The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1888. PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1923, 20 August 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1888. PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT.

The annual statement by the Minister for Public Works has at last been delivered, and the somewhat unusual course of holding a special Saturday forenoon sitting of the House to hear it read has been followed. There is no great question of policy contained m the Statement. It is merely a compilation of facts and figures showing what has been done during the past year. Only two railways are proposed to be gone on with, and neither of these are of interest to Canterbury. Votes amounting to £53,000 are to be asked for to push on the work of completing bridges on the Woodville-Palmerston and the Otago Central railway. We are told that there are 1751 miles of completed railways m the colony, with 164 hi course of construction. The expenditure on opened lines is decreasing, and, m view of the whole ot the Public Works Department being abolished, this is so far satisfactory. Mr Mitchelson, m his remarks on the working railways, goes out of his way to praise tbe economy of the Department, which anyone can see is intended as a testimonial to Mr Maxwell. He is brought to say something flattering because the working expenses per mile are the lowest they have ever been. This may be evidence of economy, but it is no evidence that the railways are being used for the public benefit. Mr Mitchelson speaks of the average rate of carriage on New Zealand lines being lower than any m the Australian colonies, and gives as a reason that our ports being so close together the railways can carry cheaper. This to our thinking is not just the case. It is notorious that carriage by s.ea is cheaper than by land, and the Department if it wishes to carry at all can only get traffic by reducing its rates as low as possible. Even now they are too high to take the trade from coastal steamers m the South Island. Mr Mitcheleon thinks that if they are not getting so high a rate of interest on their railways by adhering to a low freight, there is at least the consolation that production and local industries are being fostered. Whoever heard of the General Manager of the Eailways thinking of anything except red tape, and how he could run the trains irrespective of convenience or traffic so long as the working expenses per mile were shown to be smaller than m former years. We are pleased to see that a sum is to be asked for to meet tbe unemployed difficulty, should it crop up again next year, and also that the Government are alive to the necessity of putting on the estimates votes for village settlements and labor settlements. The fostering of these schemes initiated by Mr Ballanco and Major Steward will, we are sure m a few years, dispense entirely with all necessity for unemployed votes, and if land is set aside m such localities as will induce people to build upon it, it may be considered certain that the settlements will flourish . The subject of the appointment of a chief Commissioner of railways is alluded to, and the Government hope to hear shortly whether the Agent-General has one to recommend. Delays are dangerous, and through tbe Atkinson Government not acting with promptitude when Parliament declared the necessity for appointing a Board to manage the railways a good man was lost to New Zealand being snapped up by a sister colony. Very little encouragement, we are sorry to say, is likely to be given to immigrants who are practical farmers with a comfortable capital. Tbe encouragement which the Government has met with by offering facilities to immigrants of this class has surely been good enough to warrant the necessity of continuing these facilities. It is men with capital and practical knowledge of agriculture and industries that we can most moßt warmly welcome ; men who on their landing hero have a fixed idea of settling down, and who can straightaway give employment to others while establishing themselves m the country This is the sort of immigration to bo fostered. The concluding remarks of the Minister on railways m general are of no particular value. The Statement was not looked forward to with any degree of interest, and its deliverance will not raise much controversy.