VICTORIAN RAILWAYS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1284, 8 October 1886, Page 3

VICTORIAN RAILWAYS.

A revelation surprising, if not seusa tional, was made by the Minkier of Railways recently. He had occasion to ask the ’Legislative Assembly to approve of an estimate of expenditure of L 1,300,000, which the Railway Cornraisssioners proposed to incur before June 30, 1887, in the construction of lines already authorised, and/ in doing so, made an important statement regarding the co«t of lines for which contracts had already been let. They cover 258 miles in all, and the cost is from 20 to 25 per cent, above the estimate bused-m Ihe trial surveys and submitted to parliament when the last Railway Construction Act was under consideration. It this excess is continued through all the lines, L 1,200,000 will have to be raised to construct-them. -Mr G’llies mentioned that he,had waited some time to see if good average could not be struck but no such happy result was attained, he thought it advisable so take the House into his confidence without further delay. The excess was clue to a general rise in prices, and particularly in earthworks, which at Is 2d per yard were estimated to cost L 153.000, but which actually cost L2J 0,000. The department based its calculations on (he. current rales, but they had been upset by an improvement not then contemplated. There had also been an extraordinary jump in the value of land required for suburban lines, and, in one c ise—the line from Royal Park to Clifton Hill —the cost was L 72,000 in-excess of the estimate; and in another—the Fitzroy branch L 64,000. As far as he could see no one was to bhape for the unsatisfactory position would not feel justified in proposing that work should be suspended or any of the lines eliminated from the Act. It was hoped that the estimates for those remaining to be constructed would be ample, if not more than ample, to cover theircost. This is not a new experience. Parliament has, on two occasions, been required to vote additional sums of money to enable authoria cl lines to be made fit for traffic; and Air Patterson, whose lines had thus to be dealt with, had some difficulty in clearing himself when he attacked the statement made by Mr Gillies. He and one or two other members warmly condemned the engineering branch of the Railway Department, and an amendment by him to the effect that the estimate be not approver! until a more satisfactory explanation has been given of the discrepancy is now before the Assembly. —‘ Argus.’

A memorandum circulated in the Legislative Assembly gives the ex« planation of the Ilailwav Comuns» sioners with regard to the excess of the railway estimates for the lines authorised under the Act 821. This agrees substantially with the state meats already published *iu the ‘ Argus.’ The principal items ia which the excess has occurred are earthworks, bridges and culverts, and land. The Commissioners connect the higher prices paid with the general prosperity of the Colony, of which.they are largely the result. Under Mr Long'uoro the excess was LH9,000, under Mr Gillies L 51,125, under Mr Patterson L 545.455.