— 33 — £E:1.043 mm. per ton. This, unfortunately, is a prohibitive figure, and the discrepancy between a railway rate of 2 mm. and a river rate of 3 mm. reqjiirea explanation.

River Transport.—That the cost of transport by water is cheaper than transport by rail is uncontradicted, and transport by navigable river is cheaper than by canal. In the Sudan the employment of wood fuel by river steamers and imported coal by the railways should enhance this economy. The average cost per ton mile of moving freight by rail, including long and short hauls, in the United States, has been ascertained to be about 6 mills of a dollar, or 1.2 mm., with which local export rates, in view of all existing circumstances, compare not unfavourably. On the other hand, some 25 million tons of freight are annually carried on the Mississippi and its tributaries at a cost per ton mile of 2.3 mills or 0.4 milliemes, being less than a seventh of our White Nile charges.* In this connection a quota,tion from the last annual report of the Steamers Department is of interest :— The wood consumed was nearly 100,000 metres, which is estimated to be about 600,000 kantars. Allowing one piastre per kantar as a fair price for cutting and stacking, nearly £E.20,000 is left for the expenses of the Agriculture and Forests Department in connection with the fuel supply and royalty to the Government.

Should the general financial situation ultimately warrant the diversion of this unearned royalty to a reduction of river freights and the modernising of river transport, an invaluable stimulus to southern agriculture would be afforded, and a balanced development of the country, as a whole, ensured.

It might be confidently expected that an adequate return to such investment would take the form of trafiic receipts enhanced at all points by a steady export in dura, and a corresponding increase in the taxable capacity of producing areas.

Handling Charges.—The ofiicial prices of duraf in January of the current year at Wad Medani and Port Sudan were fE.2.100 and £E.6.500 per 1,000 kilos, respectively, while the net cost of railage between the two points was £E. 1.055.

The discrepancy of £E.3.155 can be attributed variously to the lack of commercial intelligence and market organisation, the absence of a capital fund for the financing of grain movements, the lack of competition reflected by excessive commissions and charges, and finally to the costs of handling grain in sacks. In actual practice, however, grain could be shipped from Khartoum to British ports prior to the war, at a total cost of £E.3.000f, of which 915 milliemes were * Proceedings of the Conference of Governors, U.S.A., 1909.

t Monthly Report of the Central Economic Board._ + Report of the Central Economic Board, September, 1914.