Boad-Rail Transport
and chaff lodged months ago at the railway sidings, and
their inability to realise on last year's crop is a serious
embarassment in retarding the development of their
holdings. The great majority of settlers are still in the
struggling period, dependent upon the proceeds of one
year's work to carry them through the ensuing season, and,
unavoidably, their disabilities react on the metropolitan
firms who act as their agents and financial backers. The
position reflects discredit upon State enterprise. There
has been a signal neglect to make due provision for
requirements that were inevitable."^18
The root cause of all these difficulties was attributed
by the Acworth Committee to inadequate finance. This
Committee found fault with the then-prevalent system
whereunder allotments were made to the railways. Under
such a system, the Finance Minister would set apart a
certain sum for railway purposes, but if he found need for
further moneys, the only course open to him was to reduce
the expenditure on renewals and extensions allocated to
the railways. Thus, the railways were starved of their
requirements. This malady was an integral feature of
that system so that the Mackay Committee of 1907
recommended that a fixed sum of £ 12,500,000 should be
set apart for capital expenditure on the railways. The
evils of such a policy became evident when the railway
officials rushed through schemes of extension with breath-
less haste and inefficient and insufficient men and materials
to utilise the money that came their way, for any unspent
money during the year lapsed to the Government, The
** guillotine of lapse ^M was as portentous as the sword of
DaiRoeles. Thus, the railways were perpetually kept in a
half-starved condition, bereft of all power of expansion,
Colonel Cameron of the Assam Bengal Railway remarked
"dependence <m tbe general financial position of
W«rfem JftfO, Marcb $> 1912.   Quoted from Pratt