342 



But this is a gross and not a net gain, and it becomes necessary to enquire 

 what the peojDie pay collectively in their character of taxpayei'S, in order to 

 secure this gain of a million which reaches them individually. This we can 

 ascei-tain with more exactness than the computation of the gross gains was 

 susceptible of The railway loan bears interest at the rate of 6 per cent, per 

 annum. I have already pointed out that it yielded a profit of £385,000j 

 which is equivalent to a reduction of interest. I will not, however, embarrass 

 the calculation with too great precision, but will set down the charge against 

 the consolidated revenue, to which all taxpayers contribute, at £500,000. It 

 is unnecessary to take the capital into consideration, for if it were paid off 

 to-morrow it could only be paid off with colonial funds, which would yield an 

 interest or profit if otherwise employed. Suppose the Grovernment were to 

 find a great deposit of gold, worth £8,000,000, and were to pay off the loan 

 therewith, and so extinguish the annual interest, the same interest, or some- 

 thing near it, ought still to be deemed a charge against the railway enterprise 

 of the colony, because that interest would be yielded if the new eight millions 

 were invested otherwise, instead of in paying off the railway loan. Five 

 hundred thousand pounds a-year may, therefore, be set down as the dead 

 weight of the railway enterprise of Victoria. 



But as the gross gain is not all profit, so this dead weight is not all loss. 

 It is partly met out of the revenue of the railways for goods and passenger 

 traffic, after deducting therefrom the working expenses of all the lines. T have 

 no later returns than those of 1864-5, which I regret, as later accounts would 

 be much more favourable. The traflic receipts of that year are set down at 

 £546,000, and the charges against this are as follows : — 



Salaries and wages . . . . 33,350 



Departmental contingencies . . 220,372 



Total working expenses . . £253,722 



Deducting this siim from the trafiic returns, we find the net revenue to be 

 £292,278, and deducting that sum from the interest on the debentures, which 

 I have called the dead weight, the net deficiency is £207,722. But, although 

 this is a real deficiency, it can only be regarded as an apparent loss. It is the 

 sum which the people of Victoria are willing to pay, and do pay, out of the 

 general taxation of the country, in order to secure a gain which I have 

 ventured to estimate at £1,000,000, distributed over the whole population ; 

 though, as I shall hereafter show, not with exact equality, and not in all cases 

 in the same shape. I cannot, of com'se, pretend to speculate as to the results 

 of the future railways of New Zealand, but the same principles apply here as 

 in Victoria. At first our railways may only just pay their working expenses, 

 or, perhaps, a little more. In that case, what I have called the dead weight 

 will be subject to little deduction. But I can scarcely conceive the possibility 



