The Evening Star FRIDAY, JULY 22, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2249, 22 July 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JULY 22, 1870.

Ths announcement that the House of Representatives has adopted Mr Y oo el’s financial scheme will be received with satisfaction throughout the Colony, There seems to be some mystery connected with the loan proposed to be guaranteed by the Imperial Government. The Ministry do not appear to be well advised on the subject, and very properly are waiting to know the conditions before acceding to them, as it seems to be suspected one of those conditions will be that no further loan Shall bo raised by the Colony until that is subscribed. As it is more than probable the specific purposes to which that loan is to be appropriated will be laid

down by the Imperial Government, and that other and more pressing objects may require to be prosecuted before the whole of it need be expended on those named, so far from accepting the offer being an advantage, it might prove a drawback to Colonial progress ; and in this view the caution displayed by Government is most praiseworthy. The Treasurer has so far modified his proposals as to reduce the proposed loans from six millions to four. We do not know in reality that this will matter much as to the result. It never was imagined that more than a small portion of the amount would be needed in any one year \ and so far as railways are concerned, if they are made as they are needed, a vast extent of country can be opened up at the rate mentioned by Messrs Fox and Soxs, of London, in their letter to Mr Yogi:;.— namely, £3,000 to £4,000 per mile. And this is not an actual outlay by the Colony, but merely guarantee. We have often heard railways objected to on the ground of their positive cost; but here is a proposal by which they can be formed absolutely at less price than ,a common road. Now when this and the facilities afforded to commerce and intercommunication through their agency are considered, what greater folly can there be than wasting money on the formation of docksand harbors where nature has not pf«ofcd shelter 1 No sooner was the idea of a loan started than constituencies such as Waikouaiti and Oamaru eagerly at the notion of having a share of it for throwing away upon use less schemes of dock and jetty construction. The Oamaru Dock Trust is calling for tenders for works which will never he of the slightest advantage to the district, and which in fact may never be able to resist the attacks of the ocean. Before they are completed other portions of the Province will be enjoying the- benefits of more judicious expenditure, connecting them with Dunedin \ and that fine district will be sacrificed to the shortsightedness of a few townspeople of Oamaru, who have the vanity to think they are wiser than Nature, and know better where a port should be than He who formed Port Chalmers. Mr Vogel spoke specifically and wisely on the subject when he said the Government did not approve of making new harbors. We think it high time these matters were fairly looked into. In every way the multiplication of ports is a loss to the Colony. They are a loss to the revenue, because of the facilities they afford for a contraband trade; they increase unduly the cost of collecting the Customs revenue, for they require an establishment to be kept up within them that could do fifty times the work tlvat can ever ho required of them. In fact, in mrfny instances the cost of collection nearly equals jthe revenue received. They divide capital that, concentrated in one place, would add to the facilities for trade at the principal port, and thus by weakening the distributing power of the community they add to the cost of living; and by holding out inducements to owners of vessels to undertake risks, they lead to enormous losses. The losses already sustained through disasters at Oamaru would have made a railway to Moeraki three times over; or, better still, would have gone far to connect that district with Port Chalmers, and thus have given to a wide extent of country far greater advantages than a navigable river one hundred miles long would afford. It is strange how slow men are at learning Jessons from the past. The sea has spoken, and protested against the waste of money at Oamaru; engineers have spoken, and told of the doubtful success of the works proposed; the experience of other nations speaks, and tells how much more profitably the money can bo expended, and yet the few who hold property, and arc perhaps looking forward to selling it and leaving the district when it has increased in value through the fictitious prosperity induced by constructing useless works, are permitted to waste that which, wisely laid out, would be of incalculable advantage to the Province.