650 
Light Railivays. 
various provinces of tlie Belgian kingdom, accompanied by a 
covering letter from the Minister of Agriculture and Public 
Works. In that letter the following passage occurs : — 
I beg to direct your special attention to the exceptional importance of 
the work that the National Society is charged to conduct to a successful end 
and to the great services which it can render the country. The Society 
comes at the precise moment in the middle of the serious crisis which 
weighs upon agriculture, industry, and commerce ; in a word, on all the 
sources of the prosperity and wealth of the nation. It will be able to con- 
tribute largely to diminish the intensity of the crisis if it is well understood 
and wisely made use of. The Government will do everything in its power 
to encourage the construction of these new methods of communication. 
The date of the above-quoted document is September 1885. 
Since then the National Society has constructed some seven 
hundred miles of light lines, and other smaller companies half 
as much more, making, therefore, a thousand miles of light 
railway, as against a mileage of not more than double of ordinary 
lines. And in Belgium to-day there is but one opinion as to 
whether light railways are or are not for the benefit of agri- 
culture. 
Subjoined is a table which speaks volumes on the subject, 
this time from Hungary, a very different country : — 
Year 
Average mileage of 
light railways open 
for traffic 
Total gross receipts 
For tlie year 
Per mile per annum 
£ 
£ 
1888 
1,144 
280,537 
245 
1889 
1,315 
329,063 
250 
18.90 
1,540 
385,113 
250 
1891 
1,799 
480,833 
267 
1892 
2,138 
573,188 
268 
1S93 
2,333 
662,852 
284 
This table shows the development of light lines in Hungary 
in the half-dozen years that have elapsed since the Light Rail- 
way Law of 1888 was passed. It will be seen that while the 
mileage has increased about 104 per cent., the gross receipts 
have increased over 136 per cent., that is, 30 per cent, faster. 
In other words, though presumably the most profitable lines 
were undertaken first, the growth of traffic has been so rapid 
that the opening of less profitable lines has not availed to 
reduce the earnings per mile of the system as a whole. 
As to the other, or Austrian, portion of the dual monarchy 
this much may be said. There has of late years been a rapid 
and successful development of light lines in various parts of 
the country, more especially in Bosnia and in Styria. The 
statesman who was mainly responsible for the adoption of a for- 
