ANNUAL ADDRESS. Ill. 
finished or nearly so. The northern suburbs direct railway, largely 
in tunnel and viaduct, though at present only in the form of a 
project, will, no doubt, be carried out in the near future. The 
proposal for narrow gauge branch railway feeders recently favoured 
by the Victorian Standing Commaitee for Railways, does not seem 
to have advanced much. Not ling the volume of evidence 
before them, perhaps because of it, this Committee do not seem to 
understand the question. Isolation from workshops for ordinary 
repairs to their rolling stock is one of the great objections to short 
narrow gauge branches to a broad gauge line, yet the Committee, 
by their report, seem to think that repairs are only wauted in the 
exceptional instance of an accident, and, therefore, that this 
objection is trivial, They seem to think that a locomotive, for 
instance, is like a human being who, if fed, watered, and exercised 
will keep his own organs in ordinary repair, and not, as it really 
is, like a pair of boots, continually wearing and requiring new 
soles and patches. 
In Tasmania, there is being constructed, in connection with the 
Mount Lyell mines, a short but heavy length of railway con- 
struction. 
Turning to the mother colony, harbour engineering is very active. 
Important works at the Tweed, Richmond, Clarence, Bellinger, 
Nambucca, Macleay and Manning Rivers, also at Trial Bay, and 
at Newcastle are being carried out, while at Hastings River, 
Darling Island in Sydney, and Port Kembla, large works are in 
immediate prospect. Light railways from Jerildesie to Berrigan, 
Narrabri to Moree, Parkes to Condobolin, Berrigan to Finley, 
Nevertire to Warren, and Tamworth to Manilla, are either just 
finished, in hand, or about to be begun. These represent about 
two hundred miles. There are also considerable improvements, 
by deviations being made in grades and curves, on the Great 
Western and Great Southern main lines. 
T really do not know whether I ought to include or not, as 
impending, the extension of the railway into the city of Sydney, 
and its suburban connections. The proposal seems to crop up 
