NON-POLITICAL RAILWAYS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1643, 23 August 1887, Page 3

NON-POLITICAL RAILWAYS

,4 I begin to fancy, -says a Victorian wiifrr, that we m this co'ony are the spoiled children of misfortune Just tbink of a Treasurer excepting to bppjn the year with a cash balance of £329.197, and finding it to be half a million. .Not only bo, bu* after making provision for a expenditure of £7,445,440 duriDg the currency of the present fiaauoial year, he anticipates carrying over a surplus of not less than £400,000 to the nfxt. Bbt the most gratifying item m the financial statement was that the m oome from our railways Is bo steadily on Ihe increase, that after paying all working expenses, and defray the interest on the loans contracted lor their construction, there will, be, it is estimated, a surplus of £100,000 on the 30th June next, to be paid into the general revenue No more BtrikiDg evidence could be uftorded of the wisdom and souop policy of taking the ma&agoment of the department out of the hands of the politicans and p'aciug it under the oontrol of an independent board. So long 88 it Wd3 under the oontrol 'A the former it was a place of refuge for needy and Beedy pis counters, who lounged about the railway pl&tfcrms and ate the bread of idlflnese, Now we have changed all that, and the result is the fi,ures I have just quoted. — Correspondent Melbourne paper,