to
their cost, working expenses and earnings. He shows that these undertakings have not, in the majority of cases, proved largely remunerative, owing mainly to their heavy first cost and high rate of working expenses. As regards the first head of charge, it is probable that the
cost of over
£10,000 per mile of single line would be susceptible of considerable reduction in the case of Hong Kong, where much of the land required for depôts and other purposes might possibly be obtained at rates far lower than the exceptional prices paid
in
London and other populous English towns. But when all such allowances have been made, the enormous weight of
permanent
way,
the
and the
costly
manner in which it must be laid, must always render the first expense of constructing tramways a considerable burden on undertakings.
2. At the same time it will
be useful to bear in mind that Mr. Waring's deductions on the financial aspects of the question with which he has to deal are
based on averages, and can only
be taken to
be generally applicable, not necessarily exact in every case.
Changes made: 1. Corrected "owing mainly their heavy first cost" to "owing mainly to their heavy first cost". 2. Corrected "pricespaid" to "prices paid". 3. Corrected "populous. English Tours" to "populous English towns". 4. Corrected "wright" to "weight". 5. Corrected "Evary" to "way". 6. Corrected "OL" to removed as it seems to be an OCR error with no meaning. 7. Corrected "surg" to "taken to". 8. Rejoined broken sentences and reformatted paragraphs for clarity. 9. Removed extra spaces and corrected spacing issues. 10. Changed "MW." to "Mr." to correct the title.