The World's Railroads.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 187, 15 January 1887, Page 7

The World's Railroads.

There are about 300,000 miles of railroad in the world, of which fully one half are in America. Australia is now building at the greatest rate per cent of any of the grand divisions of the world, portly becaune the mileage of that country is very email in proportion to its extent, Sixty per cent of the railroadß of the world are in the EnglishBpe iking countries. Australia has only 364 persons par mile of railroad, the United States about 500 and Canada the same. In Great Britain and Ireland there are 1870 people per mile of road, and in Germany, France, and Belgium still more. Austria heads, the list with 2786 per mile. The British* railroads are very costly, the average exceeding $200,000 per mile- The average in the United States is less than one-third as much, the difference being due not altogether to cheaper construction, but largely to the great cost ot way in the more thickly populated country -about $133 per head Kuesia has spent only $14 per bead, and most of the European' nations less than $50.