvious reasons that the 42,000 miles of new railways 

 referred to above should be very approximately located, and, for the sake of con- 

 venience, divided into three cla.sses. 



The first-class railways should be those which would cost about £5000 per mile. 

 The second class those which would cost £6000 per mile. 

 The third class those which would cost £8000 per mile. 



The average of the whole to cost about £6000 per mile. The Government would 

 then proceed to oft'er to approved parties concessions of certain railways on terms 

 somewhat to the following eftect : — 



1st. The land to be provided free of cost. 



2nd. All materials required for the construction and equipment of the railway 

 to be imported free of duty, and to be carried at special low rates over the 

 railways m operation, 

 urd. That interest at 5 per cent, per annum should be guaranteed on the standard 



cost of the railway. 

 4th. The said guarantee of 5 per cent, should come into operation only and when 

 certain lengths or sections of a railway have been certified to be completed 

 and equipped with rolling-stock in conformity with the concession. 

 5th. That the concessionaire would have to work the trafiic of the railway 

 subject to certain Government regulations, and maintain it in working 

 order to the approval of the Government for a term of, say, 35 years, deter- 

 minable by the Government at the end of every seven years. 

 6th. The concessionaire would have annually to pay to the Government in 

 monthly instalments an amount equal to the Government guarantee of 5 

 per cent., after which all the receipts of the traffic would belong to the 

 concessionaire. 

 7th. That for those railways where the annual net receipts will not cover the 

 guaranteed interest after the said railways have been opened and at work for 

 three years, then the Government shall allow an abatement off" the annual 

 payment, such abatement to be assessed by an approved court of appeal. 

 8th. That the concessionaire shall have the power of issuing ordinary shares 

 unguaranteed by Government not exceeding, say, £4000 per mile, the Govern- 

 ment not to be liable to purchase these ordinary shares at the end of the 



