PENINSULA RAILWAY AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE.

Evening Star, Issue 3846, 22 June 1875, Page 2

PENINSULA RAILWAY AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE.

To the. Editor. , ®f®;T^ our .correspondent, "An Old Eesident, in last uiglit’s Stau is evidently an old resident of the port, or else one of the noblemen on the 1 emnsula who rumor says are opposing the construction of the line, simply because the directors refuse to squander the shareholders’ money in taking it over hills and mountains to suit private purposes. His letter is so palpably absurd and self-contradictary that 1 should have deemed it " not worth contidering,” were it not that issues are at stake in this matter more important even than the construction of the railway. On ths fate of this Peninsula Railway Bill hang 4 mauy another similar enterprises—enterprises which would be ruinous in the hands of Government. We have of late shown far too much dependence upon Governments and Corporations, and offered little or no inducements to private interprise; but rather the reverse, with such results as we are now beginning to see. If, as your correspondent states, the Port Chalmers Railway cost the Colony L 220.000 it is only another proof of Government incapacity in such matters. In the very nature of things corporate bodies cannot compete with private enterprise, simply because, as Sydney Smith arid, they " have neither souls to be saved nor bodies to be kicked.” If further proof of this were needed it is only necessary to look at the positions of (he City Corporation and of the Harbor Board, and yet both those bodies are said to be composed of some of the most busi-ness-like meu in the city. But would any. member of the Corporation, had he oven the wealth of Rothschild, have d: earned of buying up the Water Company as a private speculation at the same price as the Corporation paid? Ur would any member of the Harbor Board in ms private business entertain the idea of getting a dredge built here and at a lower figure than it could be done for at Home? It may be safely said that at least L 50,000 of public money wifi be frittered away by the Boaid before any. tlnng is done for tho permanent improvement of the harbor.

But it m not only the cost to the public (and therefore additional taxation) which entetpnses m corporate hands involved, but various iudin ot looses which are quite incalculable. How is it possible, for instance, for a citizen to get redress from the Corporation for supplying bad water or even none at all? But the Corporation, not content with having the Waterworks m its hands, seeks to purchase tht Gasworks also (out of borrowed money, of course), as if the supplying of gas to the public were in any possible way a different business altogether from the supplying of broad, meat, or anything else At present there is no gas rate whatever* and the business is open to legitimate competition, but how would competition be possible if the business fell into the hands of the CorporaUon ? If the prices charged art confeidered too high, let the principal consumer form a : mutual comply for starting another establishment, and let the ’Corporation give th&'nlw company its lighting business for a ’fixed 1 huin- . Li/v & of only one gasworks beftur ‘" established, it would he grtatiy jor the pUbSr;

benefit if several were encouraged, and to the gas business could be added that of manufacturing patent fuel from local coalbydessicating and mixing with tar and other refuse from the works ; this is a business capable of indefinite extension by private enterprise. To persist in annoying the proprietor of the gasworks is most unwarrantable, and, to say the least of it, simply a of impertinence on the part of the Instead of frightening English capitalists away, every encouragement should be held out to them. The drainage of the city and the improvement of the harbor, if to be accomplished ac all, must be done with English capital, and ns the works must be carried out as one whole—at a cost of abont Lsoo,ooo—the whole affair presents a splendid field for English capital and English enterprise; but what capitalists would ever dream of entertaining the matter, to be made a mark for stump orators—supported by the unthinking masses—to shoot their arrows at after they had overcome the risks and difficulties of the undertaking and begun to reap their reward. Meantime it requires little foresight to see that really nothing wiU be done by the Corporation in the way of drainage, and epidemics are equally certain ere long to decimate the population. As regards harbor improvement and reclamation it is but too evident the Board will continue to flounder in the mud of its raising. To revert to the Peninsula Railway, it may he briefly stated that in private hands it would result in a handsome profit, but in those of Government a certain loss. Even at a cost of LIOO,OOO, including a pier at the Heads, it would probably be one of the most profitably placed lines in the country. Supposing for instance the nominal capital of the Company amounted to LIOO,OOO, and only the half of it called up, the other half could be raised in London on the issue of debentures at about 74 per cent, per annum for interest and sinking fund ; and assuming the gross earnings of th« line were only L 2.000 per month, which would be an exceedingly small amount after the line got into working order, the annual profit and loss account would stand somewhat thus Twelve months’ earnings at L 2,000 L per month ... 21,000 .Less 50 percent, working expenses, 12,000 From which deduct 7| per cent, on L 50,000 of debentures ... 3,750 Balance L 8.250 or about 16 pe.r cent on the paid-up capital of the shareholders. In private hands the line and pier could doubtless be constructed for considerably less than LIOO.OOO, whilst in the hands of Government it would cost about double, and the earnings would be about onehalf. In view of the facts that there is, at least, forty feet of water at the Heads, and that only vessels drawing less than eighteen feet can use the Port Chalmers pier, and that, under any circumstances, only those drawing considerably less than eighteen feet can ever bo brought to Dunedin ; also, with the absolute certainty that the Port Chalmers line will be unable to meet the traffic that will converge upon it when the numerous lines in construction! are finished, it is not too much to prediet for this line great prosperity, but that it will also become an absolute necessity for the trade requirements of the place, and that of all the numerous enterprises that have been started here it is about as promising and bond tide as any.

I have written somewhat lengthily, as the whole subject is a large one. My sole desire H to expose the prevalent fallacy of entrusting undertakings to Government and Corporations only instead of to private capitalists and private enterprise; for on the efforts of private enterprise in the future will hang our present prosperity, and therefore every encouragement should bo given by those in authority 'and by the public generally.—l am, &c.. „ • _ Citizen. Dunedin, June 19.