The Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2298, 17 September 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1870.

The battle of the guages, which so long raged in Great Britain in the infancy of railway construction, has been transferred to New Zealand, and the selfishness of the members of one Province had well nigh been fatal to the Government railway scheme. There may be, and no doubt is, some difference of opinion as to whether one gnage or another is most advisable , but°that the whole Colony should be compelled to bow to the decision of Canterbury, because in it a few miles of railway on a different guage have been constructed, was totally out of the question. It seems strange that so much interest could be brought to bear against the Government on such a point. The advisability of adopting the plans best suited to the circumstances of the Colony had no weight with the Opposition. Canterbury had laid so many miles of railway according to their own notions ; and although subsequent experience proved they might have done better, and laid so many more for the same money, had they had the experience which has since been gained, they proposed adding at least a fifth to the cost of future railways, to prevent the expense of transfer of goods from one line to another, which English experience has shewn can be done in more ways than one for a mere trifle. Whatever benefit Canterbury may derive from the railway system proposed, is not likely to accrue for many years to come. In all likelihood the plans of the present Government, based as they are upon the expected cheapness of money, must be postponed for a while, although the effect of war, Avliile rendering loans difficult to obtain, must be to set a large amount of capital free that was invested in trade and manufactures, the demand for which is interrupted by hostilities. During the past few years, notwithstanding the high rates of interest paid for the use of money in the Colonics, immense sums have been invested by English capitalists in various ways on the Continent cf Europe. The increased and increasing intercourse caused by the railway sys--tera was fast inducing an interweaving of interests, social and commercial, which has been rudely interrupted of late years by the grasping of Bismarck and Napoleon. Immense fortunes are regularly lost on the turning of the Bank of England screw. Not that by this process the actual amount of floating capital is reduced. In Stock Exchange transactions Hue loss of one man is gain to another. Nothing real is wasted or destroyed. It is not like destroying a field of wheat, burning a •building, or demolishing a railway. But that it is more respectable, one might compare speculations in stock to winning or losing at a gaming table, and the fluctuations in value to the effects of a turn up of a card or a throw of the dice. No matter who wins or loses, the stock remains the same. Many persons, however, on this account prefer investments less liable to fluctuation ; and it is by no means improbable that the increasing value of the Colonies, and their freedom from the dangers of the constantly recurring wars of Europe, may ultimately cause more attention than heretofore to be given to them. Everything, therefore, that can be done to offer inducement to the tide of capital to flow in this direction should be adopted ; while everything should be avoided that bears the semblance of selfish jobbery. To have allowed Canterbury to have stood in the way of an improved system of railway construction, would have been an instance of truckling to a fraction of the community that would have had the worst possible effect upon capitalists otherwise disposed to help us. It would have proved that private or Provincial interests were powerful enough to override Colonial; and that the Government was powerless to adopt measures for the advancement of the whole, because a few made a stand at a certain point, and said, “ Here shall “ progress end.” Freed from all apprehension of the effect of a hustings cry, on the battle of the guages the Legislative Council have made a wise and timely stand, and in adopting a uniform 3 feet 6 inches guage have done what, with the opposition of Canterbury as a consequence, the Executive shrunk from insisting upon.