The Canadian Pacific Railway, with 7588 miles open, makes a net profit of £2,620,000 on a capital of £53,000,000 as against South Africa, with 5000 miles open, and net profits of over £5,000,000 on a similar capital. The Canadian Pacific Railway makes a net profit of £371 per mile against a net profit of Natal railways of £803 per mile, and an approximate net profit of £1800 per mile of the Central South African railways (Transvaal and Orange River Colony railways). New Zealand railway returns for 1902 show net earning of £280 per mile. The through rate for ordinary goods from Durban to Johannesburg is just over 3-3/4d. per ton per mile. The rate for ordinary goods on the Central South African railways (Transvaal railways) for fifteen miles is 9d. per ton per mile; for fifty miles, 6-2/3d. per ton per mile; for longer distances, approximately 6d. per ton per mile. The average rate for goods on the Canadian Pacific Railway is only one-third of a penny per ton per mile. Were this rate charged on a ton of goods brought from Durban--the nearest colonial port--to Johannesburg, the cost would be only 13s. 6d. as against £7, 13s. 4d., the present cost; that is, the South African through rate is ten times as much as the average rate in Canada; and the Transvaal rate for ordinary local traffic of 6d. to 9d. per ton per mile is twenty times higher than the average Canadian rate. The Canadian Pacific Railway is selected for comparison, because it is a railway built to develop new and sparsely-populated territory, its special work being essentially the same as that required of the railways of South Africa. The Canadian Pacific Railway has doubled its earnings since 1895. If its policy were copied in South Africa, where the whole industrial life of the country depends on railways, enormous developments could be looked for. In South Africa it is fully realised that, until the burden of excessive railway rates is got rid of, the costs of living must prohibit any great growth of population, and without growth of population the development of the natural resources of the country can only make the slowest of progress. The people are quite willing to provide the Government with revenue, but they wish to provide it by different methods than those which obtained in the past.