The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1868.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 152, 30 June 1868, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1868.

A correspondent has forwarded for our perusal a copy of the Report ou the Victorian Railways for the year 1867, with a view to prove, from what he is pleased to regard as the failure of that enterprise, the likelihood that a similar result would, in nil human probability, attend the carrying out of our projected railway to the West Coast, and, consequently, the inexpediency of promoting such a scheme. Although we have no intention to reopeu the general question of the expediency or inexpediency of such an undertaking as the West Coast Railway, we are certainly Dot disposed to coincide in the conclusion at which our correspondent has arrived, but, on the contrary, although the figures exhibited iu the report do not show that the Victorian Railways have, up to this time, proved remunerative as a commercial speculation, we are inclined to regard the result of that great undertnkiug, considering all the circurastajces of the case, as by no means discouraging. It must be borne in mind that it is not possible to take into account some of the indirect ways in which railways are profitable to a country. Who shall reckon what the community may save in a thousand ways by a railway ? Who shall estimate the amount of beuefit it may derive through them to the industry and commerce of the province ? Who shall tell, in the instance of the Victorian railways, what the State itself, in its character of the great railway proprietor, has gained in money value by its undertaking ? To the general community railways are a vast boon. To the producer, they open fresh markets. To the consumer, they cheapen the cost of the necessaries of life by facilitating their transport. To the merchant they afford the means of more rapid exchanges, and thus of more frequent opportunities of profit. To the State, they are the means of raising the value of tha national domain, through the higher prices obtained for the Crown lands in their vicinity, aud in this way they probably return indirectly a revenue nearly as large as that derived from the traffic receipts. Morally and socially, the advantages of the railway system are of incalculable value. They represent to us all the differences between the primitive bush life and civilisation. They are the material exponents of progress — the records and triumphs of the national enterprise. They serve to give the world assurance of the riches and greatness of the country in which they are constructed, and they are in themselves the means of extending that greatness and enlarging those riches. Considering that the Victorian railways were constructed for the greater part during a time when the price of labor was extravagantly high, the average cost being, we believe, some £15,000 a-mile greater than in England, we do not find that the average profits are much less, even though Victoria boasts a population of only half a million. Within the last few years, indeed, all English railway stock has improved greatly in value ; but for some time after their construction most of the Englieh lines yielded little or no returns to their shareholders. Up to 1853, the shares of neaily all the English railways were at a heavy discount, and the average dividends derived from them did not amount to 3 per cent. The Midland and Birmingham line, oue of the best paying of all, yielded in 1853, a dividend of only 3|, per cent. The Great Northern gave only 2£; the London and Brighton (since one of the most prosperous of all railways), 3|; the North Eastern, only 1£; and the Eastern Counties, nil. If, with their limited population, aud their large original expenditure, the Victorian railways are found to yield very nearly 3 per cent, on their cost of construction, white yet in an iucomplote condition, it can hardly fairly

be asserted that they have proved to be failures. There is, however, another view of the subject which is not without its practical value as regards our proposed railway to the West Coast. It must be obvious that the present population of Victoria is altogether too small to develope properly the resources of its railway system. For a colony not much exceeding in number the population of the town of Liverpool or the borough of Marylebone, it is fitted with an absurdly disproportionate amount of railway accommodation. It is not that the Victorians have too much railway, but too few people. They have built themselves a magnificent carrying apparatus, aud to complete it, they only want something to carry. But let us be lenient to the failings of onr neighbors ; for we may find, should our own railway scheme ever be realised, of which men seem to become daily more sceptical, that our passenger traffic is quite as absurdly disproportionate. Nous verrons.