The Commercial Year Book

MEXICO.-In 1897, 7,380 miles. In 1892, 21,700,000 passengers carried, 8,100,000 tons goods, gross proceeds being $23,600,000.

NATAL.-402 miles open, all Government lines. Total cost of construction to end of 1896, £6,117,211; revenue for 1896, £1,186,213; expenditure, £421,989.

NETHERLANDS.-In 1896, State owned 898 miles, private companies 801 miles.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES.-In 1895, 1,293 miles; revenue, 13,477,795 guilders.

18,680,000

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR.-In 1896, 566 miles, of which 482 miles are Government line, 300 miles under construction.

NEW SOUTH WALES.-In 1897, Government railway statistics were as follows: Lines open. 2,639 miles. Total expended on construction and equipment, £37,369,205: gross earnings for 1896-97, £3,014,742; working expenses, £1,601,218. There were, at end of 1896, 84 miles of private railways, with capital expenditure £558,137.

NEW ZEALAND.-In 1897, Government lines open 2,185 miles; total expenditure amounting to £16,534,980: revenue, £1,286,158; expenditure, £789,054; tonnage of goods carried, 2,461,127, and passengers numbered 4,439,887. Private lines, 168 miles; capital cost, about £2,069,344; revenue, £112,630; expenditure, £60,179.

NICARAGUA.-91 miles, costing 2,700,000 dollars.

NORWAY.-In 1896, State railways, 1,020 miles: private, 69. Total receipts, 1895-96, State, 8,752,125 kroner; companies, 1,890,720 kroner. Total expenses, State, 6,841,076 kroner; companies, 1,058,177 kroner. Goods carried, State, 1,299,144 tons; companies, 588,546 tons. Passengers, State, 6,321,478; companies, 671,820.

OLDENBURG.-In 1897, 920 miles, all State.

ORANGE FREE STATE.-330 miles.

PARAGUAY.-156 miles. In 1894, gross receipts, 754,680 paper pesos.

PERAK.-81 miles open and 14 under construction.

PERSIA.-6 miles.

PERU.-In 1895, 924 miles, 800 of which belonged to the State.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.-70 miles.

PORTO RICO.-137 miles, and 170 under construction.

PORTUGAL.-In 1896, 1,839 miles, of which 830 belonged to the State. All roads receive subventions from the State. Passengers carried, 7,571,988; goods carried, 1,810,786 tons; total receipts, 6,214,891 milreis; to expense, 2,621,527 milreis.

PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA.-Delagoa Bay Railroad, 57 miles in the colony, and is continued 200 miles to Pretoria.

PRUSSIA. In 1897, 18,500 miles, of which 17,470 miles are owned or administered by the State and 1,030 miles by private companies. There are besides 105 miles narrow-gauge State railroad and 166 miles private.

QUEENSLAND.-In 1896, 2,430 miles, all under the Government. Total cost of construction, £17,248,678. Revenue in 1896, £1,094,558, and expenditure £669,696.

ROUMANIA.-In 1897, 1,831 miles, all State.

RUSSIA.-On September 1, 1897, open for traffic, 26,211 miles. Under the Ministry of Ways and Communication, 23,783 miles (15,711 worked by State, and 8,072 by private companies); under the Ministry of War (Transcaspian), 940 miles; in Finland, 1,218 miles. In building, 7,757 miles; by the State, 1,213 miles; by Siberian Railway administration, 2,951; by private companies, 8,507; in Finland, 86 miles.

The following are the principal items of operating the railroads of Russia, exclusive of the Transcaspian railroads and those of Finland:

The relation of the railroads to the State is shown by the following statement of the revenue and expenditure of the State Treasury in connection with both State and private railroads, in paper roubles:

Balance Improvement Expenses Deducted.

-16,111,096

-11,887,014

+25,283,461

The building capital of the whole net belonging to the State was reckoned at 1,346,677,788 roubles in gold and 724,906,895 in paper (=2,744,923,577 paper roubles).

Gross receipts of State railways for 1896, 273,969,819 roubles; expenditure, 157,366,602 roubles. Building capital of private companies reckoned at 485,012,071 roubles in gold and 477,627,778 paper roubles (1,055,145,885 paper roubles).

Gross receipts in 1896, 140,224,306 roubles: expenditures, 81,851,231 roubles.
Total debt of private companies to the State in 1897, 819,170,204 roubles.

*Exclusive of transfers from one line to another.

The Trans-Siberian Railway.-The chief road in process of construction is the Trans-Siberian, 4,950 miles in length, which is expected to be completed in 1905, at an estimated cost of 150,000,000 roubles. On December 11, 1895, the first section, from Tchelyabinsk to Omsk, 493 miles, was ready, with the exception of the iron bridge across the Irtysh; the second section, Omsk to the Ob river, 388 miles, was ready in October, 1896, and building was begun on the next three sections; Ob to Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei, 476 miles (rails already laid on December 17, 1895, and traffic opened from the Ob to Bolotnaya, 70 miles); Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk, 672 miles, and Station Mysovaya, on Lake Baikal, to Syretensk, at the head of navigation on the Amur, 701 miles. At the Pacific end of the railway, the section from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk, 475 miles, was completed in 1897. The branch, Tchelyabinsk to Ekaterinburg, 150 miles, which will connect the main trunk with the Middle Urals line, Perm-Ekaterinburg-Tyumen, was opened in 1896. A new great railway, from Perm to Vyatka and thence to Kotlas, on the Northern Dvina, at its junction with the Vychezda, in order to make Arkhangelsk the chief port of West Siberia, has been projected. It will have a length of 619 miles, and its cost is estimated at 35,000,000 roubles. A sum of 129,112,196 roubles has been subscribed for new railways in the budget estimate of 1897, out of which 64,414,762 for the Siberian Railway and works connected with it, and 10,656,047 for local feeding branches.

The progress of the Siberian Railway, as reported in December, 1897, is shown as follows: The construction of the first section of the Central Siberian line (including the branch to the town of Tomsk) is completed, and it is now possible to begin regular traffic. The work on the second section of the Central Siberian line, on the Irkutsk-Baikal, on the North Ouroussissky, and PermKotlas sections is shown as follows: 2,105.76 acres of forest have been cut down and trunks uprooted, 29,588,925 cubic yards of earthwork have been laid, 1,224,782 square yards of railway embankment have been made, and 156,391 cubic yards of masonry have been completed. The laying of stone and castiron piping has been effected on the whole length of the Central Siberian Railway, and about 24,500 feet of piping have been laid on the remaining sections. The construction of large and small bridges, with wooden and metal arches, is complete to the four hundred and seventeenth mile of the second section of the Central Siberian line, as also on the North Ouroussissky Railway; and besides this, 241 bridges have been constructed on the section beyond the Baikal mountain range; 678.24 miles of the main and station lines have been laid, of which 585.53 miles have been ballasted; 1,002 line and station buildings have been erected on these railways. The water supply is opened and 47 stations are being partially supplied. Of sleepers, 1,163,600 are prepared, and 81,163 tons of rails and fastenings. There have been completed 32 locomotives and 756 freight cars and platforms. The sections of the North Ouroussissky, still in the course of construction, will soon be finished.

On the 1st of September of the past year, the first through train from Vladivostok arrived at Khabarovsk. For the construction of a railway ferry across the Baikal Lake, parts of the frame and machinery of a ferry ice-cutter and the machinery for a floating dock have been conveyed to the town of Krasnoyarsk and to the village of Listvinnichnoia, where storehouses and workshops are erected. The general result of the work from 1895 to 1897 is shown as follows: Earthwork, 95,741,402 cubic yards; rails laid, 1,696.61 miles; ballasted, 2,022.81 miles.

The cost of the Siberian Railway up to 1898 has been about $194,000,000.

SALVADOR.-72 miles.

SANTO DOMINGO.-116 miles open.

SAXE-ALTENBURG.-107 miles.

SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA-110 miles.

SAXE-MEININGEN.-183 miles.

SAXE-WEIMAR.-In 1895, 193 miles.

SAXONY.-In 1896, 1,760 miles State lines, 170 miles being in neighboring territories. In addition there are 25 miles of private companies, but worked by the State.

SCHAUMBURG-LIPPE.-15 miles State lines.

SCHWARZBURG-RUDOLSTADT.--In 1896, 42 miles.

SCHWARZBURG-SONDERSHAUSEN.-49 miles.

SCOTLAND.-See United Kingdom.

SELANGOR.-71 miles.

SENEGAL.-In 1892, 246 miles.

SERVIA. In 1896, 230 miles. Cost of construction to 1894, 98,955,980 dinars.

SIAM. - In 1893, 58 miles open, 165 miles under construction, 136 miles under survey, etc.
SOUTH AFRICA REPUBLIC.-In 1897, 716 miles open, 270 under construction, 252 projected.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA. — In 1898, 1,868 miles Government lines, paying 5 per cent. profit thereto. SPAIN. In 1896, 7,627 miles private lines, but nearly all have obtained guarantees or subventions from the Government. In 1894, there were carried 34,046,201 passengers. The traffic receipts amounted to 199,764,876 pesetas, and working expenses, 92,190,390 pesetas.

SUDAN (French).-94 miles.

SUNGEI UJONG. - 23 miles open, and 14 miles under construction.

SWEDEN.-In 1896, 6,145 miles, of which 2,283 belonged to the State. Receipts (1895), 60.443,102 kroner; expenses, 35,992,189 kroner. Total cost of construction for State lines to end of 1895, 296,710,078 kroner; private lines, 323,404,130 kroner. State lines passengers in 1895 numbered 5,589,625; private lines, 12,720,281; weight of goods on State lines, 3,991,040 tons; private lines, 10,527,080 tons.

SWITZERLAND.-In 1897, 2,351 miles. Cost of construction, rolling stock, etc., to end of 1895, was 1,134,493,147 francs. Receipts in 1895, 111,544,765 francs; expenses, 66,193,333 francs. In 1896, tons of goods carried, 11,896,893, and 43,015,131 passengers. The State is to acquire all the railroads.

TASMANIA.-In 1896, 475 miles open.

TONGKING.-64 miles.

TRINIDAD.-54% miles open, 30 miles soon to be opened.

TUNIS.-883 miles, of which 866 belong to the State.

TURKEY.-In 1897, 2,542 miles open. Amount of guarantee paid by the State to companies was

£T650,000.

UNITED KINGDOM.-In 1897, 21,277 miles, of which 14,708 belonged to England and Wales, 3,391 to Scotland, and 3,178 to Ireland.

Of the total capital at end of 1896, the English railroads had £842,826,674, Scottish £146,932,989, and

Irish £39,715,872. Receipts, England and Wales, £76,584,956; Scotland, £10,055,662; Ireland, £3,478,504. Working expenditure, or all railroads, £50,192,424.

URUGUAY.-In 1896, 1,026 miles open, and 190 miles under construction. VENEZUELA.-In 1895, 406 miles open, 1,000 miles under consideration. VICTORIA.-In 1896, 3,122 miles, all belonging to the State. Total cost of lines to 1895, £38,102,855Gross receipts in 1896, £2,401,392; expenditure, £1,546,475; number of passengers carried in 1896, 40,993,798, and weight of goods and live stock, 1,163,722 tons; train mileage, 8,989,391 miles.

WALDECK.-6 miles.

WALES.-See United Kingdom.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.-There were 1,361 miles open in 1897, including 391 miles of private lines, 276 miles under construction, and 230 under survey. WÜRTTEMBERG.-In 1896, 993 miles, of which 956 belonged to the State, 22 miles to private persons, and 15 miles to neighboring States.

Import Duties in Foreign Countries.

TOTAL AMOUNT OF IMPORT DUTIES COLLECTED IN THE RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES.