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be approximately three hundred thousand dollars, reckoning
them at seventy-five thousand dollars apiece.
Time is money
(b) Another factor is economy of time.
only when it can be utilised to advantage. It is scarcely
necessary to mention that transportation by water takes longer
than by railway, but it is not sufficient that the railway
times should be reduced to the same time as those for the same
journey by water. They should, and can, be reduced below,
and the time schedules arranged in such a way as to give
passengers the opportunity to use to the best advantage the time
saved. It is proposed, therefore, that, as soon as the
re-sleepering of the line can be completed to such an extent as
to ensure absolute safety, the time for the journey between
Canton and Hong Kong must be reduced to three and a half hours.
The morning express train should leave half an hour later than
the Hong Kong and Canton steamer, at 8.30 a.m., so as to give
people longer time in the morning and make it less of a hurry
to catch the train as compared with the steamer. The trains
will arrive at their destination at twelve noon, leaving the
whole afte moon free for the transaction of business. The
afternoon expresses should leave at six and arrive at nine
thirty, which would interfere with neither business or rest
hours as contrasted with the water route schedule which breaks
into both. Passengers from Hong Kong who wish to transfer
to the country junks going back to their home villages will
find this time schedule most convenient as these junks generally
set sail a little after midnight.
The substitution of other designations, such as tourist
cars, rattan seats, wooden seats, etc., for first, second and
third class as now in use, would do away with class distinc-
tions which are odious to some sensitive people and would
6.