The Evening Star TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2566, 9 May 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1871.

N otwithstanding the evidence that may he gathered from all parts of the world of the value of Railways, strangely enough there are people who doubt. It is difficult to deal with such men, because those proofs which would carry conviction to the minds of others are powerless upon theirs. They are generally cautious —slow to apprehend the causes of national prosperity ; very probably well up in the particular work to which they devote their time, and not without their use even in the legislature; for their hesitation or opposition leads to thorough investigation. But now a-days this unbelief is almost as absurd as for a person to believe with Ptolomy that the earth is the fixed centre of the universe. They are not, however, rare amongst us. When the news arrived of Mr. V OGEL s success, some of these wet blankets on enterprise acknowledged his talent but wondered how the country was to pay the interest on the loan. Just in the same way many people cannot understand how the Port Chalmer’s line can pay, andjhave visions of loss and Provincial bankruptcy through payment of interest on the capital invested. Singularly enough the very day that brought the news of the floating of the loan gave a practical illustration of one of the modes by which railways benefit a country. It is not merely the traffic return that is to be considered. That is one branch of the subject only. Were travelling on Railways as free as on common roads —which in course of years may be the case—and were the country merely to require such return for capital expended as would keep them in repair, the gain to the community would be incalculably great. It was shewn yesterday that property is multiplied in value, wherever easy access to it can be obtained. There was a small estate sold by auction within about two miles of Dunedin, For years it has remained in the hands of the proprietor, and was hardly useful beyond supplying timber, the value of which was lessened by difficulty of carriage. A district road was in course of formation before the Port Chalmer’s Railway was begun. Even this would have added somewhat to its value, although access to it would still have been tedious. But the railway, at scarcely more cost than the cab fare to the Water of Leith, will bring the little township within a quarter of an hour of the very centre of business in Dunedin. With this prospective advantage, and relieved from the heavy legal taxation for transfer of property, as the estate was registered under the Land Transfer Act, the prices realised for the different allotments were such as hare never before been reached for suburban land at that distance from town. Nor will the advantage be confined to property in the immediate neighborhood of Dunedin. At various points along the line are romantically beautiful spots, where sooner or later villa residences will be built. So long as they could with difficulty be reached by land or water, they were comparatively valueless. The rude huts which stand on them are tenanted by settlers content with a pig in a sty and a few cows grazing on the natural herbage. They form excellent examples of clodocratic elysiums. But the railway whistle will call to those sheltered rooks and green pastures a different class, The land which few would buy

will become sought after, and busy activity, order, and elegance will supersede stolid indolence and neglect. What will take place on that line in course of time—and that .not a long period—will be the result of the construction of every line. Where land is unappropriated, through which a railway is intended to pass, it should not be sold until after the line is formed. The additional value will then be realised by the community instead of by individuals, and by that means the cost may be recouped. It is honorable to some proprietors of land along both the Port Chalmers and Cmtha lines, that they are so strongly impressed with the advantage to be gained that they have given every facility in their power to railways being formed, by merely ashing a fair and equitable price for that which will be required. Others, on the other hand, have disgraced themselves by efforts at extortion, which prove unmistakably that, if it depended upon them, not a single improvement should be carried out, except their fellow-countrymen bribed them to acquiescence. We have always protested against that shortsightedness in our land laws, that did not provide for the 'resumption of land for public works on fair and equitable conditions. There may be isolated cases In which somewhat more than the original cost should be awarded j but, as a rule, so enormous are the advantages conferred by railways on all property within about fifteen miles of each side of the line, that the proprietors should be glad to give the land required free, because of the additional value of the remainder. We should like to see every one of those extortioners, who wish to enrich, themselves through the accident of a line being projected through their property, deprived of its advantages by its being taken another way.