LIGHT RAILWAYS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2514, 15 July 1915, Page 6

LIGHT RAILWAYS

LAST YEAR'S !ACT APPROVED.

It /was resolved: by the 'Agricultural Conference yesterday to' approve the passing of tho Local Railways Act, 1914, and urge local bodies to assist the farmers to secure light railway communication in order to develop the back country districts. '• The conference was addressed on the subject light railways by Mr. F. W. Furkett, inspecting electrical' engineer in the Public. Works Department, who said that the Belgian system could be safely adopted wholesale in New Zealand. The cliief characteristic of light railways was, he added, that they were not . governed by the same • regulations or tariffs 'which, governed.' the standard lines, so that .if one penny per milo would not piy, one and a half-pence could; be dhaTged. Mr. Furkett . explained'the Belgian system of financing liglit railways, a system which has previously been thoroughly explained in The Dominion.' y One of the chief features of. the financing is that the bodies interested guarantee the State against loss, and, then the State finds the money for'the venture. 1 The local bodies which take up the shares injthe undertaking share the according' to their shares.' Tlie-State, by the way. usually takes forty-five to fifty per cent, of the shares. : y