194 
A COLONY IN THE MAKING 
CHAP, 
pared by four very able Royal Engineer surveyors 
was only ,£2,240,000, while the actual cost has been 
more than 5^ millions. Secondly, that the construc¬ 
tion was supervised by a body whose composition 
cannot possibly have been conducive to economy. 
This body was composed of representatives of the 
Foreign Office, Treasury, Crown Agents, an ex¬ 
political agent and two retired Indian officials, who, 
though most distinguished in their own lines, were, 
with one exception, absolutely ignorant of technical 
railway work. Moreover, they did not act in con¬ 
junction with the Protectorate Administration, but 
rather to a great extent in direct opposition. Thirdly, 
a cost of £9,314 per mile through country the large 
bulk of which did not present any exceptional obstacles 
cannot be prima facie held strictly economical. Sir 
Charles Eliot, with all the particulars fresh before 
him, says : “ Everyone who has an adequate know¬ 
ledge both of the country and of the history of the 
construction is agreed that the line ought really to have 
cost about four millions sterling.” 
Whatever may be the exact truth of the economical 
merits of the original construction, there are no two 
opinions with respect to the efficiency of the present 
management. I have often asked various settlers 
which Government Department they considered the 
best run in the country—if with a liver temporarily 
disarranged the question perhaps took the form of 
“least badly” run—but in either case the answer was 
almost invariably the same. The railway undoubtedly. 
No praise can be higher than this; for by its nature 
the railway must tend to be rather antagonistic to 
a farming class. That is to say, farmers and ex¬ 
porters must always be trying to get freights cut down 
