The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2049, 29 November 1869, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1869.

It is a great pity that unity of action cannot be secured on works like the Clutha Railway. It has already been affirmed by the Provincial Council that it is desirable that the work shall be done, and the mode of carrying it out has been prescribed. An Act and an amended Act have passed the General Assembly ; an agent was sent to England to negotiate for its construction, and the people and Government appeared most anxious that it should at once be proceeded with. Now, when the proposition to do so is made by persons prepared to carry it out, the country Press and not a few in tho City are preparing to oppose it. What logrolling is at work in opposition to

it 1 Our contemporary, the Daily Times , points to the propriety of waiting for a loan of three and a hall millions before doing a work that will add to the population, to the producing power and wealth, of the Province, and better enable the people to pay the taxation to which they are subjected. That the work will be done, and that before long, is a matter of certainty. That it may be done at once is also certain, and since every mouth that passes is so much lost to the community, it is to be hoped that no impediments will be thrown in the way of the arrangement being made. There are some persons very industrious in trying to get up an opposition on personal, rather than financial or commercial grounds. Various surmises are afloat as to how the capital is to be raised, and where it is to come from. With that the public need not trouble themselves, so long as they get value for their money. If Napoleon Buonaparte advance the money, it can be spent equally well and do ; just as much good as if it were lent by Mr Peabody. Of all narrow views ; that is one of the narrowest that would lead to the rejection of a general and ac\ knowledged good, lest it should benefit an individual or a class. He is not the less a benefactor to the community who himself reaps a share in the advantage he secm-es for it. Then there are others who are ready with different schemes, some of which may be good as alternatives, but must act perniciously if they tend to divert attention from the main point to be secured, the construction of the road. It is amazing how even editors of newspapers can lend their influence to an opinion when it suits the class for whom they write. One country journal informs us that it is Mr Reid’s prudence that is the impediment to be overcome. We have every respect for Mr Reid’s desire to promote the interests of the province, but as a member of the Executive he has but to carry out the fiat of the Provincial Council, and when his prudence places itself in opposition to that twice deliberately expressed opinion, instead of prudence it becomes obstructiveness. We do not feel at liberty to indulge too freely in comment upon what, after all, may be a libel on Mr Reid, hatched in the brain of a writer in the elodocratic interest; although on that account the more likely to be correct. Assuming that he Jfnews what he writes to be true, Mr Reid’s ideal i seems to be that some eight traction engines employed on the common roads are to do all the haulage of the province, We should like to know what commission the writer expects for his advocacy. As feeders to a line of railway, traction engines may probably be profitably employed, but it must not be forgotten that the most perfect machinery is the cheapest in the long run; and although it is quite possible to adapt machines to the rough and unscientifically laidout roads of the Province, the wear and tear both of roads and engines, and the imperfect manner in which the work would be done, would render both more costly than adopting at once a line of road and a class of engines specially formed for each other. So many objections of various kinds are bandied about, that the advantages appear likely to be lost sight, of. Money expended in large and reproductive undertakings from their very commencement confers a benefit on all classes, and although the old cry “Will it pay” is to be sounded, and the clamor about one district having more expended upon it than another is to be raised, it is to be hoped that no log-rolling will succeed in defeating the plan. The indirect advantages of railway construction are those that are principally to be relied on. It will be better if by a very simple and obvious course, the Railway may be made the property of the Province than remain in the hands of a company : but of this hereafter. Commenting on the indirect advantages, a writer in the Westminster Review says, respecting railways that do not immediately pay as commercial speculations, to consider them economic blunders would be a perfectly just conclusion but for one consideration in addition to the commercial benefits of cheap transit of goods and facility and rapidity of travelling. “ There is “ another (advantage) of prominent “ importance which railways render “ and render too gratuitously. Be- “ sides facilitating and cheapening “ conveyance of persons and goods “in all directions they also dis- “ seminate intelligence, knowledge, “ the best of all sorts, and this “ latter service they perform >vith- “ out charge. Hawk-eyed capitalists, “ carried about the country by railway, “ are made acquainted with previously “ hidden natural resources—goldfields, “ iron mines, or what not, needing np- “ thing but the appliances for which ! “ capitalists are seeking occupation, to “ be converted into means of wealth ; “ farmers, manufacturers, artificers, and “ artisans, are similarly brought into > “ contact with new means of culture, “ new industrial processes, new ma-

“ chinery, and employments; and, on “ their return home, adopt in their own “ operations, some of the means they “ have noticed. Industry of every “ kind thus becomes improved as well “ as extended, its productiveness in- “ creasing accordingly, and adding pro- “ portionately to the national wealth. “ Here is a consideration which should • ! never be overlooked, in estimating “ the value of railways.”