THE MISSING LINK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 28, 5 August 1871, Page 11

THE MISSING LINK.

It has long been remarked that the clioisest districts in New Zealand are without harbors, and the choicest harbors without land. This is the case with some of the finest districts and harbors in the Middle Island; and it is more especially so with regard to the splendid agricultural and timber districts of Taranaki, Patea, Manawatu, and Wairarapa on the one hand, and the port of Wellington on the other. Every stranger who visits this city is more struck with this circumstance than those who have resided in it the best part of their lives. What Wellington wants, say they, is back country ; it has an excellent harbor, but no land. Yet it lias, in truth, both; but they require linking together. It is strange that the people of Wellington should have been so long oblivious of this fact, seeing that the people of Canterbury were from the first aware of the necessity of making a tunnel and railway to connect their port with their plains. Is it because they have thought too much about the goodness of their harbor, and too little about the necessity of connecting it with the interior ? Is it because their attention has been too much directed towards shipping, and too little to the means of securing freight for ships ? Within a couple of hours lide, by railway, from Wellington, there are to be found several extensive districts of agricultural land, which could be put under cultivation at a cheaper rate than most waste lands. In their immediate vicinity are extensive forests of valuable timber, which only requires a port to be made marketable. Port Nicholson wants a country ; the country we refer to wants a port. A railway would make neither country nor port, yet it would be the making of both, by connecting one with the other. So long as they remain separated, the great want of each will remain unsupplied ; unite them by a railway, and the wants of both will be satisfied. By the application of this magic rod, the Wairarapa plains will be transformed into the suburbs of the city, while the port of Wellington will be brought, in effect, in close proximity to the forests of the Upper Manawatu. It may be thought that matters so plain do not require to be dwelt upon; butthefactisthat the most familiar truths—those which are, as it' were, constantly before our eyes—are precisely those which are least noticed. It is the novel which excites attention; the common, however important, is not recognised. To kill two birds with one stone is considered a lucky achievement; and in like manner is the acquisition of two objects by one agent. This a railway can accomplish. It can supply, at one and the same tjme, Wellington with a country, and the country with a port. It is the long missing link required to join the two together. But neither a railway, nor anything else worth having, can be acquired without some exertion. People who make an outcry about having to pay one penny in the £ for the improvement ©f their property need not expect the Government to take those steps which would result in doubling the value of that property while they sit idly looking on, perchance with their hands in their pockets. The Middle Island, nay even Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay, are enquiring what guarantee has Wellington to give in order to satisfy the colony that it will sustain no loss by this undertaking. It is a question whether any

railway in New Zealand would from the first pay the interest on its cost in addition to working expenses ; but there is no question, as we intend to show, about a railway enormously enhancing, from the very outset, the value of all property. We hold, as strenuously as any Middle Island member can possibly do, that the Government will not be justified in authorising the construction of any railways, either in this or any other part of New Zealand, before it is satisfied that the colony will not suffer any loss by their construction. The people of the North Island are quite as much interested in seeing that this condition is complied with as are the people of the South. If a railway from Wellington to Masterton will not be able to secure sufficient traffic to pav six per cent, on its cost in addition to its working expenses, there are very few railways in the Middle Island that will be able to do so. It is no exaggeration to say that for evpry toil of freight obtained for a railway between Christchurch and Dunedin, one hundred tons could he obtained for a railway between "Wellington and Masterton. The fact is that a railway is alone wanted to insure the prosperity of Wellington, and to double at once the market value of all the landed property in the province.

If we want to ascertain how railways will succeed with us, we must ascertain how they have succeeded in countries which are somewhat similarly circumstanced to this, where they have already been established. On this subject we must acquire our lessons, not from the experience of the old, but from the example of the New World ; not from England, but from the United States. We must bear in mind, also, that if a rich and populous country like Europe can furnish more traffic to railways than the comparatively poor and sparsely peopled countries lying west of the Mississipi, that they are, for that reason, much more costly undertakings. The average cost of English railways, and their working expenses, are probably, when taken together, four times more than their cost in America, and eight times more than they need be in New Zealand. At the present time there are about fifty thousand miles of railways in the United States. Their total cost was about four hundred millions sterling, which makes their average cost £BOOO per mile. Their annual earnings exceed four hundred million dollars, which is equal to a contribution of ten dollars per head of the population. They transport annually 125 million tons of freight, which gives over three tons to each person. The value of the tonnage, estimated at only 100 dollars to the ton, equals 300 dollars per head of the po *< pulation. Its total value would be 2500 million dollars, or more than six times greater than the whole cost of all the railways in the country. How absurd, how ignorant, and utterly ridiculous is it, then, to talk about the decline of American commerce, when there exists such an internal commerce as this, carried, not by American shipping it is true, but, what is not the less beneficial, by American railways ! As we have before stated, every mile of railroad constructed has added five times its cost to the aggregate value of the property of the country. The construction of these railways have been the means of reducing the average cost of the carriage of wheat and other farm produce to one tenth the price which would have had to be paid if carried on ordinary roads. In other words, the distance between the farm and the market has been virtually reduced to one-tenth of the length it would have been had no railway been made. We need not, therefore, be surprised to learn that when lines pass through private property the landowners, in many instances freely give the land required for their construction, which, of course, enables them to be built at a much cheaper rate than would otherwise be the case. In fact, it frequently happens, that when branch lines runs through private property the landowners become the principal shareholders in the companies formed for their construction. Thus, like stockowners, who become shareholders in a meat preserving company, they virtually secure, by a reduction in the cost of freight, a much higher price for their produce. Consequently, so far as such land and stockowners are concerned, the lower their dividends the greater their profits. Railway com-

panies, formed for building for great trunk lines, have had granted to them great facilities by the Government, in the shape of concessions of land, to the extent, it is said, of ten miles on each side of the proposed line; every alternate block being held by the Government. This land, by the time the railroad 'is opened, is reckoned to be doubled in value, whether for sale or for farming purposes. In some cases of course,°as when required for town sites, its value is increased one hundred and even a thousand fold. It is no wonder then that railroads are so highly estimated in America. They increase the value of the produce of the interior just in ratio as the cost of transportation is reduced ; and but for them many of the most densely inhabited, wealthy, and prosperous portions of the countiy would have remained as w T ild and unculti\ated as are at present our own districts of Upper Moroa, and Uppei IVlanawatu. The foregoing facts are sufficient to show that no reasonable doubt can exist about the railways, it is proposed to construct iivtbis province, paying their expenses ; about the effect they will have in enhancing the value of all real estate ; and about the commercial advantages Wellington will derive from'their construction. Her harbor, in fact, must eventually become the natural outlet for the produce of the Southern half of the North Island. A railway is the one link required to connect the port with the interior, and the Wairarapa with a seaport. What particular route should he taken we shall not pretend to determine. To have too strings to our bow is always an advantage, as we can use the second, if, on examination, the first should prove defective. Vet there is danger that the province, between the two°surveys, may be placed like the donkey between two bundles of hay, and in hesitating about which it should choose, lose the opportunity of choosing either.