Looking at railways in their present stage of development, they appear to be divided into three ranks, each one distinct from the other as regards its importance, capability, and prospects. In the first rank are the great trunk lines, which, at home or abroad, pass through thickly populated districts, rich in manufactures, minerals, or shipping industries, with their enormous movement of materials and people, and consequently requiring the most ample works, equipment, and appliances for security. In the second rank may be classed those railways which run through ranges of country where the population is moderate, or where the manufacturing industries are few in number and of minor importance. Although of the utmost value to the community of the long series of small towns and agricultural districts through which they pass, and forming the only great commercial highway, or connecting link, with some distant seaport, or leading business centre, the traffic returns upon such lines are too small to permit of the introduction of the more complete appliances and luxuries to be met with on the richer railways. In newly opened-out countries, and in distant colonies, such lines have often to struggle on for years against financial returns so small as to barely enable them to maintain a condition of efficiency; but where there are natural advantages in soil and climate, combined with a judicious development of all the available resources, the result will be the raising of the standard of the railway itself, and the enrichment of the entire district through which it passes. When laying out lines of this description, it may be necessary to curtail as much as possible the expenditure on works and equipment, but there should be no hesitation in obtaining liberal quantities of land for future enlargement of stations, or for constructing additional 349 stations on promising sites. The value of the land may be small in the outset, but will be enhanced enormously as the benefits of the undertaking become appreciated.