for which goods of each class were carried cannot be given, and there are no data available showing the average earnings per ton per mile. GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS SUPERANNUATION FUND. On the 1st January 1903 "The Government Railways Superannuation Act, 1902" came into operation. Participation in the scheme was entirely optional as regards employees in the railway service at the time of the passing of the Act, and such persons were given a period of six months from the 1st January, 1903, within which to determine whether they would be contributors. In the case of persons appointed on or after the date on which the Act came into force, a condition of employment was that they were to become contributors to the fund. Notwithstanding that it was optional on the part of those officers on the permanent staff prior to the 1st January, 1903, when the time expired only 66 eligible members of the whole railway staff of the colony had failed to join the fund. The object of the Act is to enable contributors to make provision against want in old age or compulsory retirement in consequence of infirmity or disablement by injury or sickness, and to relieve the department from the payment of compassionate and other allowances. The balance sheet of the fund shows that contributions from members amounted for the year to £39,788, fines £255, and interest £774, which, with the balance of £7,057 brought forward from the previous year makes the total receipts to the 31st March, 1904, £47,874. The superannuation allowances paid during the year amounted to £6,434, representing grants to 184 members of the railway service who have either voluntarily resigned or been retired as medically unfit. Allowances amounting to £577 were paid in respect of twenty two widows and thirty nine children, dependents of deceased members of the railway service who were not entitled to allowances at the time of their death. A sum of £244, representing contributions of members of the service who voluntarily retired or whose services were otherwise dispensed with during the year, was refunded to the members concerned. Fines remitted and refunded to members amounted to £2, and travelling expenses of the Board, and commission paid to the Public Trusts Office totalled £259, leaving a balance to the credit of the fund on the 31st March, 1904, of £40,358. TRAMWAYS. In all the Australasian states tramways are in operation, but it is chiefly in Sydney and Melbourne, the inhabitants of which numbered at the latest date 511,030 and 501,460 respectively, that the density of settlement has necessitated the general adoption of this mode of transit. In New South Wales the three systems of electric, cable, and steam traction are in vogue. Within the metropolitan area, however, the electric is being substituted for steam power. The length of line under electric traction on the 30th June, 1904, was 67 miles 76 chains, comprising 11 miles 68 chains at North Sydney; 4 miles 18 chains, Ocean-street, Woollahra, to South Head; 3 miles 36 chains, George-street-Harris-street tramway; 4 miles 11 chains, Glebe Junction to Newtown, Marrickville, and Dulwich Hill; 2 miles 73 chains, Forest Lodge Junction to Leichhardt; 2 miles 57 chains, Newtown to St. Peters and Cook's River; 1 mile 63 chains, Railway to Bridgestreet; 5 miles 55 chains, Waverley and Bondi; 2 miles 28 chains, Railway to Glebe and Forest Lodge; 3 miles 41 chains, Forest Lodge to Balmain; 1 mile 26 chains, Redfern to Moore Park; 3 miles 20 chains, Pitt and Castlereagh streets to Fort Macquarie; 55 chains, Georgestreet to Miller's Point; 5 miles 33 chains, Randwick and Coogee; 1 mile 18 chains, Waverley to Randwick; 69 chains, Crown-street to Cleveland-street; 2 miles 12 chains, Drummoyne; 6 miles 66 chains, Railway Station junction to Botany; 1 mile 45 chains, Zetland; 1 mile 34 chains, Mitchell-road; and 48 chains, Bridge and Phillip streets to Circular Quay. The only line worked by cable traction is that from King-street, Sydney, to Ocean-street, in the suburb of Woollahra, a distance of 2 miles 32 chains. On the remaining lines steam motors are still used, with the exception of that at Manly where horse traction is employed. The length of Government tram lines open to 30th June, 1904, was 1253 miles, which had cost for construction and equipment £3,471,759. The receipts for the year were £802,985, and the working expenses £673,625, leaving a profit of £129,360, or 3.73 per cent. on the invested capital. The number of passengers carried during 1904 was 137,843,513. In Victoria the cable system is in operation in the metropolitan area, the lines having been constructed by a municipal trust at a cost of £1,705,794. The tramways are leased to a company, and the receipts for the year ended 30th June, 1904, were £473,726. The number of passengers carried during the year was 50,002,416. The miles of track operated on were 43 cable and 4 horse lines, or 48 miles of double track. Besides the lines of the Tramway Trust, there are additional suburban systems worked by limited liability companies, as follows:Horse, 8 miles; electric, 4 miles; and cable, 24 miles. - In Queensland there is a system of electric trams controlled by a private company. The only information available shows that the capital of the company is £750,000 fully paid up, and that there are also debentures to the amount of £400,000. Particulars as to receipts and disbursements are not available, but the report presented to the shareholders in London during May, 1902, showed a net profit of £42,815 for the period from 20th November, 1900, to 31st December, 1901. The length of the tramways is 25 miles, or 43 miles of single line. The company owned seventy-nine electric cars, and during the year 1901, 16,183,801 passengers were carried. In South Australia there are no Government tramways, but horse trams are run in the principal streets of Adelaide by private companies. No particulars have been collected respecting the length of the lines nor of the returns therefrom. A proposal is under consideration for the substitution of electric traction on these lines. The Western Australian Government owns a line of horse tramway on a 2-foot gauge between Roeburne and Cossack, a length of 81⁄2 miles, constructed at a cost of £24,022. For the year ended 30th June, 1904, the gross earnings were £2,192, and the working expenses £1,869, leaving a profit on working expenses of £323. In Tasmania there is an electric tramway from Hobart railway station, about 9 miles in length, owned by a private company. The cost of construction and equipment was £95,015; and the company possesses 20 cars. For the year ended 31st December, 1903, the receipts amounted to £18,327, and the working expenses, to £12,519. The passengers carried during the twelve months ended 31st December, 1902, numbered 1,848,104. There is also a steam system at Zeehan, 2 miles in length, constructed at a cost of £5,388. No information is available as to the receipts, but the working expenses for the year ended 31st December, 1901, were £1,848. The number of passengers carried during the twelve months ended 31st December, 1902, was 7,302. There are also tramways in existence in New Zealand under municipal and private management, but no particulars in regard to them are at present available. 635 COMMONWEALTH FINANCE. THE financial obligations of the Commonwealth began with the appointment of the Executive and the proclamation of the Constitution on the 1st January, 1901, at which date also the administration of the Customs passed over to the federal control. Besides the Customs and Excise, the Commonwealth has authority to take over from the states the administration of the following services, viz., posts, telegraphs, and telephones; naval and military defence; lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys; astronomical and meteorological observations; quarantine; census and statistics; bankruptcy and insolvency; patents and copyrights; naturalisation and aliens; divorce and matrimonial causes; and immigration and emigration. In accordance with this power, the Postal Service was transferred to the Commonwealth on the 1st March, 1901, and on the same date the Defence Administration was taken over. The control of the Patents offices became vested in the Commonwealth from the 1st June, 1904. None of the other departments has yet been completely transferred. The expenditure of the Commonwealth is divisible into new expenditure that is to say, on services called into being after the proclamation of the Federal Union, and other expenditure, or expenditure on services previously existing. The new expenditure is charged to the states proportionately to their population, and the cost of transferred services over and above the revenue derived therefrom being ascertained, the total of the two amounts is deducted from the net revenue from Customs and Excise, and the balance handed back to the states. Under the provisions of section 87 of the Constitution Act, the Treasurer of the Commonwealth is entitled to retain one-fourth of the net proceeds of Customs and Excise services for the purposes of defraying the expenses of the Commonwealth, the remaining three-fourths, and as much more as the Treasurer does not require, being handed back to the states. It is, therefore, very essential, in considering the question of Federal and State Finance, to remember that, so far as concerns threeparts of the net revenue derived from customs and excise, such revenue, though appearing in the receipts of the Commonwealth, is not within the disposal of Parliament, but must be returned to the states. A large amount, in a normal year estimated at from seven to seven and a half millions, appears first as a federal receipt and a federal expenditure, and again as received by the states. Therefore, in calculating the total sums raised by the Australian Governments, the amount returned to the states by the Federal Treasurer should be deducted from the total receipts. It is necessary, however, that the whole transactions of the Federal Treasurer should be shown both as to revenue and expenditure; for, unless this is done, a proper understanding of federal and state accounts cannot be obtained. The financial year of the Commonwealth ends on the 30th June. Since the 1st January, 1901, there have been four financial periods, the first being the six months, January to June, 1901, and the others embracing the three following years ending 30th June, 1902 to 1904. The first of these periods was quite abnormal: the transferred departments were not administered by the Commonwealth for the whole period, while in addition there were some exceptional expenses by reason of the federal elections, and the cost of establishing the Commonwealth itself; on the other hand, the federal departments were not organised, and cost less than in an ordinary year. OPERATIONS FOR HALF-YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE, 1901. For the half-year ended 30th June, 1901, the following were the income and expenditure of the Treasurer: During this period the state tariffs existing at the establishment of the Commonwealth remained in force, the uniform customs tariff with the abolition of inter-state duties not coming into operation until some time later. The collections in each state were :-- |