The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-05-29

|
!, ing for them by a series Of install
ments which are to run about forty
: years. The selling price has been
fixed at the estimated value OF
the roads. to which the interest
for forty years has been added.
| This amount has been divided up
! into annual payments for which notes
have been given. The notes have
a market value. and are bought and
sold on the exchange. Mr.. Robertson
tells me that the railways ought to
| pay at least per cent. per annum.
During certain years they have paid al
most 6, and their receipts are steadily
increasing
The railways are managed BY a rail-
way board subordinate 10 the govern
uent Of India, and represented in the
viceroy's Cabinet by the secretary of
| commerce and industry. This board
/ controls all railway matters. 1t lays
out new lines and builds them. 1t set
i ties disputes as to transportation, and
1 regulates the prices and the traffic. 1t
4 is now considering the standardizins
| of the gauges of the different roads.
When the first tracks We're constructed
the gauge was the broadest of the
world. 1t was five and one-half feet
;, for the principal lines, with narrower
gauges for secondary lines. 1t Is now
, found that 1t is difficult and expensive
! to move the traffic over the roads OF
a different gauges, and a. standard gauge
I Will be adopted.
Indins Big Railway System
!, The British have q right to be tprou
;. Of their Indian railways. The mileag
= OF the Indian lines now exceeds that Q
any country in Asia, and is surpasse
BY only four other countries of I'll
whole world. 1t amounts to more tina
10000 miles and it has doubled With
a the. past twenty years. India has com
paratively far more railways than Rus
STA. 1t has one mile to every siNt
square miles of country and to ever
, 10000 people Russia has only on
y mile to every 230 square miles and t
every 3,400 people
S The railways here are we'll built an
e economically managed. Two-thirds O
c the lines have been constructed by tn
u government and Of the balance NOR
y than $500 miles We're built by the ma
" tive States. ! do not know the eXac
cost of construction per mile, but al
a together the roads have cost more tina
a $1,000 100000, which is low in conpari
. son with those of the United States.
= Most OF the Indian railways ar
paying dividends. Their gross earn
q ings are fast approximatng 100000
. 900 year, and the traffic is steadil
y Increasing, both as to passengers an
= freight,
= The passengers annually carried no'
~ number more than 300,O0O,000 and I'll
freight amounts to something lik
{ 620o0,00o tons, These figures al
II small in comparison with those OF OF
railways, bur it must be remembers
es that we have more than seven time
the mileage of India and that our car
n italization is more than thirteen tims
re the cost OF the Indian roads. OF
re railway mileage approximates 10000
our capital is over 6,o00,0000Q0 ar
. our net railroad earnings are moi
than Ss0e,t00,000 per annum,
At the Stations,
:. But come with me and take a. raj
: road trip across India. We shall sta
at Calcutta and go by the East India
route We drive in a gharry, a close
=, box upon wheels. hauled by lea
- horses and driven by Hindoo in tn
10 ban and gown. to the station.
~ The express goes at night and 1t
: p. NJ. when we reach there. The d