988 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
commissioners shall be fixed by Parliament and shall not be 
reduced during their terms of office. 
The railways, ports, and harbours shall be administered 
on business principles,! but due regard shall be paid to the 
agricultural and industrial development of the Union and 
promotion by means of cheap transport of the settlement 
of an agricultural and industrial population in the inland 
portions of all the provinces of the Union. So far as may 
be the total earnings shall only be sufficient to meet the 
necessary outlays for working, maintenance, betterment, 
depreciation, and the payment of interest due on the capital, 
not being capital contributed out of railway or harbour 
revenue and not including any sums payable out of the 
Consolidated Revenue Fund, in accordance with the pro- 
visions of ss. 130 and 131 of the Act, which deal with the 
case of loss on lines not approved by the Board and on 
the provision of unremunerative facilities. The amount of 
interest due on such capital invested shall be paid from the 
Railway and Harbour Fund into the Consolidated Revenue 
Fund. Effect is to be given to this section as soon as prac- 
ticable (and not later than four years) after the establishment 
of the Union. In that period, if the general revenues are 
insufficient and there is an excess on railway and harbour 
earnings, Parliament may appropriate the excess for general 
purposes. 
The Board may establish a fund out of railway and harbour 
revenue to be used for maintaining uniformity of rates 
despite fluctuations of trade. The Board shall become 
possessed of all balances to the credit of any Railway or 
Harbour Fund in the Colonies existing at the Union.2 
Every proposal for railway, port, or harbour construction 
must be considered by the Board before submission to Parlia- 
! This rule is intended to guard against the bringing of political pressure 
bo bear on the commissioners for the construction and working of non- 
economic railways and in questions affecting discipline, both matters 
which have caused great trouble in the Australian states. Cf. Parl. Pap., 
Cd. 3564, pp. 101 seq. 
* Ct. The Government of South Africa, ii. 138-47.