248 DISCUSSION ON 
done on the Lismore-Tweed railway, but this line was quite 
isolated at present and carriages were being prepared specially 
for it. Where the usual passenger carriages were run there must 
be passenger platforms or the whole of the carriages altered. 
Waiting sheds could take the place of stations and the expensive 
items of signalling and interlocking could be very much reduced. ; 
The real foundation of economy in making a railway except in 
flat country was in surveying and laying out the line, fixing 
curves and gradients. There was no doubt that frequently with 
a little more care and spending a few pounds more per mile in 
the survey thousand of pounds might be saved. Both curves and 
gradients must be guided by the natural features and without 
imposing any great strain on the locomotive engineers ; curves of 
eight chains radius and even gradients of one in thirty could 
be overcome in the future as they had been in the past. Although 
the author quoted an instance where by the expenditure of 
£53,000 a saving of about £9,000 a year would result, it must 
be borne in mind that the £53,000 had to be found, and if this 
course had been adopted when the line was originally made, the 
railways of New South Wales would have been kept back ten or 
fifteen years. It was only the bold stroke of Mr. Whitton, the 
late Engineer-in-Chief for Railways, of introducing curves and 
gradients that were then unknown and considered by many to be 
impracticable that the Colony was in a position to have the rail- 
ways made, therefore although it might not be the most economical 
from a purely monetary consideration to have steep gradients at 
a moderate first cost, yet in very many instances it was better 
than being saddled with a heavy debt or perhaps have the work 
retarded for years. There was really no difficulty in making 
railways at prices from £2,000 per mile for fine weather lines in 
flat country to good, all the year round, lines at £20,000 per mile 
in broken country, but there was a strong objection to making 
lines that required their own special rolling stock and motors. 
One item of extra expense had always troubled the engineer viz., 
in not being allowed to lay ont the lines in the best direction. In — 
