Agricultural and Commercial Society. 7 
special mining centres, being probably all that would be 
required for many years to come. 
We now come to consider the class of railway to 
adopt, and I unhesitatingly recommend one of standard 
gauge, 4 ft. 8^ ins., for at least the main trunk lines. 
Suitable timber can be had on the spot, so to speak, for 
sleepers, and bridges crossing the smaller streams ; 
imported steel or iron structures being preferable for the 
laroer rivers. 
In the absence of roads of any sort at present in the 
interior, I would suggest that the stations or stopping 
places be arranged close to passing rivers, which would 
naturally lend themselves as liighways of approach for 
passengers and goods to and from the railway line. 
For the shorter and more or less isolated lines used 
as portages and local accommodation tracks, I would 
suggest the adoption of the Lartigue or Monorail 
system, whicli has umch to recommend it in the way of 
lightness and portability. 
The iirst railway established on this system in the 
United Kingdom is a short line, over which I have 
frequently travelled, about 8 miles in length, on the 
South West Coast of Ireland, between the towns of 
Lis towel and Bally bunn ion in the county Kerry. 
Anotlier longer and more important line is now in 
course of construction between Liverpool and Manches- 
ter, on which it is proposed to run express trains, 
worked by electricity, at a speed of 100 miles per hour. 
The main distinguishing feature of this system is that 
the single carrying rail is fixed on top of a series of 
A-shaped trestles, and which supports the semi-divided 
carriages, something after the style of a pair of pannier 
