74 C. 0. BURGE. 
called mere running repairs), of all classes of stock being brought 
up to head quarters, for repair, from branch lines. 
’ Now in the case of break of gauge, either expensive repairing 
shops with all their appliances would have to be established with 
a staff of skilled mechanics at every small branch ; or else the 
branch engines and other stock wanting heavier repairs would 
have to be loaded up, on specially made trucks, and carried to and 
fro, as dead weight, to head quarters. 
Those who advocate narrow gauge branches will have therefore 
to show that their advantages over-balance these drawbacks, 
and in this connection, it may be repeated that the lightness or 
cheapness of a railway does not so much depend upon the mere 
width between its rails, as upon the axle weight it has to carry, 
and the speed of its traffic. Itis no argument to say that branches, 
with change of gauge, have served their purpose in France and in 
Treland, unless it is also shewn that, if they had been of the 
standard gauge of those countries, they would not have served 
their purpose better ; and even if this were proved in favour of 
the break, it would not be a conclusive argument in the case of 
places so differently circumstanced as these Colonies are from 
those older lands. We have a population in this country of perhaps 
three or four to the square mile, they have probably three hundred 
or four hundred, the latter indicating an amount of traffic sufficient 
to neutralize, to a large extent, the evils of isolation. It is com- 
paring things which are totally unlike; it is the special care 
of this paper to compare like with like, as far as possible, and to 
take the opposite course is likely to lead to very false conclusions. 
Isolation, which is intensified by smallness of traffic, is the great 
objection to break of gauge; it is a popular objection to the 
narrower gauges that they are insufficient for their work, but 
this is a mistake, certainly as regards the traffic of any branch in 
New South Wales, as the author’s experience with such lines shews 
them to be ample. The little Festiniog line used to carry over 
four hundred tons per day. The objection is not to the insufficiency, 
but to the isolation. 
