JAPANESE RAILWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1079, 18 March 1911, Page 5

JAPANESE RAILWAYS.

i . EXTENSIVE NEW WORKS. By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyrieht Berlin, March 16. German steel manufacturing firms are .vigorously, completing railway . material for Japan iii connection'with tho widening of the gaugo of the Tokio-Shi-tnonoseki railway. Tho construction of various new lines of railway, involving a sum of £23,000,000, spread over a period of thirteen years, has been'authorised. A STATE-OWNED SYSTEM. Japan, in tho opinion of "Tho Times" correspondent, has obtained as much as, if not more than, any other country for the money she has expended on her railways, 90 per cent, of which aro nonowned by the State. Coming into tho field late—the first railway, that between Yokohama and Tokio having been opened in 1872—Japan never quite allowed her railways to drift into. tho hands of private capitalists. ' There appears, the writer adds, to have been a reservation on. tho part of tho Government in the rights granted to private companies which mado the purchase of tho railways by tho State in 190) a less difficult question to deal with in Japan than it has been in some other countries. The total railway obligations are i£OG,OOO,OOO, and for this expenditure tho Government owns 52G1 miles of railwayopen for traffic. The net profits of the State-owned railways were ,£3,100,000 in 1908, and of private railways ,£577,000, making a total profit of nearly .£4,000,000. A reasonable increase of traffic coupled with economical management increase this sum, and it is not likely to decline. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE GAUGE. Thf present gauge (3}ft.) was adopted in the inception stage of Japanese railways because the condition of tho country hardly warranted the building of heavier linos. It is now found inadequate, and the rapid industrial progress of the country necessitates its alteration to tho standard gauge (Ift. Slin.). The Government is considering the advisability of doing this as soon as satisfactory financial arrangements can be made. The work will probably be commenced on tho Tokio-Shimonoseki scetion, a distance of 701 miles. This section may be regarded as the principal arterial railway of tho island, penetrating as it does through the heart of Japan, passing on its was the manufacturing centre of Nagoya, the picturesque dud historic city of Kyoto, tho great industrial centre of Osaka, the important commercial port of Kobe, and then touching the borders of the Inland Sea on its passage to the gateway of the Empire at Shimonoseki and Moii. This route, when the Mukden-Antnng railway is complete, will form part of the world's railway highway, conveying passengers via Korea and South Manchuria, with only ten hours' sea transportation, northward (Shimonoseki lo Fusan) to Harbin, where . tho Siberian Railway is Tcached and the railway journey may be continued to Europe. Along this route the mails are now carried over tho 2\ft. gaiige mountain Tailway between Antung and Mukden, and thence to Harbin. By means of these improvements the journey from Yokohama to Harbin mav ultimately bo reduced to three days. The widening of the Tokio-Shimonoseki lino is vou-hlv estimated to require a sum of jsiCooo.ooo.