The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-10 00:00:00

ing the oiuc,tries known to each other and establish.
ing a community of interest 3. FJr years past
S weden has possessed a very efficient system of in,
tercal water com nunication, some of ' e line of
steamers yielding as high a dividend as 20 per cent.
and the majority producing a clear 10 per cent. to
the proprietors. But of course when steamers
could not run, the system of posting on defective
roads operated as a practical barrier against
travelling, and even the usually unimpeachable
Murray is astray as to so many facts in his
last edition that the country hitherto has been
to all intents and purposes unknown. Two
months hence, when the railway is completed
from Malmoe to Stockholm, the case will be
very different. There will be no naore difficulty
then in crossing over Sweden than there is at pre-
sent in getting through Denmark, while a sea
voyage from Lubeck to Malmoe will occupy pre!'
cisely the same time as to Copenhagen. This will
be a very important consideration where English
capital is flowing largely in the channel that it has
begun to form for itself in developing the dormant
mineral wealth of Sweden. Quite recently an
English company has entered upon a survey of the
Swedish mines, with the object of commencing ope•
rations extensively, and an English bank has bean
established in Sweden. These are indications that
when the circumstances became known persons will
not be wanting to take advantage of the present
state of feeling in Sweden, which, politically and
socially, is one of the great facts of the day.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

VICTORIAN.

It appears from the report of the railway departs
ment of the Board of Land and Works in Victoria
that on Nov. 25, 1862, an accident occurred on the
Melbourne and Murray River line at North Mel-
bourne, occasioned by the train to Sandhurst run■
ning into the train to Williamstown; several per.
sons were injured, some severely, but none fatally.
The claims for compensation amounted to £5,318,
including the cost of legal proceedings. The expen-
diture on construction at the end of 1862 charged
against the loan amounted to L 7,246,798, but to
this was added £332,140, being expenditure on
construction at that date, cut of the consolidated
revenue, upon which no interest was pay.
able, making the total expenditure £7,578,938.
The capital then authorised to be funded
for construction was £8,368,100, the annual
interest upon which, when the whole of the deben-
tures were issued, would be £501,405. The gross

revenue of 1862 was double that of 1861; the open•
ing of extensions in 1862 to some extent accounted

for the increase. The net revenue had increased
from £59,781 in 1861 to £147,789 in 1862. The
percentage of working expenses upon revenue had
been reduced from 652 per cent in 1861 to 54 per
cent in 1862, a result showing that the increased net
income had more than kept pace with the extension
of the lines. The revenue on the Victorian railways
for the year 1862 amounted to £320,308, or to 10s.
per train mile, and the expenditure to £172,520, or
5s 51,d per train mile, leaving a balance of £147,789.
The report for the year 1863 described the diffi-
culties experienced in letting the contracts for the
works to responsible contractors, the practice hav-

ing been to let the works at the lowest tender. For
the first time since those lines were opened it
was shown that the revenue from goods was Equal
to that for passengers. Though the train mileage
of the year was more than double that of 1861, yet
the accession of traffic caused by the extension of

the lines had increased the revenue per train mile
25 per cent., or from Bs. 3id. in 1861 to 10s. 41d. in
1863. The cost of working expenses per train mile
during those years having remained with little
variation at an average of Os. 41d., the per centage
of working expenses to revenue had decreased from
65! per cent. in 1861 to 501 per cent. in 1863. The
passenger revenue for 1863 on each of the lines was
double that of 1861, while oa the Murray and Bal-

larat lines the goods revenue of 1863 was
five times that of 1861. The loss upon the
Williamstown traffic, which in 1861 was £7,920,
was reduced in 1863 to £3lO, there having been
an increase in the passenger traffic of £4,780, and

n goods traffic of £2,000, and a reduction in

the expenses of £B3O, making together an improve-
ment of £,7610. The total revenue for the year
1863 earned by 39 stations on the Government lines

for traffic amounted to £463,666, of which £182,235
was earned at the Melbeurne station, £223,868 at
eight other terminal stations, and £57,563 at 30
intermediate stations. The expenses at those sta-
tions were £26,065, £30,701, and £17,695 respec-
tively. Thus the whole earnings of 30 intermediate
stations were little more than one-tenth of the whole
revenue, while they absorbed nearly one•fourth of
the station expenses. The construction expenditure
out of the loan to the 31st of December, 1863,
amounted to £7,964,000, and of this £230,000 was
estimated by the engineer in chief as expended on
plant and works of the Echuca line. The
national debt therefore on lines open i❑
1863 was £7,734,000, and the net revenue
shown for that year was £229,400, or 8
per cent. on the amount expended on construe•
tion. The Hon. J. M. Grant, commissioner of rail-
ways,observes that the expenditure on construction
out of the consolidated revenue, amounting to
£341,800, though not bearing interest, was yet a
portion of the capital cost of construction, and the
net revenue of £229,400, if taken upon a capital
of £8,075,800, would show a reduced rate of 2.24
per cent., instead of the 3 per cent. The statement
of the cost of construction of the Victorian railways
including interest to the end of 1863, showed a
total of .0,708,122—the amount of interest being
£1,402,140. The total receipts on revenue account
for the year 1863 were £464,694, or 10s. 4-67 d. per
train mile, and the expenditure £235,292, or Ss.
31,01., leaving a balance of £229,402.