The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3582, 4 January 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1883.

Jx his recent S2>eech at Duncdin Sir Julius Yogel alluded to the wide nature of the change tluit took place Viet ween the railway scheme that he had originally proposed and that which was subsequently carried out. The principal change was that no landed estate was put on one side to cover the cost of the railways. Had that been dune the increased value of the land would probably have entirely covered the cost of construction. Sir Julius was inclined to think that if that proposal had been carried out there would at this time have been scarcely any public debt. Looking back to ten years ago, and marking ihe vast increase in the value of land that has occurred during that period, Sir Julius Yogel is undoubtedly right in his belief that his original proposal was the proper course to have pursued. There was. however, another departure from his original scheme. His proposal to construct a trunk line through each Island was abandoned, or at least has been indefinitely delayed. Sir Julius said bo mis unable to say whether the departure on that point had been for the benefit of the colony or not, but be expressed the hope that a trunk line through each Island would be completed v Ithin a reasonable period. In other respects the .scheme has not been so far departed from. The amount expended has approached very nearly the original estimate. The Minister for Public Works recently stated that the cost of railways, including the provincial ones, to March olst last, amounted to eleven millions sterling. Sir Julius Vogel's proposal was to expend eight and a half millions during ten years, and that did not include the pro\ iiicial railways. It is tolerably easy to wee where the mistake was made when the mischief has been done, but it is to the credit of Sir Julius that lie foresaw the right course to take, proponed it, and strenuously advocated it. And now, twelve years afterwards, every one will agree that he was right, and Parliament was wrong in opposing him. The mistake that Sir Julius made was in under-estimating the elfect that a large .sum of money to spend would have on the representatives of the country. II did not foresee that every representative would endeavor to get as much as he could for his own constituents ; that this would lead to a general scramble, to log-rolling, and perhaps, to ihc shipwreck of the whole scheme. The public works policy burst upon the colony like a meteor ; its' boldness and brilliancy amazed and dazzled the country. The colony had not been prepared for such a venture. The whole country was suffering from a longcontinued commercial depression, and had not recovered from the effects of the native wars. No time could have been better chosen for a coup ih: muhi, but it is doubtful whether the policy would not have been more permanently beneficial had it been carefully led up to by first setting aside a landed 'estate for probable railways, and then to have announced the scheme and borrowed the money. Nevertheless the country cannot be said to have suffered by the policy, differing though it has from the original plan. All that can be said is that the colony might have derived very much more advantage from it. As Mr Macandrew said at the banquet given in honor of Sir Julius Yogel, " great and important iis the results have been from that policy, those results wot'Ul have been greater still and far more satisfactory had that policy been carried on strictly on the lines of its original conception. I say had that been clone this Public Works policy would have been infinitely more satisfactory ; it would have produced greater results, and we should have been spared sonic, at least, of the central disadvantages of it,"