The construction of railways in Canada has, in recent years, proceeded at a rapid pace.  We found that the mileage had doubled since the beginning of the present century, due, to a large extent, to the construction of two new Trans-Continental lines.  The grain-growing districts of the prairie provinces, south of latitude 54 degrees, are now covered with a network of railways, and British Columbia has three through routes to Eastern Canada.

The enterprise of the principal Canadian railway companies is remarkable.  They own and operate not only railways, but also hotels, ferry services, grain elevators, lake and coast steamers, as well as Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific steamers.  One company also has irrigation works, and ready-made farms for settlers in the prairie provinces.  But Canada lies so near to us, and in the British Press its railways receive such constant attention, that I need not descant further upon them.

In South Africa, with the exception of about 500 miles mainly in the Cape Province, the railways are all Government owned, and are worked as one unified system.  The Act of Union (1909) prescribed that the railways and the harbours (which are also Government owned and worked) were to be administered on business principles, and that the total earnings should not exceed the necessary expenditure for working and for interest on capital.  Whenever they did, reductions in the rates, or the provision of greater facilities, were to restore the balance.  This provision also had the effect of preventing the imposition of taxation upon the community by means of railway rates.  The Act contained another practical clause, designed to block the construction of lines from political considerations.  Any line constructed contrary to the advice of the Railway Board, if it resulted in loss, the loss was to be a charge, not upon the general railway revenue, but upon the Consolidated Fund—­a useful “brake,” which I have no doubt has often pulled up hasty and impetuous politicians.

South African railways enjoy one great advantage—­cheap coal for their engines.  In 1913 the average cost at the pit’s mouth was 4s. 11.5d. per ton.

The railways of Newfoundland have had a chequered history.  Now they are Government property, worked by a private company under a 50 years’ lease, which dates from 1901, and under that lease no rent is paid.  As the capital expenditure (about 3,000,000 pounds) averages less than 4,000 pounds per mile, it may be conceived that the railway system of Newfoundland is not of an extravagant character, and in my humble opinion, the country deserves something much better.  In our fourth report (on Newfoundland) we stated:  “It must also be said that the state of the permanent way does not conduce to speedy or comfortable travelling.”

The gauges of the Dominions’ railways are very varied.  In Australia there are three—­5ft. 3in., 4ft. 8.5in. and 3ft. 6in., with some 300 miles or so of less than 3ft. 6in.  The Commonwealth has for some time been considering the conversion of the lines into one standard gauge, the British gauge of 4ft. 8.5in. being favoured.  The cost of this conversion naturally increases the longer action is deferred, and in any case would be very great.  It was officially estimated at the time of our visit at 37,000,000 pounds.