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PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE. It must be remembered that the returns of 1895–96 suffered considerably from the general depression which still overshadowed all the eastern Colonies; from the drought which caused a loss of 13,000,000 sheep and lambs; from the coal-strike in Newcastle; and from floods at Bourke, which swept away several miles of line.

The high capital cost—14,000l. per mile—of the New South Wales railways is in great measure due to the difficult country through which the lines have been constructed. The worst grades are unfortunately on the trunk lines. Considerable sums of money have been spent in recent years in reducing the steepest gradients, and in lengthening the radius of the sharper curves—a policy which has already led to great economy in working, and is being vigorously continued. The worst difficulties of railway construction in New South Wales have already been surmounted. Future extensions of the system must be mainly over the great western plains, where railway construction presents few difficulties, if we except the bridging of the Darling and its tributaries, which are liable to floods. Lightly built extensions of existing lines are projected at a cost of 2000l. a mile; but even were these lines substantially 224