FAITH OR VIRTUE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 667, 18 November 1909, Page 7

FAITH OR VIRTUE.

what justifies railway construc- ■;.;' .;.■• tion?, ; .;.■ ''.'■■•■ : strange ministerial statement./^ -Roplj-ing: to a deputation which waited upon mm yesterday: with' reference ,to the' urgency of. the Clutha Valley line, the Prime Minister, (Sir/.'Joseph 'Ward), made several 'important' statements. It was explained to him that the cost of tho line would be vory moderate, and thai, those', interested would be willing to guarantee that it would pay 3 per bent. ■ Sir.' Joseph, in Eis reply, said he, would like to give the doputation a favourable answer, but it was notipossible. The Government could not. undertake a.great many, of these works at the present timo for obvious reasons. No fewer than forty-six applications for railways had recently been before Cabinet, and >if authorised this would mean an expenditure of .£4,000,000-a year for railway'works alone. He had all along resisted such inroads, oven to the extent of anything that : would- involve an expenditure beyond the present, expenditure, which was a ,very heavy one. There were: three. different estimates for this- line, viz.: ..£IOO,OOO, ',£142,000, and" .£180,000,' and he did not want to hold oiit'any false hopes to the deputation ! that tho Government could provide'even the iIOO.O'OO. They could'only do it by. taking some of : the money, away, from the other railways that were yet, to ,be completed. He was not in favour of that, neither could they add to' the total they were now borrowing for railway construction. -', ,' : With regard to the three per cent, guarantee,', the. mere fact of their offering that waß , not'going to help them in getting the lino any sooner. There might be fifty places prepared to guarantee the three per cent., but the total appropriation coaldinot be correspondj.ingly increased. While it was a ; , good thing for a district to guarantee a lino.against'loss, there was no. virtue' about' it in a case -where the line would pay.' It was only whore there was likely to' be a loss, that, there .{'was any virtue in it. ,He told them frankly that he did not think this line was likely to be taken up in a.hurry, and, he, therefore, advised'chom to 6et about' improving their river service. He pointed out, that the proposal was to put a line between two other lines that wore only 25' miles apart, and, in addition, they, had a river service, whereas there were other-places in New Zealand where there was not a railway within 150, miles of-the people. When the Government could not find enough money to carry.on existing railways authorised, the deputation could not expect anything for this line. Ho mu6t absolutely •refuse.'. to put it on the authorisation this year, The Government would not be warranted in doing it, and even if they, were warranted they would have to hold it over, or make other.lines under construction suffer." "-''■'•''''','.'■.■. 'Speaking generally in recard to light'railways; he might say he was favourable to them, but if they .wore to create a number of.thera they, would have to establish the manufacture of light engines and special vehicles, and- if they.had to keep these on short,. sections ■of line not fully employed, the cost'.of working the lino would bc~very largely increased. Ho pointed out further that even, the present .New Zealand lines had been romndo three tiroes—some nf them four times—since they wore originally constructed to bring them up to the requirements of the traffic.' :\