COLONIAL RAILWAYS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5287, 19 June 1895, Page 4

COLONIAL RAILWAYS.

Mr J. Q. Pangborn, the President of the American Transportation Commission, has, during his brief visit to Australia, been induced to assume the position of a critic on our railway system, but the value of his statement is (says the Argus) discounted by bis evident want of knowledge of facta. The Victorian Bail way Commissioners have devoted their attention to one or two points which he has touched upon, and they find that he is very much astray in the assertions he baa made. Mr Pangborn is reported to have Baid that though on .the railways of the Australian colonies a ratio of 3£ employe's to the mile is not considered too hign, on the Indian lines, where labour is so - cheap, the average is only one man to the mile. The Railway Commissioners point out that the official report of the Indian railways for 1893 ehowa that on the standard gauge there are 19 men to the mile, and on the metre gauge 9| men jier mile, while the average number of employes per mile on all is 15. The corresponding figures for Victoria and New South Wales are 8£ men to the mile ; for New Zealand, 2£; South Australia, 2; and the United States, as a whole, about 5. On the question of locomotive equipment, Mr Fangborn baß committed himself to the assertion that it is higher in Australia than in. any country in the world, being one engine to every three or four miles. As a matter of fact the ratio on the Australian railways is as follows :— Victoria, one for every sis miles j New South Wales, one for five miles ; South Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, one for seven miles; and Queensland, one for nine miles. In other countries it is as follows : — Canada, one for every eight miles ; United States and India, one for every five mileu ; and England, one for each mile.