30 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRiCaLTURIST. 
[JULV  r,  1895. 
TKA^sroK  r ixi>  hom 
TO  UV/r  Ti  : Xo  III 
15V'  J.  I)AV[S-AI.L1<:\. 
WoKKlNC  KxrKNSi-.S. 
( Cunthiiii'(l. ) 
(youtiiiuhii--  our  remarks  uu  the  subject  of 
Workin<^  Exjjeuses  we  liave  now  to  glance  at 
some  of  tlie  eireumstaiiees  by  wbieb  the  stamlanl 
of  cost  per  traiu-mile  is  liable  to  be  all'eeted, 
taking  first  the 
LKN(;T11  ok  TIIK  ItAUvWAV. 
A loeomotive  can  run  week  in  week  out  a ilis- 
tance  of  liC)  to  12i)  miles  a <lay,  acconling  to 
spec, 1 anil  gradients,  lanes,  therefore,  of  a length 
■ -oil  to  (ji)  miles — which  admit  of  a locomotise 
doing  the  tlouble  journey  in  the  day  are  specially 
adapteil  for  economical  working  in  the  item  of 
train  e\'i)enses,  inasmuch  as  Imth  maidiinery  and 
men  are  kept  fully  emiiloyed.  On  the  other 
hand  fixed  charges,  as  for  management  and  ter- 
minals, tend  to  show  less  the  longer  the  line, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  there  are  more  miles 
to  distribute  them  over.  We  use  the  word  “ tend  ” 
to  indicate  the  absence  of  any  invariable  lelation 
between  lengfh  and  fixcl  charges  smdi  as  sni)- 
sists  between  length  iind  train  charges. 
(OrAU'l'V  AND  rvPK  Ol'  r.INK. 
It  is  with  railways  as  with  boots,  the  inferior 
article  wears  b.adly  and  is  costly  in  rejiairs  and 
renewals.  From  which  it  follows  that  tlie  wiser 
outlay  of  a restricted  capital  is  on  a first  <[uality 
“ little  ” railway  (always  supposing  it  will  tit 
the  tratiic),  with  a soliilly  built,  well-ballasted 
road,  capacious  waterways,  and  rolling  stoidc  of 
the  best,  rather  than  on  a second  rpiality  “ big” 
railway  like— shall  we  say  Y — that  which  Mr. 
Waring  proposes  to  build  to  dafliia.  It  some- 
times happens  that  the  initial  capital  is  so  scanty 
as  to  comiiel  the  use  of  second-haml  light  iron 
rails,  worn  rolling  stock,  patched-up  locomotives 
of  obsolete  ])attern,  and  other  economies  justiliable 
oidy  as  being  the  sole  alternative  to  no  line 
at  all.  In  tliese  cases,  and  in  all  cases  of 
inferior  type  or  (piality.  Working  Expenses  will 
be  increased  in  the  items  of  maintenance  and 
repairs,  and  the  percentages  in  the  table  of 
costs  whicb  w'e  gave  in  our  last  article  will  be 
correspondingly  disturbeil. 
The  ((uestion  of  gauge  will  come  up  for  fuller  dis- 
cussion in  connection  with  Capital  Expenditure, 
but  having  a bearing  on  Working  Expenditure  also, 
some  remark  is  called  for  here.  Advocates  of  the 
broad  gauge  type  of  railway  have  done  their 
utmost  to  prove  that  at  all  times,  in  all  i)laocs, 
under  all  circumstances,  the  wider  the  .gauge 
the  cheaper  to  w'ork  ; and  amo  igst  the  apostles 
of  this  gosji.e!  none  stands  higher  than  Mr.  l'\  .1. 
Waring,  C.  m.d.  witness  the  painstaking  and  accom- 
])lisheir  paper  he  read  on  “Indian  Railways” 
at  the  Institution  of  (hvil  Engineers  in  March 
1889.  W'itli  this  i>aper,  ami  the  similar  and 
more  recently  published  utterances  of  Mr.  Eddy, 
before  ns,  wc  yet  venture  to  hold  that  the  rela- 
lion  betw’oen  goange  and  M'orking  Expenses  is 
an  eminently  contingent  om>,  depending  wliolly 
on  place  and  circumstances,  and  there‘'ore  tliat 
any  conclusions  must  lie  <hmbtfnl  which,  like 
those  set  out  in  the  i)a]ier  aforesaid,  arc  ar- 
rived at  by  a stalistii-al  method  whose  e-<senc(> 
it  is  to  mask  iiecnliaritii's  in  averages.  Mr. 
Waring’s  argnnnnd.  in  favour  of  broad  gange.s 
basejl  on  a table  of  (iA  “Means”  as  they  are 
called,  calculated  from  f h(>  statistics  of  12  Indian 
inetre'guige  line-;  and  S Indian  lines  of  the  oft. 
(i  in.  Cue”  of  the  speakers  in  the  discussion 
wdiich  followed  the  reading  of  the  paper  chal- 
lenged the  way  in  which  the  “ Means”  had 
been  take.i  out ; he  would  have  done  better 
had  he  gone  a step  farther  and  asserted  that 
the  (lor.fruie  of  mcaii-s  was  altogether  inapplica- 
ble. The  very  use  of  the  word  in  such  a con- 
nection ignores  the  radical  ditlerence  between 
a nfai  and  an  ai'crn^fc,  a ditlerence  fundamental 
to  the  Science  of  8tatistic.s.  Following  Herschel 
and  Quetelet,  we  may  ]uit  it  thus  : an  (tcrrcujc 
m.ay  exist  for  tiie  most  ditlerent  and  di.ssociate»l 
objects  smdi  as  the  heiglit  of  the  houses  in 
Colombo,  or  the  number  of  passengers  landing 
ilaily,  or  t he  amount  of  money  si»ent  i>er  passenger 
at  the  hotels.  It  may  be  convenient  to  convey 
a general  noti(»n  of  the  things  a\erageil,  but  it 
in\'ol\  es  no  commptioii  of  a natural  and  assignable 
central  magnitude  or  norm,  all  iliflerences  from 
which  ought  to  be  reganled  as  irregular  and 
anomalous.  A insaii,  on  the  contrary,  does  involve 
such  a conception.  It  implies  a regularity  in  the 
llnctuations  within  the  grou|)  of  w hich  it  is  the 
norm  and  facies,  and  an  assignable  maximum  and 
minimum  of  variation.  Ag-ain  an  arcrafje 
affords  no  assurance  that  wdiat  is  to  be,  either 
w ill  be,  or  should  be,  conformable  to  it ; but  a 
lacrni  does.  Mr.  Waring’s  “means”  are  most  of 
them  nii;rely  averages,  and  will  not  bear  the 
argument  he  bases  on  them.  In  other  words, 
granting  tliat  the  12  narrow  gauges  a\erage  out 
badl\'  against  tin'.  8 broad  gauges,  it  does  not  in 
the  least  follow  that  the  Rlth  narrow'  gauge  will 
ftdlow'  suit;  if,  however,  his  “means”  were  true 
means,  it  would  follow. 
Mr.  NVaring,  tlien,  has  yet  to  prove  us  in  error 
when,  with  a nipidly  increasing  concensus  of 
authority  behind  us,  we  aver  that  broad  gauge 
railways  can  economically  meet  the  legitimate 
ilemauds  of  the  public  in  the  matter  of  freipiency 
of  trains  only  when  the  volume  of  tratiic  issutli- 
ciently  large  to  load  them  to  their  full  capacity; 
a state  of  things  which  now'here  obtains  outside 
the  densely  jiopulated  manufacturing  districts  of 
the  old  world.  In  most  of  the  districts  now  calling 
for  raihvays  the  tratiic,  both  passenger  and  goods, 
is,  and  must  long  remain,  small  out  of  all  pro- 
]»ortion  to  the  carrying  capacity  and  capital  cost 
of  such  powerful  machines  as  the  4'  8.F'  and  o' 
()"  gauges.  The  insistauce  on  them  under  such 
circumstances  has  two  inevitable  and  disastrous 
issues:  (1)  that  to  keep  the  capital  outlay  to  the 
amount  the  tratiic  will  bear,  an  inferior  type  of 
construction  and  eijuipment  must  be  adopted  ; 
and  (2)  that  to  keep  the  cost  per  ton-mile  (the 
favourite  unit  of  the  broad-gaugers)  to  a jiresent- 
able  tigure,  the  w'ork  must  needs  be  done  with 
as  few  trains  as  possiiile,  to  the  serious  incon- 
venience of  the  [)ublic  which  is  entitled  to  a 
certain  frequency  of  service.  And  here  we  come 
upon  a point  of  dillereiice  between  broad  and 
narrow'  gauges,  and  in  favour  of  the  latter,  to 
wliich  sulficient  attention  has  not  been  given, 
namely  tliat  in  virtue  of  the  lower  cost  of  their 
rolling-stock,  the  idoser  a]iproximation  of  deail 
to  jiaying  load,  with  sundry  other  adiantages, 
(hey  arc  able  to  supply  more  economically  the 
t.l•aiu-mileage  in  excess  of  i»ressing  and  present 
de  uand  which  is  nece.ssary  if  the  latent  tratiic 
of  a distried  is  (o  he  stimulated. 
Tlie  returns  of  broad  gauge  Hues  look  best  when 
(ig  ire  l out  per  1,01)11  gross  ton-miles,  .and  it  is 
f )i'  this  unit  .Mr.  M'aring  ideads  in  his  com|iarison 
of  the  111  Hail  broad  .and  narrow  gauges.  Rut  a 
litter  measure  of  the  si'rrirrnhfe>ii's>i  of  a railw.iy 
is  t'-aiu-mileage,  and  tlu'  check  on  extraingiui  -'' 
is  the  latio  bet\\(''u  expenses  and  ('ariiings  |icr 
train-mile;  which  ligure  also  measures  the  eircctii  e 
ness  of  tlie  supply  in  stimulating  demand. 
