LIGHT RAILWAYS FOR NEW SOUTH WALES. 5D 
inch gauge of Spain, five feet six inch gauge of India, five feet 
three inch gauge of Ireland, four feet eight and a-half inch gauge 
of England and New South Wales, three feet six inch gauge of 
the Cape Colony, down to the one foot eleven and a-half inch 
gauge of North Wales, so that some knowledge of the subject may 
be expected to be brought to bear upon it. 3 
The engineer, in designing such a cheap system of lines ag those 
now in question, has to deal with and satisfy four, more or less, 
distinct sets of people, whose interests are not always identical, 
at least from their own several points of view, and therein lies 
his chief difficulty. First and chiefly, there is the whole colony 
as represented by the Government, and, it may be added, its 
creditors. Secondly, the people of the district to be served. 
Thirdly and fourthly, the locomotive and traffic branches of the 
railway department. The Colony, as a whole, wants the value 
of its lands increased, and the interest of its debt to be met, and 
its credit upheld, by satisfactory dividends; and a question as to 
this arises whether, if cheap construction does in some points 
involve greater working expenses, it is not advisable to incur such 
heavier working expenses, and save interest to the same amount. 
In other words, if, by saving £100 of the capital expenditure, and 
therefore say £4 annually in interest, we incur £4 additional 
annual working expenses, though the immediate financial result 
is exactly the same, would it improve the credit of the colony by 
lessening its voracity for loan assistance? This however is a 
financial question, outside the scope of this paper, and it is merely 
adverted to, to show how many sides there are to questions like this. 
The question of the advantage of raising the value of lands is 
so obvious that it need hardly be touched upon, but it is evident 
that even where branch railways do not pay their own expenses 
and interest, still they may be a source of income indirectly from 
the increased value of unsold land, and increased trade and popu- 
lation, large populations being obviously governed at a much 
cheaper proportionate rate than small ones. It is a question, if 
these sources of income could be tabulated and credited, how 
