GOVERNMENT RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11489, 23 January 1903, Page 3

GOVERNMENT RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

TO THE KDITOR OF TOE PRESS. S:r. —Wo have seen vrhat the Government enn do m the way of railway construction on the Waipara-Scax-gill section of the Northern railway; but what shall we say of the rate of construction of ths Otago Central Railway? If I put down the time during which it has been in hand at something under twenty years I am within the mark, and that upwards of three-quarters of a million poun-da hits been expended out of loan, without any practical return in the nwt-ter of -nti.wttk. To arrive afc something practical, let us take ten years as an average, and £375,000, in order to arrive at an approximate loss of interest, which, at 4 per cent., would be equal to £15,000 a year, or £150,000 for ten years. Could folly c o further? Any commercial firm conducting business on such a bas:« would have gone into liquidation very soon. So long as the -taxpayer is willing *o find the money for thig impractical firm (the Government), so long will they continue the present and past method, which is, to pu l !/ it simply, that they can command the votes of the employed, and retain their office. Years ago the bridge over the Silverstream, in the Taieri Plain, had to be repaired, so long had it been constructed before any traffic had been over it. When will the public wake up and ccc they are being fooled?— Yours, etc., ARGUS.