The Paris correspondent of the Times publishes an account- of
the railway system which, to all interested in French finance, should be of the highest interest. It appears that 11.. de Freycinet, in his anxiety to press on public works, induced the Government in 1883 to guarantee to the great railways their average dividend on condition that they would construct an immense network of small railways, their outlay on which was also guaranteed. The work has been executed, more or less thoroughly, and has produced benefit to France, but the Treasury and the taxpayer are suffering heavily.. There is an annual deficit on the general railway account,. which this year has risen to £4,640,000, and next year will,. according to the Finance Minister, be £5,400,000, while after that, it will be annually 26,400,000 or more. In addition to- this great sum, all paid by the taxpayer, there are subventions. to be paid to the railways on a system not explained, which in 1895 will amount to 210,560,000, and thereafter to much higher figures, the earnings of the railways under a Protec- tionist system not increasing. It is, of course, impossible for- any Treasury to go on bearing demands of this kind, but the only honest way out, the purchase of the entire railway system by the State, involves a most dangerous and difficult. operation. The nominal increase to the Debt will be enormous, and the Government is afraid, not only of a new pressure for- railway posts, but of Parliamentary efforts to reduce the rates. for carrying goods. The railways are, in fact, a source of per- plexity to French Ministers of Finance, the extent of which has. rarely been so clearly set forth.
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