The cost of this line constructed by the Company’s officers was £3,200 per mile, including telegraph and stations, or £3,900 per mile including all man agement and rolling stock. The Queensland railways, though from the difficult nature of portions of the country and the high price of labour they were more costly, have been equally successful in their work ing.
In Canada two companies are now engaged in the construction of some 200 miles on this system ; and there, profiting by our earlier experience, and using native materials wherever they can, the cost of thoroughly effi cient railways, including rolling stock, management, and all other expenses, has been reduced within £3,000 per mile.
The guage is 3’ 6” ; the rate of wages for unskilled men, 4s. 2d. per day, and the country Undulating with ravines at intervals of .several miles, but with very few bridges. If for the purposes of the traffic in New Zealand, speeds of fifteen miles an hour, and rolling loads of three tons upon a wheel will be sufficient, then the cost of construction may be again reduced —as an iron rail, weigh ing 30 lbs to the yard, properly fastened, and laid upon sleepers not more than 2’ 6” apart, from centre to centre, will be amply sufficient. We have more than once used locomotives exactly suitable for such a railway, which have given great satisfaction. The question of guage is one of great importance, especially if the country to be traversed, as in Queens land, requires the use of sharp curves, when a narrow guage enables large savings to be effected.
