Ox the principle apparently of exporimentum tu vili corpora, the Chinese are busily engaged taking to pieces the locomotives on the Woosung Railway, preparatory to their shipment to Formosa, It is difficult to divine on what score of utility such an idea could have taken possession of the official mind. 'Where it is, the Railway has been a snocessfal experiment, beginning nowhere in particular—for no reasonable man' would look upon the station by the Soochow Creek as adapted for a portaanont terminns—and ending in a swamp at the wrong side of the Woo-ung Oreck, it yet so fitted in to a want, that the traffic only required a fow months' farther development to return a fair interest on its cost. As it was, with all the drawbacks and restrictions placed upon it, it more than earned working expenses, and it may be said that the line was in better working condition on the day it was handed over, than the first day it commenced ranning. More than this was never anticipated by the most sanguine pro-lector, and the question as to the economic results of Railways in China may now be considered as settled beyond dispute. In Formosa, and tinder the auspices under which it is being sent there, we must confess to considerable misgivings as to the result. Té can never be hoped that a large passenger trafic can be developed in that remote dependency of the Empire yet, for other than passenger traffic the present plant of the lino is ill adapted and to make it suitable for mineral traffic will require nearly as much outlay as to import fresh materials from England. We are even in doubt as to the particular part of Formosa where the line is proposed to be Inid down. As considerable expenditure has already been incurred in opening a coal mine, it is probable that Kelang will be its destination, and that the Viceroy hopes to aitilise the Woosung Railway in conveying coal to the harbour. Let us seo what will be the economical result. At present, the line has cost some two necessary to carry stations have been erected, bridges built, the line ballasted and the sleepers laid down. All this expenditure will be utterly wasted, and the necessary cost in Formosa will be exactly the same, whether the line at Shanghai is broken up or whether a new line imported fresh is to be Inid down. Again, the main expenditure for rolling stock at Shanghai has been in passenger traffic, That will be nearly useless in Formosa—a place scantily peopled and which depends entirely on the produce of its soil, mineral or vegetable. The few tracks at present in Shanghai will go very little way towards providing for the mineral trafic which may be looked for in the other locality, and moreover are not of the kind required. After two years in the Shanghai soil, again, the sleepers will be of little avail when taken up and Jaid down again in the south; and, moreover, from what we know of the climate of the island and its insect inhabitants, will have but @ poor chanco of surviving another year. The rails and locomotives are, then, all that remain, OF the rails, we may safely say that they are as ill adapted to heavy mineral traffic as the other plant of the railway. Ex. perience in Shanghai has proved that, even with the light passenger traffic to which they were subjected, the expenses of maintenance were far higher than would have been.the case with heavier rails. The came Yoay be said of the Iccomotives. The powers of the first to employed were-severely tasked by the occasional heavy trains which, on holidays, had to be hauled to Woosung and back; yet the line here was to all intents and purposes perfectly level from end, to end. It is not likely that they will succeed with the rougher and heavier traffic which, to make the lino pay its own expenses, must be looked for in the mineral districts of Formosa, On the whole, then, there remains one engine, the Viceroy, oven moderately adapted for the probable work to be required in Formosa; and for this, the Viceroy will have let his Government in to the amount of the entire cost of a railway between Shanghai and Woosung. How the Viceroy can, on economic grounds, explain this extravagance to his Government, we are at loss to discover, especially as, in its present condition, the line, so far from being a burden to the provincial exchequer, is already paying a profit over all working expenses, and under reasonable management might ina few months be made to pay a sufficient interest on its cost as a mercantile investment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.