s 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 this amount; and as the coal trade in the course of a
short time is likely to see a 50 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 to be made in dealing with the coal traffic
must not be taken as exhausting all possible reforms; the particulars
given as to this traffic only indicate and suggest the wide area
covered by this monopoly, which hitherto has made but halting and
feeble efforts to keep pace with the requirements of the public.
Dealing as it does with the imports of the whole country, which now
amount in value to L10,000,000, the figures we have given must serve
merely to illustrate its invertebrate methods of handling traffic, as
well as its grasping greed in enforcing the rates fixed by the terms
of its concession. Its forty miles of Rand steam tram-line and
thirty-five miles of railway from the Vaal River, with some little
assistance from the Delagoa line and Customs, brought in a revenue
of about L1,250,000 in 1895. Now that the Natal line is opened the
receipt