The Evening Star FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3462, 27 March 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1874

Few circumstances suggest comment more than the beginning of a great public' wprk. The proceedings at Deborah Bay. yesterday were the first steps towards completing the connection between the Northern, and Southern portions of the Colony. Until now, Auckland is as far distant from Dunedin in point of time as Melbourne, and between the extreme points of the Colony there is absolutely less traffic than .with our Australian neighbors.' The ties that bind us together are community of taxation, not of interest and community of government. But this

divergence must disappear before the facilities for intercourse provided by railway construction. The difference of latitude is sufficiently great to ensure diversity of production, and when cheapness of transit is combined with rapidity, exchange must follow, and the most profitable of all markets-—a ;home market—tend to bind all our differing interests in one. There seems to us to be a very prevailing error fallen into by many, regarding our position as a Colony. It is assumed as an axiom

beyond possibility of gainsaying, that a time must come when our present prosperity will have an end, and then we are asked what will become ©f our population ? Prophets of this class are very safe in predicting a change. It cannot be expected that markets will always be favorable or production always abundant: so that there may and will be fluctuations. Sometimes one class of producers will suffer, sometimes another; but if there be no wars amongst the great consuming countries, causing a diversion of capital into new channels and deranging every branch of human industry, we see no reason to anticipate anything beyond those temporary checks that are felt ia the experience of every merchant and .tradesman.. Dependent' upon■ oiroum-' stances over which they have 1 no control for profitable markets, there

must be variations in demand and in profits. The only way to secure anything like steadiness is to ensure the widest field of supply, „ and .this can only be done by the cost of production to- a mini-' mum. Railways, through being the cheapest and best modes of transit, tend to this. Every mile that is opened in a settled district is worth annually, indirectly, the full value it has cost, even although the traffic returns do not realise the interest on cost of construction. It is not the direct per-centage on cost that constitutes the value of a railway. That is a mere shareholder’s view that has grown up through valuations on the stock Exchange, but that is not the light in which such undertakings should be regarded. Nobody looks at a macadamised road as a thing to be speculated in. The tolls may not, and in fact, seldom do pay the cost, of maintenance, yet nobody thinks the country is going to the dogs because metalled roads .are made. Owners of property meet together in the most business-like manner at a Road Board and tax each other without more than the ordinary amount of grumbling.; but when railways are, to be made grave men shake their heads and wonder where the money is to come from to pay the interest, and ask what will become of the country when it is all spent 1 It never seems to occur to them that other'railwayis require - making consequent upon 'the necessities of districts fresh opened, up for settlement, and that, , practically, work developes itself faster than hands can be brought to do it.•' How on other grounds is the prosperity of America to. be accounted for—a prosperity that has been continually , advancing for mo'fe than a century?‘ Just now they have received a slight, check, but that has resulted from vipious systems of commerce and public woiks construction: A very short time will, however,, restore them to their wonted activity ; development must go ou, and' wealth accumulate accordingly. Many people, on mentioning America, laugh at. the idea of comparing New Zealand with that great Continent. Perhaps they have never considered the secret of America’s success, and have not realised the idea that New Zealand can produce for export at less cost than America. Where grain has to be transported thousands of, miles from the interior to a port in North America, fifties or hundreds will be required in Npw Zealand. It has beautiful ports on all sides of it. If, therefore, distance has anything to do with cost of production, the advantage lies on the side of New Zealand oyer every continental country. Great Britain presents the nearest analogy,,to our position, and we see no reason to doubt that'our Superintendent’s anticipations are correct: if grain can be brought from the interior at 2d or 3d a bushel, large areas of land will be brought under the plough, now only thought fit for grazing purposes.