THE PIONEEE OR STEAM CARAVAN; WHEREIN CONCENTRATED WEIGHT IS SHOWN NOT TO BK NECESSARY FOR OBjT#N®Ov;|RACTlYE POWER. (Iff liniversity PI BY J. L. HAD DAN, M.I.C.E., F.R.G.S., F.S.A., OFFICER OF THE MEDJIDIE, FRANCIS JOSEPH, ETC. In countries where statistics are not procurable : Pioneer or semi-portable Railways, alone admit of the ready correction of errors in judgment which are inseparable from that vigorous prosecution of public works, which the age demands. It courts success by observing a perfect subservience of technical means to commercial wants, in lieu of the usual apposite ; combined with non-interference with nature, property, or the labour market, the three costliest items of ordinary Railway construction : while its moderate price, enables personal management to take the place of Joint stock administration. It is designed also to form in its entirety a staple article of home export : and to eradicate the famines chronic in large continents, due to deficient inter- communication. “ Africa our Second Itstuk*' Mr. Bradshaw^ s Project; see page 26 . liQtered at Stationers’ Hall. LONDON: printed by william CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 1879. Price Two Shillings and Sixpence. .\- O' View in The Transvaal. {From ‘ The Graphic:) THE PI 0 N E EE OR STEAM CARAVAN; WHEREIN CONCENTRATED WEIGHT IS SHOWN NOT TO BE NECESSARY FOR OBTAINING TRACTIVE POWER, BY J. L. HADDAN, M.LC.E., RR.a.S., F.S.A., OFFICER OF THE MEDJIDIE, FRANCIS JOSEPH, ETC. In countries where statistics are not procurable : Pioneer or semi-portable Railways, alone admit of the ready correction of errors in judgment which are inseparable from that vigorous prosecution of public works, which the age demands. It courts success by observing a perfect subservience of technical means to commercial wants, in lieu of the usual apposite ; combined with non-interference with nature, property, or the labour market, the three costliest items of ordinary Railway construction : while its moderate price, enables personal management to take the place of Joint stock administration. It is designed also to form in its entirety a staple article of home export : and to eradicate the famines chronic in large continents, due to deficient inter- communication. Be “ Africa our Second India/’ Mr. Bradshaiu^s Project ; see page 26. Entered at Stationers’ Hall. /I I LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 1879. Price 2s. Qd. \ v' / 'Jl . l4-*'v H- I t p 3boo46 Sketch showing Engine and Composite Carriages. (From ‘ The Graphic*) Cross Section. This half shows the skeleton carriage as arranged for both passengers and boxes of goods. The box is mounted on wheels ; it is shown partially withdrawn. This half shows the same car- riage arranged to carry cattle- boxes: the passenger flooring being simply turned up. {From ‘ The Graphic.^) “ The Taktiravan.’^ The Origin of the Pioneer. ( 9 ) ON OVERCOMING GEOGRAPHICAL OBSTACLES TO AFRICAN TRADE ; BY ECONOMICAL ANIMAL AND MECHANICAL EXPEDIENTS. By J. L. HADDAN, m.i.c.e., f.r.g.s., f.s.a., Officer of the Medjidie, &c. [A Paper read before the Royal Geographical Society^ Session 1878. Sir Rutherford Alcock, k.c.b., in the Chair.'] (Revised, Jan. 1st, 1879.) When we consider that the area of Africa is about one hundredfold that of Great Britain, even without entering into the question of the comparative wealth and density of population of the two countries, the disparity is so great ; that it is self-evident the usual stereotyping of European railways is quite out of the question, when considering the suitable means for opening up Africa.* In addition, the modest 5 per cent, interest tardily achieved by some English lines, may satisfy the stay-at-homes; but the risk in Africa both to life and purse, warrants a return of at least 50 per cent, on any capital ventured under existing circumstances. It is the purpose of this Paper to point out that this may be done expeditiously and surely, simply hy maJcing the mechanical means employed^ thoroughly subservient to the special commercial wants of the case in question; instead of adopting the usual plan which is diametrically opposite, viz. of imposing English railways en bloc, without any regard to the requirements of the country treated.j 1. A railway or other means of transport, to pay its shareholders an ultra dividend ; should, upon the accepted principle of supply and demand, never be constructed on a scale one tittle in excess of the traffic existing. Remunerative railways proper cannot, however, unfortunately be Short-sighted persons have hastily condemned steam in toto for this reason, t Instance : In Natal the summer or working season is very rainy, necessitating an extensive system of good roads ; while in Canada the winter snows provide gratis the best possible road surface, viz. frozen snow : a mild winter being a positive calamity. Tlie Zulu campaign has also shown us the unsuitability of our war material to such countries; an example equally applicable to trade weapons. B 3 ( 10 ) constructed in miniature ; since, whatever the scale may be, a heavy locomotive is obligatory : moreover, when the grades are at all steep, the dead weight is so great and the paying load so reduced, that the rates become prohibitive, since the train becomes practically all engine.^ The first giant stride in economy the Pioneer performs, is abolishing all necessity for weight in the locomotive or brakes. Hence the train is light and of equal weight throughout, and the l oad is constructed of a strength sufficient only to carry the traffic unit, whatever it be ; in lieu of being called upon to support the arbi- trary weight of a locomotive, which over difficult country may increase the calibre, and therefore the cost of the whole line, at least tenfold the freight requirements. A Pioneer train will not weigh per yard one tithe as much as a Fairlie mountain-engine and its brake vans, although the freight carried by the Pioneer train would be superior. The invaluable effect of this abolition of extraneous weight in transport, may be compared to trading in Africa at the present day, with bank-notes instead of heavy Amerikanos, or other bulky goods now used as currency. 2. To construct railways in uncivilised countries, cheaply, ex- peditiously, and to an unlimited extent if desired ; the maximum of the labour should he performed in the European worJcshop, and as little as possible undertaken on the ground.^ Earthworks and masonry must therefore be eschewed, and their cost which is excessive, while they are of no intrinsic value, is far better spent at home, than in upsetting the labour market and the revenue abroad ; as all large enterprises have been found to do, especially in agricultural empires. With earthwork railways, unless “ there were seven Stanleys in the field,” sufficient men could not be kept together at any price, to make 300 miles of rail- way in three years, much less keep it in order ; J while the European and American markets could coven the whole of the dark continent” with an iron Pioneer road in that space of time. It is moreover a positive sin to degrade men to the treadmill of earthworks, when agriculture and trade demand all the hands that can be got. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, when annexing the Transvaal, acknow- ledged this. He exempted the Boers from military service, because their labour as agriculturists could not be spared. General Cunynghame has also shown what complications may arise, in employing large masses of native labour. He says the Kafirs had * Twice the grade means a reduction of four times the load. t Average railway works require 30,000 days* labour per mile. Permanent way and stations not included. X The preservation of earthworks, or even the ballast, against tropical rains, is costly in the extreme ; almost impossible in fact, and quite so commercially. '( n ) io bo bribed by the conlmctors with rifles, as an inducement to work. He states that 400,000 stand of arms are now in their hands, and liable at any moment to be turned against ourselves. Mr. Consul Skene, referring to the Euphrates Valley Eailway, emphatically declares that the country will be ruined agriculturally if the railway is undertaken with local labour. 3. In uncivilised countries, where ordnance maps and statistics do not abound, every public worh should he provisional, especially if we act with vigour; since we leap in the dark, and cannot foretell what direction trade may take in the future. This rule is especially applicable to harbours and railways.* Every line drawn upon the map of Africa at the present date should be as it were “ a faint dotted one.” Ordinary railways, however, do not fulfil this great economical requirement, for even the narrowest gauge earthwork railway is a permanency, a line indelibty scored on the map ; nor can it be either enlarged to a broad gauge, or removed elsewhere, if its original direction be found unsuitable in a sanitary or commercial sense. Hence it is absurd to suggest making roads with a view to their after-conversion into railways,! or of narrow-gauge lines to be converted into broad-gauge when required ; for in both cases the curves and grades and even the route suitable for the former, would not be available for the latter. They are both deeds done for ever; for better for worse, as luck will have it. { The Pioneer is readily transportable ; it follows the natural undu- lations of the ground without disturbing the soil ; it requires neither banks nor cuttings, and does not interfere with the watersheds, a most important element in the tropics. The rolling-stock is handy and can be shipped in running order, the engine proper weighing only 4 tons. The telegraph wires are snugly stowed under the lower rail out of harm’s way. If destroyed, it is readily repaired. 4. It is necessary in Africa and such places ; to spin long attenuated lines of communication, and avoid concentration and centralisation : for the amount of the tariff (and dividend) obtainable, depends * Exposed ports should be sheltered by means of floating-surface breakwaters, made of any local materials suitable to produce a similitude in structure and eftect to the sea- weed reefs of the Pacific. Manilla fibre would do. t Mr. Tjarge, O.E., tells me that a line recently surveyed by him in Columbia, though only 70 miles by the mule track, required a railway over 300 miles in length. X The confusion of the gauges in Australia would not have occurred had the railways been provisional in the first instance; nor would protective duties be necessary, if remunerative railways had existed, to offer a sufficiently attractive inducement to local investors. The colonial capitalists have been forced by English railway loan facilities to compete with our manufacturers instead of confining themselves to producing raw materials. ( 12 ) entirely upon the difference of marhet-value of the goods at the two extremities of the line; an amount which increases out of all proportion as the distance is longer. This vital advantage will not only be nullified, but positively rendered antagonistic, if the carrying capacity of the line exceeds existing demands for transport. Commander Cameron informed me that the value of cotton goods at Unyanyembe was about fourfold Zanzibar prices, although the distance was only 250 miles. There is therefore ample margin for a magnificent dividend here, provided the market is not swamped by a big railway, of the old type. (See foot-note ^ on page 17.) I am indebted to Mr. Prince, a merchant of South Africa, and ex-member of the local Parliament, for statistics from which I find that the first narrow-gauge single-line railways at the Cape have cost 8000Z. per mile : but that by reason of their short length, viz. of only 60 miles inland, they cannot earn a dividend or even compete with the ox- waggons which trade to the Diamond Fields, some 500 miles into the interior ; although^the railway charges average Is.^ per ton per mile for freight. This fact alone proves that the Cape lines are twelvefold too large ; for Id, per ton per mile should pay well for transport, if you can only get enough. 2s. 6d, per ton per mile is the present tariff for ox- waggons ; the supply of which being less than the demand, enables them to obtain a very high rate ; which, however, owing to loss of live stock from drought, &c., hardly pays them; but would yield the Pioneer a dividend of about 70 per cent, f 5. The working expenses of a line are more important than even their first cost ; for an overgrown line, economically worked, will pay at some remote period ; while so-called cheap and light lines (as lately constructed in Turkey, Australia, and elsewhere) can never pay at all, owing to excessive meandering about to avoid trifling physical difficulties ; to endless repairs consequent on scamped construction : and to high through transport rates, due to the exaggerated length of the lines in question. In ordinary railways^ where weight is power ^ the working expenses increase^ as the * Neither high rates nor a dividend are admissible on a State railway. The necessary return being more readily obtainable, indirectly, in the form of aug- mented revenue due to increased production resultant from cheap transport. t The Bishop of Pretoria. — The “track” journey of 400 miles from the coast was a very trying one, an excess of drought depriving the oxen of food en route, and the outbreak of war occasioning such difficulties of transport that for two months the whole party had to live in tents. Of the oxen, half had died from lack of food and disease on the road. The health of the party was good. Since leaving Maritzburg they had been quite cut off from civilisation. “ Three months’ dust,” says the Bishop, “ sun, dirt, cold, drought, barrenness, thunder and lightning, hail like eggs, and yet otdy halfway.” — Daily Telegraph. Sec also the Daily Press for Lord Ohelmstord’s remarks on the diliiculty of transport. ( 13 ) scale decreases ; so that the use of light railways is the reverse of economical. (See following Table.) Abstract Value of various types of Bailway Construction over the same line of country. Cost per mile no criterion of value. See “Indian Break of Gauge,” page 27. Gives or Gives or 1. First-class railways.. = Good grades, and tole- = Light rails and rolling Heavy earthworks. rably direct route. stock, and good pay- 2. Smaller, cheap (?) rail- load, ways = Bad grades, and cir- = Heavy rails and rolling Light earthworks. cuitous route. stock, and serious amount of dead 3. Tramways on country weight. roads Very bac^ grades, which = Extravagance in power No earthworks. cannot be modified. and minimum of equi- valent load. *4. FelFs system = Very lofty viaducts, bad = Unremunerative load, Earth cuttings, but grades, and circuitous since being on a con- timber viaducts in route. tinuous viaduct, must lieu of banks. be used with excep- tionally light rails and rolling stock. 5. Pioneer = Surface line, ^.e., bad = Light rails and rolling No earthworks. grades over rough stock, but good pay- country. Koute, as the ing load, crow files. (Compare with No. l).t The Pioneer is not cheap in the light railway sense, for all its materials are of the most solid and durable description ; while its working expenses are low, owing to the abolition of dead weight, and to the fact that the road will take care of itself. Its route also is always direct. Though temporary in structure, unlike make- shifts in general, its working is ultra-perfectioned. I may mention for the benefit of my non-technical hearers, who may naturally think that, on plains at any rate, it is possible to lay down portable railways on the unprepared ground ; that in tropical countries the plains are generally converted into swamps in the rainy seasou, so that engineers usually construct a bank of at least 5 feet high in such situations, plentifully sprinkled with culverts ; but even then the line is not secure. The ground too, in such situations, is soft, so that settlement would constantly occur ; and with any ^7(7o-railed system of railway, derailment is certain, if one rail should sink barely an inch lower than the other ; and the narrower the gauge the greater the danger : J * At Aldershot Mr. FelFs locomotive could only take a nett load of 14 tons up 1 in 50, although the grades were improved to the utmost by a 5-foot cutting and a 20-foot viaduct. t The maximum economical grade on a railway is 1 in 300. With the Pioneer, however, where all the wheels are coupled, the economical maximum is 1 in 7. So it can always command a choice of route, which no other system of elevated railway possibly can do. X Accident to the Flying Scotchman. — The Flying Scotchman ran off the B 4 ( 14 ) SO that it is only where one rail is nsed that the road may be left to take care of itself, for a foot of settlement even would not en- danger the safety of the train. Such two-rail portable railways cannot moreover be laid down upon curves, without cutting the rails, &c. &c. Ballasting in tropical countries is quite a science, and forms one of the most costly items of maintenance. The Pioneer eschews it. The Pioneer system of driving is antagonistic to impetus; so that a train may with safety run fast down inclines which an ordinary railway could not face : consequently over rough country the Pioneer could carry mails, &c., quicker than a first-class railway.* * The brakes are continuous, and so arranged as to lock all the wheels in the event of accident. The novelty is that the brakes are always on, and require a constant but trifling applica- tion of extraneous force, to free the wheels. Thus even the absence or neglect of the driver is instantly revealed by the blocking of the whole train, consequent upon the brakes returning to their normal state. 6. A Pioneer (weak) double line can carry considerably more than a (strong) single line of the 4*8^ gauge. Collisions and derailments are impossible, and no necessity exists for the use of any of the 60,000 signals which a director of one of our main railways lately stated his Company daily used. While as traffic increased, a third and fourth line could be laid ; so that the quick traffic might be separated from the slow, goods from passengers, &c. : and the railway worked to the full extent without any augmentation of risk ; one line would be, however, reserved as an endless siding, on which waggons might stand anywhere to be loaded, a necessity in agricultural countries where produce is bulky, stations few and far between, and feeding roads not in existence. Thus the latest English principles can be adopted at the very outset, since we have, mechanically speaking, virgin soil to work upon; although the method employed for carrying them out be utterly different. 7. Ordinary railway construction is tedious in the extreme ; but the Pioneer capital can be turned over in a few months, and the line between Ranskell and Bawtry, on the Great Northern Eailway, about 4 p.m. on February 14, 1879. The rails and sleepers on the down line were torn up, and traffic delayed for some time. Several passengers are reported severely maimed or bruised, but none are known to be fatally injured. Breakdown gangs from Doncaster and Ketford were promptly on the spot, and, under the superintendence of the district engineer, quickly cleared the line and replaced the metals. The accident was owing to the subsidence of the permanent way, caused by the recent thaw. — Daily Telegraph. * On the basis, of the value of rapid transmission of news. The Pioneer would, in the Euphrates valley, form the missing link between the Eailway and the Telegraph ; and charge accordingly. ( 15 ) line be open and remunerative before the manufacturers’ bills become due. Hence a small working capital will go a long way. On the Suez Canal, where over 90 per cent, of the outlay was for earthworks, actually one-half of the capital was spent in paying interest during construction. 8. The rate of progress of erection of the Pioneer is about one mile per diem per 100 trained men.* The train brings up the whole of the materials, which as they arrive, are seriatim laid and fixed in complete working order at one operation. On the grand principle adopted by the Pioneer of disturbing nothing local, either natural or human, the assistants necessary would not be drawn from local sources : so that the railway would appear almost as if by enchantment, and without allowing time for intrigues, or exciting that suspicion of conquest and possession, which walls of China-like masonry and earthworks would be certain to engender. In the frontispiece the Pioneer road is shown made of timber. Such a road in South Eussia was contracted for at 400/. per verst, or 650L per mile, in oak, fixed complete. I would invite particular attention to the scale of the structure ; it is only one yard high and the train partakes more of the nature and size of a donkey and panniers, or a camel-caravan, than of a Pullman car. In Central Africa we should, however, use iron in lieu of wood, owing to the white ant ; and also for commercial reasons : since iron is an English staple, and deferred payments over seven years can be obtained for a road entirely of this material. The carrying- value of the line would not exceed 400 tons daily ; for which an eminent Glasgow firm tender at 760Z. per mile f.o.b. This is the smallest practical size made, and this even is too big for the occasion. The Yorkshire Engine Company undertake to make Pioneer Engines, and guarantee them to take a nett load of 200 tons up an incline of 1 in 20 ;1( which would constitute a highly satisfactory train-load in respect to economical working expenses. The Pioneer, therefore, can travel as the crow flies, and not being* affected by ordinary physical difficulties, no careful surveys are required. As land feeders to the Pioneer system, for no line of railway in large continents is worth anything without feeders, I suggest the single-rail tramway shown on page 5. This is worked by animals, where the “ fly ” permits, but by men in other districts. The cart is of wicker, covered with hide, and is waterproof, so as * The portion erected by the Grenadier Guards at Whitehall in the presence of Sir Garnet Wolseley gave even better results. t An ordinary engine of like weight, as used by Mr. Fell at Aldershot, would only draw 4 tons under similar conditions. ( 16 ) to take the water at river crossings ; the pontoon collar affording sufficient flotation for men and cargo. Four men could transport easily on such a rough tram-road one ton, or about fiftyfold their present burdens ; while by the introduction of the Indian native “ tapaul ” or post system, all the graphically drawn miseries entailed by deserting pagazi, &c. &c. (see Cameron), could easily be avoided. The cost would be about 50Z. per mile under favourable circum- stances. It may be also used without a rail or any preparation, on ground impracticable to two-wheeled vehicles. Ordinary carriage-roads are quite out of place in Africa. 1. Their maintenance in the dry season is impossible, since the materials will not cohere, and the vegetation breaks up the road-surface, while the wooden wheels of the vehicles are constantly coming to pieces. 2. It is against common sense also to level a wide track, unless the road is for common use with wheeled vehicles like a street, where hundreds of different interests have to be accommodated ; but for vehicles under one organisation, a prepared surface of a few inches in width, offering easy traction, is far cheaper to make and keep in repair than a very indifferent road necessarily many yards wide. Captain Burton assured me that in his opinion the origin of the slave-trade was due to the absence of beasts of burden or other means of transport. Since, however, animals do not thrive ; me- chanical means afford the only chance we have of extirpating the slave-trade. But neither the construction of roads with a view to steam-traction, nor of earthwork railways, are admissible ; since in addition to other objections, they would but afford a pretext for forced labour, the greater portion of the work being local.* Ele- phants are commercially out of the question ; their keep being prohibitively costly. On the Congo side of the continent, about 150 miles of Pioneer road, erected at the Yellala rapids, to ply in conjunction with steam- * Captain Burton writes, with reference to the Pioneer : That by its means the mineral wealth of the land of Midian might be rendered immediately pro- fitable.’’ . Commander Cameron thought that with special steamers and the Pioneer rail- road, communication might be opened up through the Nile, the Congo, and the Zambesi, into the very heart of Africa. Mr. Stanley suggested that Mr. Haddan should get a number of English capitalists to form an East African Company similar to the old East Indian Company. Gordon Pacha hopes “ ere long to use it.” Lord Napier of Magdala, Sir Garnet Wolseley, Sir Samuel Baker, Sir Henry Green, &c. &c., advocate this system. For a detailed description of the system, see the ‘ Times,’ January 6th, 1875 ; the ‘Society of Arts’ Journal,’ April 6th, 1877; ‘Iron,’ March 17th, 1877; the ‘Engineer’ of January, 1870; the ‘United Service Institution's Journal,’ 1878; the ‘Graphic,’ August 3rd, 1878; the ‘European Mail;’ the ‘African Times ;’ the ‘ Calcutta Englishman ;’ the ‘ Bombay Gazette,’ &c. &c. ( 17 ) launches above and below the cataracts, would open up say 50,000 scpiare miles of country at the least. The cost would not exceed 180,000Z. ; and if the trade were properly conducted, as a trans- port monopoly, and the goods only of the Company were transported to the exclusion of everybody else^s, judging from Asiatic experience, I fancy the earnings would not stop at cent, per cent.* But such a private railway must be a dwarf to revel in excess, since if a giant it must either starve or share a miserable pittance with others. This I con- sider to be the key to the whole question, and English mechanical pride must stoop so as to conquer it, and give up all grand ideas of 50-ton locomotives and spacious saloon-carriages, for many a year in Central Africa, since the present traffic is under 20 tons per diem upon the most frequented line of route : a quantity insufficient to nourish any road or railway worked simply as a transport agency, as in England. (See Eeady Eeckoner, p. 18.) On the east side the area of country opened per mile of railway would not be so great ; but as trade arteries already exist, they warrant the greater outlay which a longer railway would require.^ Of the comparative suitability of the various routes to railway purposes, it is not necessary to give any opinion, since the Pioneer is independent of physical details ; but from what I have heard there seems to be ample traffic on them all, from the southermost Zam- besi route to the northern Dana one. I will conclude this Paper with the hope that, ere more valuable lives are lost in pushing explorations further, the base of operations may be by means of such a railway as the Pioneer, so far advanced into the interior, that explorers may not be worn out before they can reach new ground. * Calculating per lb. as the average value of barter merchandise at Zanzibar, and 3s. per lb. at Unyanyembe (Cameron’s estimate), we have 2s. 3d. per lb. margin for freight and profit, which amounts on this basis to 15s. per ton per mile = a dividend of 165 per cent, on a Pioneer and trading capital of 2000Z. per mile. The existing annual traffic is estimated at 6000 tons (of a value of 500,000Z.), or in round numbers 20 tons per working day. This would entail running only one train each way every alternate day, at a cost of Is. per ton per mile, reducible to Id. when the line is worked to its full capacity of 100 tons daily in each direction. Mr. Hutchinson estimates the bare freight at 70 per cent, of the value of the goods transported = to 4s. per ton per mile for carriers’ charges, while the merchants’ profits amount to nearly three times as much, viz., to 11s. per ton per mile. The advantages therefore of using the Pioneer as a trade weapon, and not simply as a carrier, may be valued at 130 per cent. These calculations are for a line from the coast near Zanzibar to Unyanyembe, at which place the line would bifurcate to Lakes Tanganika and Nyanza, a total length of 700 miles. The trading and railway capital required to make the line piecemeal would not exceed 200,000Z., including all necessary block-houses, stores, &c. ; but if a large capital were available, the whole country could be simultaneously treated, with more than correspondingly inceased results. t. The Sultan of Zanzibar, it is said, offers a subsidy of £100,000 towards the construction of the first railway in Central Africa. ( 18 ) EEADY RECKONER. For ascertaining the Amount of Traffic required to earn 5 per cent, on any required Capital, Divide the estimated cost per mile by 13, which will give the required tonnage (up -j- down). Narrow Gauge 13 ) 8000 = cost per mile. 620 tons of traffic. Pioneer (1st class) Pioneer (2nd class) £ 13 ) 1300 = cost per mile. 100 tons, or ^ the average carrying power of the system. £ 13 ) 750 = cost per mile. 58 tons per diem. The basis on which the above rule was established was ascertained from Mr. Juland Danvers’ admirable statistics on the nine principal Indian railways (1877, 1878). These lines have a mileage of 6500, and cost £15,000 per mile. The average tonnage of goods carried was 1440 tons daily both ways. The capital therefore expended was £13 per ton transported (the divisor used in the formula). The tonnage above mentioned includes passengers, calculated at 2J to the ton ; the transport of 2J passengers costing the same as 1 ton of goods. The average tariff charged per ton for passengers and goods =*88d. The average cost of transport per ton for passengers and goods = *35d. Note. — Indian rates are low as compared (in money) with those of Europe : but prohibitively high as regards their percentage on the intrinsic value of the articles transported in the two cases. The tariff is of great political importance, transport being a tax in all but the name. ( 10 ) ■ OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. ASIA MINOR AND THE EUPHRATES VALLEY. {From the ‘ Levant Herald/ Nov. 12thj 1874.) On Wednesday last, Mr. Brassey, M.P., Mr. Foster, C.B., director-general of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, and a number of other gentlemen were invited to examine a working model of the “Pioneer’’ Kailway, by Mr. John L. Haddan. After explaining the mechanism of this economical mode of transport, the inventor read the following short paper, pointing out the peculiar merits possessed by this system as an auxiliary, both in the construction and in the nourishment of the contemplated Asia Minor railways : — Turkey being eminently an agricultural empire, but sparsely populated, and whose revenue is mainly derivable from the soil, it becomes a necessity of primary importance in the construction of the public works of the empire, if of any extent, to arrange so as to interfere as little as possible with the labour market. At first sight, it seems that the means of avoiding this serious and costly evil, is only to undertake works of small amount and to extend these operations very gradually ; but, taking into consideration the vast extent of the empire, as also the fact that its existing means of communication are quite inadequate even (as at Angora) for local purposes,* it is only too evident that far too much time would be required for commercially opening up the country in such a dilatory fashion. Yet, as labour in any large quantity, even at high prices, is not pro- curable, we must perforce seek some other means of energetically extending the railway system, so as to meet the well-known wishes of H.I.M. the Sultan and the Grand Vizier in this respect. This duty the “ Pioneer ” performs, without undue interference with the agricultural pursuits of the population. In addition to the quite exceptional roughness of the country, which forms another retarding element, we have other difficulties to surmount, and which the “Pioneer” either remedies or palliates. As, for instance, owing to the non- existence of means of communication, the commencement of operations at numerous points is impossible ; also, consequent on the high rate of interest prevalent in the empire, local shareholders cannot be obtained for any public works requiring long periods for their construction. Moreover, the Government guarantee, granted also during construction, falls heavily on the State, yet as European capitalists exact this guarantee it must be accorded ; still, it may mani- festly be diminished with advantage by the employment of all legitimate means of increasing the extinction of the guarantee by feeding the main arteries so that they shall pay. These means the “ Pioneer ” affords ; during construction it lends valuable aid as a labour economiser, and subsequently, when converted into branches, as a feeder. In a country where no cross roads exist, and where the supply of animal trans- port is naturally limited, branch lines become a strict necessity ; for on main lines of great length, it is now universally acknowledged “ through ” goods traffic does not pay, so that the only source of nourishment available is then local. To summarise : — We require for the economical yet rapid construction of rail- ways in Turkey : — 1. A mechanical means of economising manual and animal labour. 2. Great rapidity of construction, so as to reduce the interest on capital during construction. 3. The construction of branch lines simultaneously with their main arteries. 4. Through communication, though of small capacity, in preference to fragments of line on a large scale. * The freights on grain from Angora to the coast cost 5 piastres, the value of the grain being 1 i piastres per oke. / ( 20 ) The “ Pioneer ” fulfils all these conditions, and that in the following way : — As an avant-coureur of a great enterprise, the “Pioneer” would be constructed entirely of iron. The fixing thereof requires but eight simple opeiations per 24 feet, viz., screwing two short piles into the ground, and fixing six bolts; so that with only a hundred ‘‘ trained men ” (soldiers would do), a daily advance from each point de depart of two or even three miles could be constantly maintained. Its own materials are carried forward step by step by the line itself, the road being laid ready for use at one operation. The ‘‘Pioneer” would be pushed forward to the terminus as rapidly as possible, following at a guess, but not to the letter, the future traced purposely however deviating where required to open up forests for sleepers, coal-mines for fuel, quarries for stone, gravel-pits for ballast, &c., &c., acting, so to speak, as contractors’ plant, and, when established, permitting the future works to be carried on at an infinity of points, yet under perfect surveillance and control, without the use of an inordinate staff of employes. While, however, performing contractors’ duty, the “ Pioneer ” would likewise be used for the transport of passengers, mails, and goods, for which its scale would be amply sufficient for the time being ; producing a profit probably sufficient to pay the Government guarantee during the construction of the trunk Kailway; affording, moreover, reliable statistics for the enterprise proper; and lastly, but not leastly, so assisting its successor as to reduce the cost of the main line perhaps as much as 30 per cent. In proportion as the main line overtakes the “ Pioneer,” the latter is at once broken up into branches to feed the former, and render it profitable at the earliest possible moment. Taking the Euphrates Valley Railway as an example, the “Pioneer” could be so rapidly constructed that the mail route to India might be established in about a year, and thus immediately earn the proposed mail subvention of £300,000 annually, which pending the completion of the main line (say seven years), would be more than sufficient to repay the outlay required of £1,000,000, plus the 12 per cent, interest for the use of the capital, to say nothing of its future value in branches. The tariff chargeable would he a mean between the present telegraph and postal rates, established on the basis of the saving of time m the transmission of news. An enterprise of this nature may be rather likened to a military expedition than a railway one, the “ Pioneer ” forming the base from which the men and materials employed would be supplied. A favourable impression was created by the inspection, and the conviction was expressed that the “ Pioneer,” if it prove mechanically a success, is adapted in all other respects to the wants of Turkey. Mr. Haddan also mentioned incidentally that the introduction of agricultural machinery would necessarily follow the opening up of the country by the “ Pioneer ; ” the use of such labour-saving implements affording the only means by which the limited population of the empire can possibly extend its operations. At present the introduction of such machinery is impossible, owing to the non- existence of repairing shops. This want, however, the “ Pioneer” would likewise supply. RAILWAY ECONOMICS. From the ‘ Times,’ January 6, 1875. The “ Pioneer ” Railway. — The doctrine that the only way to develope the resources of a country is to build railways cannot be said to have died out yet, but it is scarcely so rampant now as it was a few years ago. Except for the support of the Government, even a richly-productive, thickly-peopled country like India would have got no good from railways, but much harm. The conditions which go towards causing railways to pay are difficult to indicate, but it is at any rate clear that much more is wanted than richness of soil or of minerals, or even density of population. Unless between towns, which are centres of trade, railways to do any good must be supplemented by good roads, and those do not exist as n rule either in new countries or among populations in decay, or where the centres ( ) of industry arc far scattcnMl. To the mass of the rural population in any oouniry wlierc civilisation is either dying or has hardly come into being, a railway means a costly mode of drawing the people away from their valleys, of denuding one part of the land that the other may bo thickly peopled ; it is a burden grievous to be borne, laid upon a population too poor to pay remunerative charges, too far scattered to become great travellers. In no country has this description of the outcome of railway building a truer application than in Turkey. From beginning to end the story of railway enter- prise there has been one of disaster. To no small extent this is due to the incom- petence of the Government, but far more largely it lies in the nature of things. Turkey has vast natural resources, no doubt, but they are utterly waste d ; there is no internal order, no effort at production such as characterises a civilised or progressive community ; there are no roads which can act as feeders, or but very few, so that a railway when made only ties city to city, or taps a thin line of terri- tory on each side of its route. So Turkish railways do not pay, and have only helped to pile the load upon the back of the poor misgoverned country, till it is all but broken. Yet, in a very different sense, means of intercourse between district and district, 'province and province, city and city, is beyond measure essential to Turkey if the country is to be saved from sudden collapse. If one could keep the tax-farmer away or in check, the people would be stimulated to expend energy in raising surplus crops of wheat, in reviving manufactures (now dying out, if not already dead), could they only get rid of their works or their produce at a fair profit. That is not possible while bridle-paths form the sole arteries along which what life and movement is in the country painfully flows. Turkey wants roads, there- fore ; but at the same time, railways as now made are too costly for so poor a country, and would remain so, it is to be feared, after the development of many years. They ought io follow the growth of the country in several ways instead of preceding it by so long, and are too rigid a means of intercommunication in a half- peopled agricultural territory, where the centre of business at one time may not be the centre when new outgrowths of cultivation or new settlements of the^ people have been created. A railway laid down in a country like Turkey, in the mode we are accustomed to lay railways down in England, is a deed done in a measure for ever, but the actual condition of the population which determines the route now, may by no means be those that will be in existence a quarter of a century hence. For poor countries to beneflt by such a great help to intercommunication, lighter, cheaper, more movable forms of railways should be made. There has been a stereotyped idea regarding railways, which has led to the reproduction of the same thing all tlie world over — in Japan as in England, in Egypt as in America — without much regard to surrounding conditions. This has helped not a little to make the result so often disaster, instead of progress. It appears to have been from a perception of such truths as these that a well- known English engineer in Constantinople has occupied himself in designing a new form of railway, which will be of this lighter kind. He calls his invention tlie “ Pioneer,” and means it to precede rather than to supersede other railroads : to be, at all events, the Ar-^st form of railway which poor, agricultural, and thinly- peopled countries should possess, so securing to tliem all they need in the way of cheap and rapid carrying power, without burdening them with either the original cost or the permanent outlay involved in making ordinary railways and keeping them efficient. The construction of this Pioneer ” railway is simple and inge- nious. Instead of requiring the ground to be elaborately prepared for the rails, and gradients carefully adjusted, it may be made almost anywhere, and involves little outlay. The carriages and engine are in shape much like a couple of panniers, and the railway on which they run answers to the donkey’s back, it being a single central rail laid along an elevated narrow platform, which may be supported on tressels or merely on posts sunk well in the ground, as desired. In addition to this centre rail, on which the carriages are hung and where the friction of the running wheels is, there are two side rails which jut out on cross bars so as to catch a wheel running on each side of the carriages below. These latter rails answering to the sides of the donkey or pack-horse, serve to steady the train, and also supply a means of applying the tractive gripping power whereby tlie tiain ( 22 ) can be pulled up very steep inclines. The mode of construction necessarily causes all the carriages and the engine to be divided into two equal halves, and thus cuts down the stowage room, but enough seems to be left to afford ample accom- modation for passengers where they are not likely to be numerous, and to afford room for a great deal of comparatively heavy traffic. When erected, this railway presents at a distance the appearance of a strong fence, it being so far above the ground, and this form of construction makes it an easy matter to get over diffi- culties in the configuration of the country. Where advisable, the top rail is laid on posts stuck in the ground, and should these not be procurable, or should the soil present obstacles to their being securely rooted, then tressels may be used, or a dwarf wall 2' 6" high may be built of masonry or concrete. For crossing streams the expedients are essentially the same, only the posts are longer. The sides of a mountain may be climbed by this railway with ease, and its inventor, Mr. Haddan, claims for it these various advantages in other respects : — Rapidity and low cost of construction. Employment of marketable materials only, earthworks being entirely dispensed with ; capacity, therefore, of constructing a railway at a fixed factory, and of making it instantly transport itself. Low working expenses. Portability, it being easy to remove the whole apparatus from one locality to another : hence, also its value in aiding the construction of a solid railway of the ordinary kind, and its subsequent transfer into branches for feeding the same. Whether this railway has been practically tried or not we cannot say, but there is a good deal about the aims and conceptions of its inventor with which we must sympathise. It would be a great help to Turkey and to many a country besides, if a means of transport such as this atfords could be readily organised, for these would then have a help to the development of trade and agriculture, and, consequently, of population, which costly railways and their attendant loans and heavy taxes can never supply. Mr. Haddan is sanguine enough to hope that the speedy adoption of his system would do much to regenerate Turkey even yet. There certainly can be no reason why his railway should not be tried where it may be likely to do good in that or any other country, for if at all as practicable as the models of it look, it should prove useful in many ways and places where it would be vain to hope for an ordinary railway this many a day. MILITARY RAILWAYS. From the Times,’ June \^th, 1878 . TO THE EDITOR OF THE ‘ TIMES.’ Sir,— However abhorrent war may be to our feelings of humanity in general, and however much we may deprecate it in the interests of our own country ill particular, I think no one will refuse assent to the proposition that if we are obliged, now or hereafter, to put an army in the field, it should be furnished with every reejuisite for success that the advance of science places at our dis- posal. I understand that in the prospect — happily now less imminent — of an expeditionary force being despatched from these shores, some miles of field railway have been prepared at Woolwich, with a locomotive of novel pattern which has been judged likely to render more useful service, under the probable requirements of a campaign, than one of the ordinary description. I need hardly remind you that ever since the Crimean war a campaign has never been under- taken by this, or, perhaps, by any other European country, without the attempt being made to facilitate operations by the aid of the railway. In no one instance, however, that I can recall has the attempt been a striking success. The Balaclava railway was notoriously unsatisfactory ; that constructed for the Abyssinian campaign was scarcely less disappointing. The field railway undertaken by the Germans in 1870 to preserve the continuity of their railway communication while Metz was still unreduced, is now known to have been of little practical use, owing chiefly to the sinking of the earthworks. In the Ashantee war, though some miles of railway accompanied Sir Garnet Wolseley’s force, it was never, I believe, even disembarked. Will the railway to which I have referred as being ( ) now ill ica(]iri(.*a« at Woolwich prove mon* useful than those which have preceded it, should it be jiiit to tlie juactical test V This question of held railways foriiied the subject of a paper wliich was read ^ last month at the Koyal United Service Institution by Mr. J. L. Haddan, an eminent railway engineer, upon which you published some favourable comments at the time. Mr. Haddan contended that we have proceeded hitherto upon a totally wrong system in assimilating the construction of held railways to that of ordinary railways, and proposed in substitution a one-rail surface railway sup- ported upon dwarf trestles or posts, and entirely independent of earthworks, either banks or cuttings. The locomotive proposed for such a railway is of peculiar and very light construction, deriving its tractive power, not from the combination of steam-power and gravity, like an ordinary locomotive, but from steam-power, and the “ grip ” it is made to give upon the rail. The reduction in the weight of the locomotive, and the corresponding reduction in the size and weight of the carriages, lighten also the necessary weight and strength of the road, without, however, diminishing the carrying powers of the latter ; the freight, by Mr. Haddan’s invention, being merely lengthened out and made to travel in Indian file, so to say, instead of in ‘‘ sections.” Mr. Haddan claimed for his field railway the following advantages, among others, which, if they can be substantiated, it is impossible to overrate : — That it is more simple, more quickly and easily constructed, than any existing type of railway ; that it is practically almost independent of gradient and other local considerations, the locomotive employed being able to take a train weighing 100 tons up a gradient of one in ten ; that it requires neither embankments nor cuttings ; that it may be made beforehand to an unlimited extent in our national workshops, either of wood or iron, at a very moderate cost per mile, and conveyed, ready for use, and only requiring to be put together by the troops, to the place where it is intended to be laid down ; and lastly, that it can be laid down at the rate of one mile per diem for each 100 men employed. I can well imagine that Mr. Haddan’s views will not find favour at the hands of rival inventors, and that professional jealousy will be roused at proposals which cast a doubt upon the inventive resources of those who have preceded him in the same field. But what have the Government or the public to do with that ? If Mr. Haddan’s theories can be shown to be sound, and susceptible of ready conversion into practice, by all means let him have the credit he deserves, and let the country, in its next war, benefit by the adoption of them. Sir Garnet Wolseley, who presided when Mr. Haddan’s paper was discussed, and than whom there can be no higher non- technical authority, expressed himself very favourably in regard to it, and such I feel sure will be the feeling of all military men who heard or may read it. Your own comments also in the ‘ Times ’ of the 80th of May adopt Mr. Haddan 's tenets ; — “ But, alas ! those heavy waggons, long pontoon-boats, telegraph waggons, and photographic carts all mean roads ; no provision seems to be made for transport over uncivilised countries such as we now wage war in. It is much to be feared that the present system, advanced as it is compared with the old, which left every- thing to be arranged after the outbreak of war, is scarcely adapted for the Bul- garian or Armenian roads, admirable though they are on our macadamised high- ways in Great Britain.” Surely the Secretary of State for War could not do wrong to obtain the opinions of Colonel Yolland and his colleagues as to the technical merits of Mr. Haddan's field railway, and so clear the way for its early adoption as the field railway of the British service, if it is shown on competent authority to deserve that distinc- tion ? Your obedient Servant, J. L. Vaughan, Lieutenant-General. Junior United Service Club, June 12. ( 24 ) MILITARY RAILWAYS. From the ‘Times,* June \lth, 1878. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ‘ TIMES.* Sir, — 'T o General Vaughan’s comprehensive letter which appears in the ‘ Times * of tlie 15th inst., there is but one single word therein to which I can take excep- tion, and that is to the term “ inventor ** which he applies to me. My “ Pioneer ” railway, so often noticed in your columns, comprises no startling novelties ; it is merely a combination of various thoroughly proven and accepted mechanical and natural laws. Inventions, properly so called, must be left to philosophers ; but, although it is now the fashion in our profession to stereotype, a small minority will always maintain that it is the civil engineer’s proper and only province to ring all the changes of natural combinations, which are quite as numerous and infallible as chemical ones, in applying his art to meet all possible requirements, especially so varying as those of transport. Mechanics of late years turn out such marvellous giants, great in body, but, like ironclads, very weak in the ribs, that they have insensibly smothered their professional civil brethren, and the stereotyping of railways all over the world, which has led to such disastrous com- mercial results, is mainly due to their unbending mechanical pride, which will not stoop to meet any other requirements but those of their own shops or prejudices. The same incubus has Jntherto borne fatally upon military railways. All the pomp and circumstance of 60-ton locomotives, Pullman cai'S, 80-lb. rails, gigantic earthworks, and colossal masonrv. matters of pride and congratulation in the civil engineering world (?), must perforce be carefully eschewed in designing a military field railway, and may, with advantage, be pursued ad ahsurdum in those countries where travelling at present is a necessary evil and by no means a luxury. To the English Army, where men are valuable as their numbers are few, and for agricultural empires where every man’s labour is in a short season productive many hundredfold, and where the State revenue is dependent on his labour, there can be no greater mistake in political economy than to employ animal labour in making earthworks, the most unproductive of investments, even when con- verted into a railway. After a war or famine this argument has still greater force. Far better, therefore, than inventing steam sappers to make earthworks, and so adding another complication to military duties, the “ Pioneer ” glories in abolishing earthworks altogether; and, moreover, supplies another article of export to our home list, since it can be manufactured complete in working order in the workshops of Great Britain, and sent out in any quantity to its destination. Turkey, so incapable of helping herself, may be thus developed with English iron, a far safer investment than English gold; and India, a prey to famines and unequal exchanges, may benefit in like manner by the use of a means of communi- cation especially designed to meet her wants. J, L. Haddan. 25, Great George Street^ IF., June 15. Pioneer and Military Kailways. — A section of a novel military or pioneer railway was built on Monday, on the ground lying waste at the rear of Whitehall- place, in four hours ; and to show the simplicity of the work, its constructors were ten soldiers, sent as a fatigue party from the Grenadier Guards, and one or two ordinary unskilled labourers. This railway is tlie invention of Mr. J. L. Haddan. ox-engineer in chief of the Ottoman Government ; and the railway was primarily de -signed to meet the need in the East of having a speedily-constructed, cheap, and effective means of transport for men and stoi es over a wild country without tlie necessity of surveying, levelling, and passing througli the preliminary stages of ordinary railway making. The new railway built on Monday in the grounds of Whitehall is a “one-rail” structure, and the line it represented requires neither sleepers nor foundations, the line running upon dwarf fsosts, 440 to a mile, the rolling-stock upon it being shaped like an invert(‘d V, designed upon the ( 25 ) “ ciiincl-saddlc ” principle. The carrui^cs and engines lall on each aide like fKinniers on an aniniars back, the safety wlicc^ls of tlie engines, trncks, and carriages being horizontal, and those of the engine gripping on each side (d tlie rail. The material of the new railway is wholly of timbers, which were brought on the ground ready cut for use, and the plans having been explained to the sergeant of the fatigue party, the piles were sunk in the ground, the cross timbers were readily fixed and bolted, and by a scries of ingeniously designed wedges an 80-feet or 100-feet section of the line, running over very uneven ground, was made secure and apparently quite solid. In the evening the inventor read a paper on the subject at the Royal United Service Institution, General Sir Garnet Wolseley, K.C.B., presiding. During the discussion which followed the reading of the paper. Sir Garnet Wolseley, speaking of the railway in the Crimea, said that, though that was not a great success, it was very useful, and by making it the English nation was the first to use railways in war. The great thing in regard to railways used in war was that they should be quickly made and worked, for time was everything. If we had to go to war and to operate inland in a country where there were no roads, it would be of the greatest importance to have a line from the base to the scene of operation, and Mr. Haddan’s proposals gave a sys- tem which would meet the requirements of an army in that position. As to par- ticular railways which had been proposed for army transports, in these days of short and sharp campaigns earthworks were out of the question, for now armies did not sit down to long campaigns like the sieges of Troy and Sebastopol. Other systems required good roads, but for a country without the roads, and in rapidity and simplicity of construction, Mr. Haddan’s railway would meet an army’s wants. The proceedings lasted until 11 o’clock at night, and the com- pany then went to view the section in the grounds at Whitehall, lighted by port fires . — The ‘ Times* May 22nd, 1878. ****** But, alas ! those heavy waggons, long pontoon-boats, tele- graph waggons, and photographic carts, all mean roads ; no provision seems to be made for transport over uncivilised countries such as we now wage war in. It is much to be feared that the present system, advanced as it is compared with the old, which left everything to be arranged after the outbreak of war, is scarcely adapted for the Bulgarian or Armenian roads, admirable though they are on our macadamised highways in Great Britain . — The ‘ Times,* May 1878. INDIAN EAILWAYS. From the ‘ Times,’ June llth, 1878. The conclusion Mr. Haddan arrives at is nevertheless worth attending to. Where a regularly constructed railroad is, for any reason, too costly a thing to yield a profit, there may be room for a lighter line — a Pioneer railway, as Mr. Haddan terms it — to be sent out ready made from this country and fit for use as soon as it can be laid down. We can hardly doubt that some such simple affair as this might very advantageously have taken the place of some, at least, of our Indian lines. Still more useful would it be for extensions into less favour- able regions. When the start had been given in this way, there would be room afterwards for the more elaborate and more costly railway proper, with all its pomp and circumstance, dts sixty-ton locomotives, its eighty-pound rails, its gigantic earthworks and colossal masonry, and all the rest of which our corre- spondent speaks with a disfavour not common in his profession. There is plenty of space still to be found for the experiment both in India itself and in the countries bordering on India. The want of feeder lines is much felt by almost every one of the great Indian railways. It is kind of Mr. Haddan to suggest that we should supply Turkey with lines of the sort he favours. There is no reason why we should not do so, if we can induce Turkey to purchase them from us. ( 20 ) But the need of them for India is equally obvious, and wo might hope for something bettor from them, at all events, than the poor return of “ less tlian 1 per cent.” AFRICA OUR SECOND INDIA. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ‘MANCHESTER COURIER.’ Sir, — Your townsmen should be the first to scotch the following Indian and colonial worm in the bud of free-trade ; and, moreover, see they do not fall into like error while supporting Mr. Bradshaw’s excellent project for developing Central Africa. This parasite, which is attracting so much attention in Manchester .at the present moment, is English born and bred ; and its remedy is also in our own hands. Its origin is really due to the hitherto deemed necessary evil of railways in general being as a matter of course unremunerative for a season. Hence in India, the colonies, and many of the minor foreign States ; railways are under- taken with, to them, foreign money: not so much because they have not the requisite funds themselves, but because the guarantee of profit is not good enough to attract their local capitalists. The local investor is, therefore, forced to seek by protective duties to form an artificial field in which to utilise his capital, although he has to do it of course at the expense of his countrymen. Every means of increasing exports, of which railways with low fares is the essence, should form a local investment. That this order of things is reversed, is the reason why the colonies cannot accept free-trade ; and why without the same excuse they behave more or less like the Indian ryot of the interior, who, cut off from free-trade by his isolated condition, is forced to cultivate for himself a patch- work holding, producing every personal want, from cotton to tobacco. The remedy rests in the hands of our mechanical engineers, who, having slain the goose which laid the golden eggs, must now produce remunerative or ready- money railways, on a scale and extent suitable to the colonial requirements, viz. ; of small purse and huge acreage. The remedy in India, or where many railways already exist ; is for the Govern- ment to accept the fact that a railway dividend obtained by high fares is merely a sign of individual prosperity, gained at the expense of the imports and exports of the country. The guarantee system is rotten, and the Government refuse to extend the system ; it is not sufficient in amount to attract local shareholders, nor does it induce economical administration. The main lines should all be State railways, on which the earning of a divi- dend should be the last consideration. But if private local capitalists are desirous of making branch railways, the Government should fix their tariffs unremunera- tively low, and make up the difference in the shape of a subvention per ton and per passenger, in lieu of per mile. This would so encourage exports that the local capitalist would leave cotton-spinning and such like home work to those who can do it so much better and cheaper. I may mention that for the last ten years I have been elaborating a steam caravan or Pioneer railway, the cost of which, of a carrying capacity equal to the narrow gauge, does not exceed lOOOZ. per mile in running order. The whole is in iron, erected by the mile or so daily, and is, in fact, a continuous low fence or bridge ; there are no earthworks, and local labour is not wanted; its route is “as the crow flies.” English hands, shops, and capital, supply the whole in the shape of one of our staples — iron — instead of sending the gold to foreign countries to perform what may be called their commercial dirty work, leaving them free to invest every penny of their own in starting local rival factories to our home manufactures. Export manu- factured iron, not gold, is my panacea. Yours, &c., J. L. Haddan, M.I.C.E., F.R.G.S., &c. March 3, 1879. ( 27 ) INDIAN BREAK OF GAUGE, TO THE EDITOR OF THE ‘ TIMES.’ Sir, — ‘‘ Australia has five (lifforent breaks of j?auge already,” and already finds their rectification beyond her resources. “ Could we only begin again,” formed tlie sorrowful key-note of a paper read a few weeks back at our Institution on Colonial Eailways, under the able presidency of Mr. P. Barlow. It was almost the universal opinion, founded upon facts, that the question was decided in favour of the broad gauge ; “ since, so long as concentrated weight constitutes, as it does, our locomotive tractive power, the broad gauge must from the very outset be the cheapest to work ; that the apparent saving in first cost was delusive, since the balance was more than covered in the early future by the saving in working.” In fact that on existing principles, a cheap light railway is an impossibility, and a delusion and a snare to those who so falsely think the first cost per mile a criterion of value, either present or future ; first, as regards the present, because lines may be lengthened to the most extravagant extent, as so ably practised by Baron Hirsch in Koumelia ; and secondly, as regards the future, the banks and cuttings so necessary for securing easily workable grades may be, and are, cut down to such an extent, as to reduce the effective train load to nil. Hence the Government did quite right to refuse to construct a surface line to the Bolan Pass — first, because Sir Henry Green says the winter rains would wash any closed structure away ; and secondly, because Crimean * experience showed that on a surface line the grades were necessarily so steep, that horses, stationary engines, and locomotives, combined with a staff of 1000 men, failed to carry a paying load on a line even 17 miles in length, as that was. Yours, &c., J. L. Haddan. 25, Great George Street, March 3, 1879. * At Metz, under more favourable conditions, since the works were in connection with existing railways, the result was equally disappointing. 9 NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. Messrs. Herbert and Company are now in a position to accept orders ; having obtained guarantees from the makers as to both the performance of the rolling-stock and the stability and endurance of the road. To afford confidence to intending purchasers or lessees in distant countries, the following advantageous terms are offered. The first ten miles to be paid for in cash, the remainder on deferred payments, if desired. They undertake to supply the Pioneer road in iron complete ; suitable for any grade not exceed- ing 1 in 20, or curve of 100 feet radius : together with locomotives in running order, each supplied with a train of thirty composite waggons constructed to carry either 60 tons net or 240 passengers, or any desired proportion of each. £ The first ten miles, as above, including two trains ; pro- ] visionally erected in this country, and tested to pur- \ 20,000 chasers’ engineer’s satisfaction. Shipped. Price, f.o.b. j Every additional mile in iron, f.o.b .. .. 1,000 Proportionate rolling-stock, per mile (Gloucester Wagon \ Company) .. ( For military purposes — grades 1 in 10, curves 30 feet ) ^ radius, road in Landore Siemens’ steel — per mile, f.o.b. 1 ’ Extra powerful Locomotives for military purposes (York- ) ^ shire Engine Company) — each ) ’ 67, Strand, London, England, December 1, 1878. LOI^DON: PKINTED HY william CLOWES. AND sons, STAMFOIID STKEET AND CHAIilNG CROSS.