A SOUTH AMERICAN EXAMPLE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11482, 15 January 1903, Page 4

A SOUTH AMERICAN EXAMPLE.

Mr Hall-Jones, it will be remembered, took great credit for having constructed fifteen miles of the Cheviot railway over perfectly level country, in about 2£ years, and at a oast, if we (recollect rightly, of about £5000 per mik. In contrast with this we showed what had been done by the Canadian Pacific Company and other private undertakings, which would construct almost as many miles of railway in a week as the New Zealand Government would in a year. Bat, it may be said, theee are all large and wealthy concerns, to whom money is no object, and who can therefore do what they like. We may, therefore, take another example, which we gather from the report of the proceedings at the last general meeting of the Entre Rioe (River Plate) Railway Company, Limited. This company is by no means in affluent circumstance*. The railway was taken over by the bondholders some yean ago, in what the chairman described sea " dereHct aod broken down" condition, from the provincial authorities, a* practically the only asset that was available. By means of

very careful management the directors are able to pay a dividend of 2 per cent, to the bondholders, and no mom Not keg ago they came to the conclusion that they ought to construct a link line of 72 mike, coupling up their station of Villagua with the port and town of Concordia. It was constructed within • year, and at a cost of £2000 a mile. What has Mr Hall-Jonee to say to this? Surely the Government of New Zealand ought to be ashamed of being thus put to the blush by a comparatively weak South American Railway Company The difference between the two is that in the South American case the railway was constructed by business men for business reasons, and therefore it was completed a« soon as possible, so that the company might quickly get the benefit of the traffic returns. The political system in New Zealand is to drag the work out as long as possible, the object being not to get it finished, but to keep it on hand 1 Bβ it were, so as to buy votes for the Government.