WHY RAILWAYS DO NOT PAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 881, 29 July 1910, Page 4

WHY RAILWAYS DO NOT PAY.

"BUNGLING AND INCAPACITY."

Some striking statements on the results of tne cu-uperuti\e system oi public wurns m nis district were uuiue uj jir. oouci, luuiuiiL-r loi Tiiuprku, it. thfj course of tne "i\o-Couiiui!U(.o utui.t »u ue

■House oi itepi't'M'iuuuvcs jeaietuay. Mr. hcolt saiit it was staced. mat the Utngo l.entnu ruiiwiiy ivus only paying Us. per cent., but no woUid uot uave Ijteii surprised ii it paid nothing at all, in view oi tile waslului I'ApcmliUiru in cjnnection with its construction. Xht amount of money whien the Hue cost to construct troin ALiadiernarcli to Uiyolo would have bui;u autncieut to curry tne lino on to Hawea uuuor the smail conwacl system. . lie could give mauy lujtanees oi wasttiul expenditure in regard to the line. At Kqugnndge the station was built at a place where thousimus of loads of material had to be' thrown in order to make up the. site, whereas it the building had been erected halt a milo away a suitable site could nave been secured. At Ida' Valley the expeuuituru was simply ruinous. An extensive building, turu-table, etc., had been constructed, anu hien sliiiti'd budiiy wheu the railway went on. He had heard that .£40,001) had been sunk in that railway station alone, and he had no reason to doubt it. Yet the Government said the Utago Central liiiu did uut pay. The wonder was that under such circumstances it ever did pay eveu the six shillings per cent, credited to it. On the. Lawrence-Koxburgh line there had also been great extravagances. Embankments had been filled in to a height uf 2011. over concrete tube culverts, and afterwards, these pipes were tunnelled out because they were too small, and other culverts 'put in. That had gone on right along tho line. A few months ago he noticed that they were relaying the rails lon a constructed piece of the line between Lawrence and Beaumont. On asking- the reason, he was told the wrong gauge had been used. In another place they were widening cuttings by tumbling the stuff down on to the ground, where two men were shovelling it up into the trucks" again , in the most primitive way. Was that, he asked, railway construction? It was no wonder that the railways did'not pay. The waste of mone) and the bungling, incapacity displayed were something deplorable. Mr. Mander (Marsden), in criticising the co-operative system later, said he was convinced that if the Minister for Public Works was disposing of a private contract he would not let it on the lines that the Government did. Mr. WKenzie knew too inuqh for that.