Minister for Public Works Statement.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1704, 4 August 1875, Page 2

Minister for Public Works Statement.

[By Electric Telegraph.]

WELLINGTON.

Tuesday. , The Hon. Mr. Richardson made his Publio Works Statement this evening.

Cost of Railways. i For the first time that he was ablet to speak with any degree of certainty as tothe coat of the various railways. The Railways Act of 1872 appropriated £3,886,900. Thii was then supposed sufficient for constructing 764 miles of rail -ay, of which 278 mile* were in the North Island, and 486 miles in the Middle Island. Further appropriation* were taken in 1873, amounting to £1,680,000, and additional small appropriations in 1874 the total being £5,777,900 for the construction of 1,010 miles, of which 362 were in the North Island, and 640 in the Middle Bland. Now that the actual lengths and cost can be correctly estimated, it is found that

To Complete the Lines , f in the North Island there will be required an additional appropriation of £142,000 for some of them, while on the others there will be a saving of the appropr iatien of £5000! For the completion of the Middle Island lines additional appropriations will be required on some of them; amounting to £265,000, while on others there will be » balance of £43,319. Omitting the length from Featherston to Masterton the prewnt appropriations will be £314,081. rp . The Total Appropriation v . will be £6,091,981 for the completion of this mileage fully equipped; 100;: miles of it being of a heavier rail than previously contemplated. With three exceptions the lines will be constructed at «B average cost of £5,600 per mile: the exceptions being the Wellington to Featherston, the Port Chalmers, and Dunedin to Moeraki -these costing £10,000, £27,000, and £9000 per mile respectively. There *» open for traffic 278 miles, and 173 nmei more will be ready within three months and 116 miles by the end of the year. t The excess of cost is attributable to the rise in labour and material, the still greater rise in the price of timber, and the heavy cost ot transhipment. The orders sent home nave been very well executed on the whole. Among the additional appropriations required on authorised works is £20,000 tot the Auckland to Mercer line. «J Mr. Passmore's Management Commended. , ~„ The railways open for traffic, worked Dy the General Government, have all, as soon M completed by the contractors, been placed by the Engineer-in-Chief under the immedi»W charge of Mr Pasamore, who was selected on account of the large practical experience ne possessed in connection with the working o the railways in other countries, and particularly with the narrow guage and working or heavy gradients. This officer has hadanytnug but an enviable task ; but, thus far, tne Government have every cause to be satwneo with the way in which he has carried out the important work entrusted to him. UK Wellington and Masterton railway nw yielded, during the fourteen and a-nau months it has been opened, £1891 los. i«« over and above the working expenses. Afl Napier and Pakipaki line to'.JgfSr • during eight and a-half months, &»f"r The Auckland and Onehunga line has dunng the past year yielded £2149 55«.10d. £» line from Penrose to Mercer b/artorWy^ c opened a few weeks, and could < l^*jnff been considered to have beeni^ —sf or""» order. .' : Jkob^'

This profit, amounting to £6069 7s. 2d., shews the annual yield by these three lines of railway on the capitalised cost to be therefore a fraction over two per cent. The Auckland Railwaysfor a few months the Auckland and Onehunga line was not worked in a satisfactory manner ; the cause is explained. It is now removed', and there is no reason to doubt that traffic will henceforth be carried on with due regard to economy and public convenience. Complaints as regards rates for passengers and goods have been made, but reasons are given for considering those complaints unjust. The loudest complains have been made <bs to the scale fixed for the line from Auckland to Mercer. Whether these jj,plaints are justified hon. members are left to iudge for themselves from the following > facts :—The leDgth of the line is 43 miles, and on it there are several miles of very steep gradients. The first-class passenger fare for the whole distance is 11s, the second-class is 7s 6d, and the rates charged for goods vary according to description from 15s 8d to 12s D er ton. The coach rate for passengers between Auckland and Mercer up to the opening of the railway was 15s, and the waggon rate for goods from 60s to 655. These facts speak for themselves, and will, I think, be admitted to be a complete answer to the complaints that have been made. With a view to assist in developing the Waikato mines, ib is intended to fix a special haulage rate for coal from Mercer to Auckland at 7s. 2d. per ton. On the Canterbury and Otago Lines the profit for the provincial year ended 31st March laEt is given as £19,041 Gs lid and £22,323 9s 6d respectively. The bridge over Manawatu Gorge, opened lately, is 428 feet in leDgtb, and is one of the largest in the island, and is suitable for both road and railway traffic. The Total Length of Eoad m the North Island. completed or in progress is 1888 miles of dray and 526 of hoise roads, at a cost of £478,073 Us Bd., viz. : In Auckland, •£168364 : Hawke's Bay, £70,224; Wellington, '£164,074 ; Taranaki, £75,422. It is proposed to utilize as far as possible the services of the Constabulary to maintain these roads, and when these are not available other provisions will have to be made. The Three Large Water-races for supplying water on the goldfields have all of them proved much more costly undertakings than was anticipated. A further sum of £41,000 is required to complete them. The excess is caused mainly by the large expenditure necessary to secure the stability of the head works of the Nelson Creek and Waimea races, and the large water-race at Naseby. But Mr Richardson is ready to admit that the late Government, of which he was a member, made a grave error in yielding to the pressure which was brought to bear upon it, by entering upon the construction of these races without more reliable A Large Number of Public Buildings have been erected under the direction of the Colonial Architect, but the high prices of labour and material of all descriptions have compelled the Government to hold over all those which the requirements of the public service permitted. The "Coal Exploration." of the Buller field has been proceeded with as rapidly aa possible, and the plotting of coal outcrops has been going on contemporaneously with the survey of the country between Ngakanau and Mount Rochfort, and between Mount William raage and Cascade Break has been completed. A rough estimate of this aJea gives as much as 140,000,000 tons in seams of twenty feet and upwards, attaining at one point a thickness of 53 feet. The brown coal of the Kupakupa mine, Waikato, is being steadily worked, the seam holding 18 feet in thickness. At Raglan, the coal formation again appears. At Miranda Redoubt it occurs, varying.from 16 to 18 feet. The almost inexhaustible coalfields in Otago are now being worked to a comparatively large extent, and, with the facilities that will be immediately offered by the railways in course of construction, the development of these mines will be rapidly extended. The same remark applies to the coalfields in Canterbury and the neighbourhood of Greymouth.

The Inspection of Machinery has been brought into force, and machinery in 351 establishments inspected, and 513 steam boilers. The fees amounted to £903, the expenditure to £824.

Railway Appropriations to be Taken This Year Out of Loan

should be only those which will tend to lender the railways already authorised more complete, and that further extensions should be postponed till at all events the greater proportion of railways now in course of construction are open for traffic. They feel convinced, from the satisfactory results shewn by those already opened, that there will be no difficulty in raising whatever funds *may be necessary to further extend the main trunk lines. Ihe Auckland workshops have cost £12,000, and £300 more will be required. The Takapu tramway will be converted into a railway, for which £27.000 is required. The line frem Manawatu to Wanganui is, on completion of plans, found to be five miles longer than anticipated, requiring £30,000 to finish it. The line from Featherston to Masterton, 24 miles, being practically unprovided for, wi!l require £120,000. The Wellington terminus, including the reclamation, will cost £35,000, and the estimated

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