disappears. Branch lines appeared in random order, with no regard to geography. Country and suburban tables are mixed up. Sometimes the printing went right up to the edge of the page, and sometimes even a small portion of a table was missing. Closure Bradshaw's Guide to Victoria ceased publication in August 1942. In latter years the V.R. appeared to perceive Bradshaw's as competition to their own public timetables and were therefore reluctant to hand over timetable changes to Bradshaw's, and when they did it was usually after the same information had appeared in their own publications. This is strongly believed to be the main reason for Stillwell & Co stopping production. In its final years, 1940–42, the overwhelming impression is of a poor, cheaply produced publication. One of the first items in these editions is a list of consuls accredited in Victoria. This still listed the consuls for Germany, Japan, Austria, Czechoslovakia and other countries with which Australia had either been at war for a number of years or whose country had disappeared even earlier in the lead-up to war! Indeed, the impression is that the publishers really didn't care any more. The arrangement of the timetables is even more higgledy-piggledy than before; they are in no particular order as to geography and country and suburban tables are still mixed up together. Some suburban lines have services on different days appearing in different parts of the book. Some railway timetables are placed, for no apparent reason, well away from the rest of the railway section; after the postal information. Nevertheless, a study of the railway timetables over these last three years shows that attempts were made to keep these tables up-to-date. The timetables show, in general, a decline in the standard of VR passenger service as war priorities took hold. In 1940 the tramway summary timetables still reflected the separate pre-1920 suburban Tramway Trusts! However, between 1940 and 1941, the publisher did take the trouble to redesign the tramway summary timetables. On the other hand, between 1941 and 1942, the railway country and metropolitan foldout maps disappeared. Presumably this was a cost-saving measure. The non-railway and non-postal information that survived to this period was a very odd mixture: lists of Federal and State Members of Parliament, consuls in Victoria, gardening notes (presumably recycled each year), and Victorian game hunting laws. The final Bradshaw's Guide to Victoria was published in August