THE PROJECTED RAILWAYS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1345, 20 November 1872, Page 2

THE PROJECTED RAILWAYS.

In the course of his address to the electors of Wellington, Mr Pearce, one of the members for that City, said:—

It had been, frequently stated that the sums we proposed to expend upon railways were out of all proportion to the population of the Colony. Well, the only way to discuss the moot point with any profit was to compare ourselves with other countries; for, although a, small colony, we still could compare ourselves with a large ono promta. Take Great Britain as an instance, and there they found that something exceeding L 500,000,000 had been spent in railways. Taking the ratio of the population, Now Zealand, should, spend five millions on railways before she would reach the proportional expenditure 1 in Great Britain; but he had no hesitation in affirming that before wo had spent in an equal ratio, our population would have so increased that we would be in a position to spend another five millions. The amount spent on railways in England would make two-thirds of the national debt. He might say that he believed now aa thoroughly in the carrying' out of these great arterial lines as when he first stood on that platform and asked, the electors for their suffrages, and it would ever be his duty while in Parliament to urge the Government to push on the construction of these works; but he must also s,ay that th.c Government were thoroughly in earnest in the work, and would not only go on with the railways in the Middle Island but alflo the Waira«

rapa railway, in which they were all so much interested. A good deal of unfair criticism had been made in connection with these railways and the Brogden contracts. To hear some people speak. on this subject, one would imagine that the country was giving the contractor a million of money for nothing. What he wanted to point out was this, that :.with-' out technical knowledge it , was almost impossible for the House of Representatives to say whether the contracts were reasonable or not ; they had to rely upon the officers and engineers of the Government, as the only persons possessed of the necessary technical knowledge. Well," relying upon these technical persous, the House were "assured by ; the officers of the Government — who they had; every reason to believe w,ere honest men — that the contracts were fair and reasonable. For his own ;parthe was inclined to believe them. But they, had not to say whether Brogden should make anything out of them or not r he only hoped : that the Messrs Brogden - would make a fair profit out of their contracts.,:, understood to be a million. He could inform the meeting that it was in contemplation to throw all' contracts open'to public tender ; and it might also be possible to adopt the system of small con- : tracts. As to the merits of ; the system he did not, feel quite, sure, because the, plan had been tried before and had not been a success. In Canterbury it was ' a, signal failure ; on the Northern -line there was not one of the small contractors that did not come to grief, ' '■■"