Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY,JUNE 27,1881.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 151, 27 June 1881, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY,JUNE 27,1881.

ABETURNhas been presented to Parliament, in compliance with a motion of Mr Montgomery's in the last session, showing the approximate cost of the sections and branches of the New Zealand railways opened for traffic on tho 31st March, 1880, from which it appears that the total cost of the North Island lines was £2,932,813, and for those in the Middle Island £6,470,877. A large item on the list is the money paid for land, which amounts in the aggregate to £304,529, of which £121,018 was expended in the North and £183,521 in the Middle Island, the former being nearly two-thirds of the latter, although the number of miles of railway in the north is only about one-half of what it is in the south. The total cost of

the Nelson sectiou was £133,179, divided as follows :-Laod. £17,138; Surveys, £2078; Grading, i' 24.592; Bridges and culverts, £15,891; Fencing, £6817; Permanent way (expended in New Zealand), £18,852; ditto (KnglinJ), £20 } 3GO; ltolling stock (New Zealand), £2208; ditto (England), £9034, Workshops, etations. wharves, &c, £10,826; Engineering end office, £5133; Incidental, £ou. The Pictou-Blenheim lino, of the eaiuo'lenglh, cost £134.207, or £2*1,000 more, alihough'tho land purchase wno some £8000 leas, but the grading cost £28,000, and the bridges and culverts £14,000 more on the Murlhorough than on the Nelson line. The cost of railway construction in the Auckland Provincial District was, in round numbers, £915,500; ia the Wellington, £1,105,300; in the Canterbury, (about) £1,971,294; in the O.auo, (about) £3,532,500. This makes a total expenditure, south of Amberley, of £5,503,794. North of Amberley, including the Nclson-Foxiiill, Picton Blenheim, Brun-ner-Greymouth, aLd Westport-Ngakawau railways, tiud the Greymouth harbor works (£59/J!>6>, the total expenditure has been only £G7l GB4. Of the five-and-a-half millions spent in the two great southern provinces £1,054,247 has been laid out on the const rue: iou of branch lines. This amount would have gone a long way towards completing the main trunk line, which was supr>os?d from tho basis of the public works policy of 1870. How completely that compact has been ignored we in the northern portion of tho Middle Island know only too well. Returns such as that from which we have culled the foregoing figures are instructive and interesting, but the information they impart is soniewlmt expensive to obtain. From a foot; note appended to the return before us we find that although it occupies only two pages the cost of compilation was £250, and of the printing £4. One of the latest " fads " introduced into the railway management created a great deal of annoyance to travellers by train on Saturday. Hitherto it has been the custom for the guard to supply passengers getting into the train at what are known as •' platform stations" with through ticketß to thrirdestinatiou wherever it might be. But for some inscrutable reason a change in the system has been deemed necessary, and red tape has taken the precedence of convenience. For iustance, a passenger for Nelson taking his seat at Spring Grove has to procure a ticket from the guard for Brightwaler, and, arrived there, "ia required to get out of the carriage, go to the office, and obtain there another ticket for the rtmaindcr of his journey. But inconvenience is not the sole result of thia new fancied arrangement but it entails additional cost as well The advertised fare (second class) from Spring Grove to Nelson i 9 2s 4d *)ut from Spring Grove to Brightwater it is 4d/and from thence to Nelson 2a 2d, so that the total is increased by 2d. This is just o&e of those little irritants that worry aud annoy travellers without producing any corresponding advantage, an^l the sooner it is dispensed with and the old and more convenient order of things is restored, the better. A meeting of those desirous of forming a Sparrow Club will be held in the Spring Grove schoolroom on Wednesday evening next at 7 o'clock. A suAitr shock of earthquake, which lasted some time, was experienced yesterday morning at 5.20. From our telegrams to-day it will be seen that the shake was felt more or less soverely in various places throughout the colony, and that in the Wellington district n good deal of damage was done. A lecture is to ba given by the Rev. P. Innes Jones in the Provincial Hall to-morrow evening in aid of All Saints' Church. The lecturer has chosen "Volcanoai : their phenomena and effects *' for his subject, and a large number of transparencies will be exhibited throughout ths evening by meaus of tbe oxycalciutu light. There will also be a selection of vocal and instrumental music during the evening. The special services held in the Congregational Church yesterday in celebration of the anniversary of the Sunday school of that church were very largely attended. Tomorrow evening there is to be a tea and public meeting. Wb have to acknowledge the receipt from the Government printer of two batches of Parliamentary papers and of Nos. 1 and 2 of Hansard. Mr John R. Mabin reports tbe calo of Colonial Bank shares at 46a. In the report of the Committee proceedings in tho Licensing Bill the Post of Thursday says :— -Amendment* were proposed, and suggestions thrown out, and it 6eemed as if the Cotnrnittee bad, from the frequency of amendments and division?, reached the " larking Btage." Mr John Lundon pointed out that hotels in some districts were heavily mortgaged, and the proprietors could not afford to pay a license. Ha bad one hotel which he had to pay a man to keep. The House looked sad at this misfortune of their brother politician, and might, for his sake, have been inclined to niakb an exception in his case, or, at least, to have fixed the fee at a very nominal figure ; but when he added, somewhat triumphantly, that be kept up the insurance in the hope that the building might one day be burnt down, he lost tbe ground he had gained, and hilarious laughter succeeded sighs and rueful countenances.