THE Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1949, 4 August 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1869.

The excitement of the Municipal elections is now over, and the City will return to its everyday business life. Many public matters have been allowed to sleep, in the personal advocacy of the different candidates, and their opinions on gas, water snppl}', and drainage. Those who have been elected will now have time, opportunity, and means at their disposal, to confirm or to correct their previously conceived opinions, and to shew by their future course that they are fully equal to the responsibilities they Ivave undertaken. The more soberly the questions falling within the province of Municipal Councillors to deal with are investigated, the better for their own reputation and for the community. But while public attention has latterly been rivetted upon cheap gas, there are other important aids to material progress liable to be overlooked, The prominence given to a local object has a tendency to divert the public mind from matters of more general utility. Thus while we have been warmly debating the comparative claims of Messrs Fish and Hutchison, and gazing with surprise upon the figures of the now engineering idol,

Mr A. K. Smith, who demonstrates to a fraction that gas may be produced so cheap as to render it an economic cooking agent, the projected railway between Dunedin and Port Chalmers seems quietly shelved and put on one side. It is not long since that in conversation, one well versed in railway economics made the remark that the Press had failed to bring the advantages of a railway system sufficiently prominently before the public. He observed that immediate and direct return upon the capital invested was too much insisted upon iu the Colonies, and that while the question—will it pay]—was so constantly made the test as to the advisability or otherwise of constructing a line of railway, nothing was likely to be done. His meaning was that to expect a large revenue from a Colonial line of railway, so as to be able to pay a largo annual dividend upon capital invested, is not to be anticipated at least for years. It is on this ground that in all new countries the Governments have to assist directly or indirectly. Either they must construct the lines, or they must guarantee such a revenue as will induce a company to undertake the works. And this is the more reasonable on account of the indirect advantages derivable from railway communication. Many persons looking at the beautiful Bay and the advantage of water carriage between Dunedin and Port Chalmers, hold to the opinion that a railway between the two places is unnecessary. They ha' e an idea that water carriage is cheaper than railway transit, and that as the distance is so short, no great delay can occur to render the outlay advantageous. But this is a very mistaken idea. No doubt, great improvement has taken place within the last three or four years; but no system of lighterage can give the facilities for despatch of business that are afforded by a well-arranged and well-conducted railway. The saving is various. There is saving of time, labor, and risk. With the most active and careful stevedores, unloading a large vessel into lighters is a process that cannot be conducted without damage to goods. It is not the mere putting them over the side of the vessel into the lighter. When received on board they have to be stowed with nearly the same care as when they were shipped from abroad ; and then, after their short voyage, another process of pulling and hauling has to be inflicted upon them on their arrival at the wharf to lift them out of the vessel and convey them to the receiving shed. How different this from the quick and care-taking mode at the wharf at Williamstown. A large vessel is moored alongside the pier, the steam cx*ane is set to work, and as it lifts package after package in rapid succession from her hold, each one is deposited exactly in its place upon a railway truck placed in the best position for that purpose. That loaded, it is run off, and another takes its place until, a train being ready, an engine is attached at tbe appointed hour, and a quarter of an hour afterwards the train reaches Melbourne to be unloaded into capacious sheds, with every appliance necessary for putting the goods on drays at the least possible expense of labor and risk. Even this system is not so perfect as the plans adopted in many cases at Home, where lines branch off to various warehouses, and trucks are detached, each with its special load. But it must he evident to those least conversant with mercantile affairs, that there must be great advantage in all those labor-saving processes, and that the public participate in it. Every reduction in the cost of an article, whether produced in the Colony, or imported, is a contribution to the common good. If the cost of groceries or draperies is reduced, the competition of dealers gives the public the advantages of it. These comforts, necessaries, and luxuries are brought within the reach of many who previously were debarred from obtaining them. These are a few of the benefits derivable from a railway, and thus although the revenue derived from it might not render it a startlingly profitable investment, the country would indirectly derive a benefit, so" extended and important that the question of dividend is secondary.