DISTRICT RAILWAYS BILL.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 444, 20 October 1877, Page 3

DISTRICT RAILWAYS BILL.

The ' North Otago Times ' thus comments on the District Railways Bill, which has passed its final stage in the House of Representatives :—" It may be assumed as certain that unless altered in the Lords (which is unlikely) the amount for which the Colony will be responsible will be two per cent, as first proposed, and that the Counties and Municipalities will be responsible for the remaining live per cent. As the average earnings of the lines in the Middle Island over and above working expenses are, we understand, from thice to three and a-half per cent., it follows that supposing the Oamaru - Naseby project to be carried out, and with equal and not better results, the Counties of Maniototo and Waitaki, and the Municipalities of Oamaru and Naseby, would be conjointly responsible at the outset for an annual sum amounting to from one and ahalf to two percent, on the cost of the line and rolling stock. We say 'at the outset,' because it may fairly be anticipated that from year to year the earnings of the line would increase until the deficit would become nil, and would gradually turn into a surplus. Let us then look at what, on this assumption, the line would, say for the first three years or so, cost the districts interested. Assuming the cost of the line and rolling stock at £350,000, figures which we think would amply suffice, and the present rateable value of the Counties and Boroughs at £250,000, we arrive at the following results. Calculating the deficit on the earnings of the line at first, at the outside figure, namely, two per cent., we have :—Two per cent, on £350,000 equals £7OOO, and this sum, distributed over the annual assessment value (£250,000), equals £2 16s. per cent, or equal to a rate of nearly 7d. in the £. That the construction of the line would largely enhanco the value of property in Oamaru and Naseby and the intervening districts there is no doubt whatever, and it will be for the Counties and Boroughs interested to say whether or not the responsibility above indicated shall be accepted, and the line proceeded with. The matter must in any case eventually bo decided by the ratepayers themselves, and it is desirable that it should b$ taken into careful consideration,"