ECONOMY OF RAILWAYS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 21, 17 June 1871, Page 5

ECONOMY OF RAILWAYS.

Wfi reprint the following letter from the Independent, as it will be found interesting to many of our subscribers: — S)B, —The visitor to Nelson from this province, or any other part of the country where anything approaching to railways is unknown, cannot fail to notice the iron railway laid down by the Dun Mountain Company, and which is now only used to bring firewood into town from the ranges, and to run an omnibus to and from the shipping port, a distance of about a mile and a-half. Now, can we fail to be struck with the fact that though the rails are crossing and re-crossing the streets right through the heart of the town, they offer not the slightest impediment to the ordinary traffic, and that a single horse in an omnibus running on these rails is able, with ease, to draw from forty to fifty pasrengers at a full trot. Now, this line did not cost more than £2OOO a mile, and it cost much less where laid down on a road already made. The gauge is, I believe, 3 feet, and the rails are what are calied light contractors' rails, yet it is sufficient for an enormously larger amount of traffic than that which it now carries, and which not only pays the expenses of its maintenance and repair, but also gives a profit to the company towards interest on its prime cost.

After seeing the working of this horse railway many years ago, I advocated the construction of a simnar one between Wellington and the Upper Hutt, convinced then, as I am now, that such a line would, in the very first year, pay cost of construction, as well as its working expenses, if all the saving directly effected by it were fairly taken into consideration. I urged the adoption of such a road, only with wooden rails instead of iron, through the level bush country of the Manawatu, when, six years ago, the formation of roads in that district was under consideration. A vote for Manawatu " roads and tramways" was put upon the estimates, and it was only owing to the fact that our engineers would not bring down their estimates to the level of our means, and because just afterwards a Government came in which knew net Nelson and its tramway, that I could not get my way. Now, however, under the General Government, this mode of locomotion is likely to have a fair trial in the rich, level, wooded, stonelf 38, country of the Manawatu, which is eminently adapted for such roads, and where, in fact, it is impossible almost to make any other kind. The more the question is thought out, the more apparent it will be that the railway, whether wood or iron, laid on as good a level as the natural features of the country will allow, affords far the cheapest means of doing the work which roads are intended to clo.

The following estimate of the actual saving which would be effected on six drays travelling regularly between Wellington and the Upper Hutt will show the real economical value of the railway ; and if that saving could be effected on six drays, what would be the annual saving on the transport of the material annually passing backwards and forwards to the Wairarapa from Wellington now ? I invite criticism of my figures. I am not only certain that they are correct, but, if anything, I h ive far understated the advantages in favor of the tramway, as T have not taken into consideration either the less wear and tear of the passage of goods over a rail as compared with a cheap macadamised road, or the smaller risk, or the greater speed by the former; and if my figures are correct they show that many industries which now would ruin those who engage in them, will give a handsome profit merely by the saving which can be effected in the cost of bringing to market what is produced. For instance, the owner of a saw mill at the Upper Hutt who can supply material to keep six drays on the road, and under the present system could only just make both ends meet, would, with a railway available, be the happy recipient of something like £2030 a year. The same argument applies to farming operations, and numberless other industries. The difference of a few shillings a ton is often the difference between a good profit and an actual loss to the farmer, and because the unnecessary high cost of carriage to his market consumes these few shillings he perforce lets his lands and his teams lie idle, and ho contents himself with the small but more certain profit of growing stock. I look upon it that the macadamised road is an expensive luxury, in which only a wealthy community can indulge for the purpose of driving their carriages into the highways and byeways of the land, and that the real work of travelling and of carriage must perforce be done upon the railway, of the simplest, cheapest possible construction at first, but afterwards improving as the traffic may require. The railroad from Foxton to Palmerston is now being made with wooden rails for the sake of economy, and it is well it should be so, but I have not the slightest hesitation in affirming, and time will bring the proof or contradiction, that within two years after its construction, or even less than two years, the timber trade that woodway will develope will require a good iron rail laid on the sleepers instead of the wooden one, and a Fairlie engine instead of master Dobbin to draw the load. —Yours, &c, A. F. Halcombe. Annual Baving on cost of carriage by the work- - . ing of six timber drays from Wellington to the Upper Hutt on an iron railway with horse power instead of on the present: road: — .On Macadamised road — (It is taken for granted that each dray carries . five tons; that six horses are required to move the five tons.) Keep of thirty-six horses at £SO .■ each per annum ... ... £IBOO 0 0 Six drivers at £IOO, do do ... 600 0 0 £2400 0 0

On Iron railway—(lt is proved by experience of saw mills that even on wooden rails one horse easily moves five tons at a sharp walk, if the road is level.) Six horses at £SO each £3OO 0 O One driver 100 O 0

£4OO 0 0 Saving bj use of railway, £2OOO per annum.