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. New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Newfoundland are each the happy possessor of one gauge only. In Canada it is the British gauge of 4ft. 8.5in., and in New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland, 3ft. 6in.