charged to general services, or by payments from the general revenue, and not out of railway earnings, no allowance on this account can reasonably be claimed.

The table given below shows the rate of interest returned on the capital expenditure for each of the last five years, with the sum by which such return falls short of the actual rate of interest payable on cost of construction. In the case of New Zealand, only the nominal loss is shown; the actual loss was somewhat higher :—

In 1881 the New South Wales railways yielded 5:31 per cent.-a higher rate of interest on the capital cost than was ever reached before or since. In the same year the Victorian lines yielded a return of 404 per cent., which is the highest on record in that state, with the exception of 4.18 in the year 1886. The decline in the net profits was largely due to the extension of the lines in sparsely-populated districts; but

with the adoption of a more prudent policy in the matter of construction, rendered necessary by the severe financial pressure to which the states were subjected, and with more careful management, the returns, as will be evident from the foregoing table, are again showing improvement.

EARNINGS AND EXPENSES PER MILE.

The gross earnings, expenditure, and net earnings per average mile worked during the last two years were as follow:

For the states comprised in the Commonwealth the gross earnings per average mile worked during 1902-3 were £76 less than in the the previous year, and the working expenses were less by £39, leaving the net earnings at £252 in 1902-3, as compared with £289 in 1901-2. For the whole of Australasia the gross earnings per average mile worked during 1902-3 were £65 less than in the previous year, and the working expenses were reduced by £31, leaving the net earnings at £254 in 1902-3 as against £288 in 1901-2. On the next page

will be found a table giving the returns per train mile. The states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia proper,

show a reduction in the train mileage during 1902-3, in comparison with that of the previous year :—

FINANCIAL RESULTS OF FOREIGN RAILWAYS.

The interest on capital cost, the proportion of working expenses to the gross revenue, and the return per train mile for the railways of some of the principal countries of the world are given below. The figures for the countries other than Australasia refer to the years 1902 or 1901, but in some cases there is no later information than for the year 1899.

The figures given above for Cape Colony are for state lines only.

COACHING AND GOODS TRAFFIC.

The following table shows the number of passengers carried on the lines of the various states during the years 1881, 1891-2, 1901-2, and 1902–3. The number of journeys on the Victorian lines during the year ended 30th June, 1902, approximates to those of 1888-9, 1889-90, and 1890-91, and though, in common with the rest of the states, a great reduction occurred in 1893-94, the traffic, since the latter year, has manifested an upward movement. All the states have experienced the effects of the diminished spending power of the people, following on the financial crisis, but in every case a recovery has taken place. The number of passenger journeys in Tasmania in 1902 shows a small increase compared with the returns for 1891:—

The amount of goods tonnage is shown in the subjoined table. In the period from 1881 to 1891 there was an increase of about 102 per cent., varying from 44 per cent. in New Zealand to 747 per cent. in Tasmania. During the decennial period 1891-2 to 1901-2, the increase in tonnage has varied from 4 per cent. in South Australia to 1,401 per

cent. in Western Australia, with an average increase of nearly 63 per cent. for the Commonwealth, and 64 per cent. for the whole of Australasia.

The percentage of receipts from coaching traffic to the total receipts is somewhat less in the states of the Commonwealth and New Zealand than in the United Kingdom, where for the year 1902 the coaching receipts formed 46.43 per cent. of the total obtained from goods and passenger traffic. The figures for each state are given below :

AVERAGE WEIGHT OF TRAIN LOAD.

The useful comparisons that may be made between the railway systems of the various states are very limited, and greater uniformity in the presentation of the railway reports is extremely desirable in view of the provisions of the Commonwealth Act for the possible control of the railway systems by the central government. An example