concession, has the monopoly of all
State loan business, and this circumstance effectually disposed of
the proposal. At three per cent. a saving of L160,000 per annum
would be made in this monopoly in interest alone. The value
represented by the custom dues on the Portuguese border we are not
in a position to estimate, but roughly these collections and the
fifteen per cent. of the profits paid to the management and
shareholders must, with other leakages, represent at least another
L100,000 per annum which should be saved the country. As the
revenue of the corporation now exceeds L2,000,000 a year, of which
only half is expended in working costs, the estimate we have taken
does not err upon the side of extravagance. By its neglect of its
duties towards the commercial and mining community enormous losses
are involved. Thus in the coal traffic the rate, which is now to be
somewhat reduced, has been 3d. per ton per mile. According to the
returns of the Chamber of Mines, the coal production of the
Transvaal for 1895 was 1,045,121 tons. This is carried an average
distance of nearly thirty miles, but taking the distance at
twenty-four miles the charges are 6s. per ton. At 1-1/2d. per ton
per mile--three times as much as the Cape railways charge--a saving
upon the coal rates of 3s. per ton would follow, equal to L150,000
per annum. Again, by the 'bagging' system an additional cost of 2s.
3d. per ton is incurred--details of this item have been recently
published in this paper--and if this monopoly were run upon
ordinary business lines, a further saving of L110,000 would be made
by carrying coal in bulk. The interest upon the amount required to
construct the necessary sidings for handling the coal, and the
tram-lines required to transport it to the mines, would be a mere
fraction upon the amount; and as the coal trade in the course of a
short time is likely to see a fifty per cent. increase, the
estimate may be allowed to stand at this figure without deduction.
No data are available to fix the amount of the tax laid upon the
people generally by the vexatious delays and losses following upon
inefficient railway administration, but the monthly meetings of the
local Chamber of Commerce throw some light upon these phases of a
monopolistic management. The savings