ENGLISH RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION IN THE COLONIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4792, 1 August 1876, Page 3

ENGLISH RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION IN THE COLONIES.

Some very peculiar complications have just arisen between the Tasmanian Government and an English company who contracted to build a railway for the colony ; and the facts, as set out in corfespondence now going on between the Government and the local representative of the company, may be interesting in view of the celebrity which the matter will very likely attain to. The leading features of the contract were -.—That the company should construct and equip with rolling stock, stations, etc., a railway to connect Hobarton and Launceston in a certain defined manner, and that it should maintain this line of railway in a state of efficiency, and keep it in operation at a 'specified frequency and speed. During the construction of the line the Government engaged to pay interest on the company’s progressive outlay ; and if, at a given date, its construction was completed, and the railway was in operation, the Government would then become liable for any deficiency in the receipts of the undertaking after covering its working expenses to the extent of five per cent, on £650,000 of the capital invested therein. In entering into the agreement it was anticipated by the Executive which, under the authority of the Legislature, contracted with the company, that the contingent liability, fixed at a maximum of £32,500, would, by the development of traffic on a line constructed and equipped in an approved manner and worked with due efficiency and economy, be gradually reduced, and eventually that the line would prove self-paying. Throughout the period of construction, as amply provided in the contract, the stipulated interest of £5 per cent was punctually met, no corresponding reduction being made even for disputed items of account, reserved for future arbitration ; and with a loan of £3OOO, the total sum which has been paid to the company amounts to £90,576 15s. 4d., a sum which exceeds all demands made or admissible in this stage of the contract. Keeping distinctly in view that the contract between the Government of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Main Line Railway Company was not only, as already stated, a contract for the maintenance of railway communication between the two defined places, but also for the construction of such a durable and safe Hue as would attract a profitable traffic, and thus contribute to reduce the contingent liability of the colony, in 1873-74 the Government took steps to obtain a competent, trustworthy, and detailed examination and report in respect to the character and quality of the works in progress. For this duty the Executive did not itself select an agent, but confided the choice to the Government of Victoria, who nominated a gentleman high in its Railway department, and possessing the most thorough confidence of Mr. Higinbotham, its chief. This gentleman, Mr. W. H. Greene, having made his inspection, in a report epitomised his conclusions by saying; “ That many of the works on the company’s Hue are of the most unsubstantial character. That the culverts are not sufficient, either in number or size, to provide for the drainage. That, considering the class of work on the company’s line, the construction of the whole railway from Hobarton to Evandale would be undertaken by contract for the sum of five hundred and forty thousand pounds sterUng, including rolHng-stock, stations, and purchase of land. That when the contract time for the completion of the works has arrived the Government should cause an examination of the line, with a view of ascertaining whether the contract conditions have been complied with. That it will be impossible to obtain the contract speed on the company’s line, and that if an average of fifteen miles an hour is accompHshed by passenger trains it wiU be necessary to provide better ballast, and to lay the permanent way in a more careful manner than the company have hitherto done.” After the lapse of fifteen months Mr. Greene was commissioned to renew his inspection of the line, and the results of this, his second inspection, were given in a report dated 12th of August, 1875, seven months prior to the railway being opened for traffic. Premising that this report was dealt with in precisely the same way as the previous one, the following extracts will show the unsatisfactory manner in which the construction and equipment of the line were being carried out : “ The ballasting, which is a most essential feature in railway construction, is, I regret to say, of exceedingly bad quality. The material used is of all sizes and descriptions, and_ in all stages of decay, and it will be impossible to maintain a good road unless the line is re-bal-lasted. The ballast is certainly not of the depth (18in.) specified in the contract. “ The rails themselves are evidently of a very mixed quality ; a large number show signs of failure, and many have already been taken out of the road. I have to remark that in estimating the cost of construction at five hundred and forty thousand pounds, or at the rate of four thousand five hundred pounds per mile between Hobarton and Evandale,_ I anticipated that the expenditure on rolling stock would have been greater than it has been, and that the station accommodation would have been of a more extensive and substantial character than that now being provided ; I am, therefore, of o, inion that the amount stated in my report of April, 1874, is in ‘excess of the actual cost of the works, and that such a line as the company has constructed would have been completed by local contracts considerably within the amount of ray estimate.” Mr. Greene on this occasion advised that when the company’s contract was _ reported complete, or sufficiently so, for the line to be put in operation, it should be inspected by a “ Board of Professional Officers." As soon as the agent of the Main Line Railway Company intimated that the line was opened, the Executive expedited negotiations, which it had previously initiated, with the neighboring colonial Governments, to obtain the services of their most competent engineers as a board of inspection. The Governments of New Zealand and Queensland, where the narrow gauge prevails, and of South Australia, where it is in partial .operation, as well as New South Wales and Victoria, where the broad gauge exclusively is at present known, were requested to send their best available engineers to pronounce an opinion on the works of the Tasmanian main line in connection with the contract between the Government and the company. To this application the Government of Victoria found it inconvenient to accede^; but it also held it to be unnecessary on its part, after the successive reports already made by one of the principal engineers attached to the railway staff of that colony ; and New Zealand could not spare one of its officers for so distant a mission. But the Executive obtained the professional services of the chief engineers of Government railways respectively of South AustraUa and Queensland, and of the chief assistant engineer of New South Wales, a gentleman originally selected for his present appointment by the Home Government, and under whose immediate supervision the principal railways of that colony have been constructed or extended. The Board pronounced their opinion upon the work as a whole in these terms: — “After a full and careful examination and consideration of the whole subject in all its bearings, we are unanimously of opinion that the general conditions of the contract, as far as the construction and maintenance of the line are concerned, have not been complied with.” The Treasurer of the colony then writes to say that “ upon a revision of these facts as set forth in the testimony of experts, deputed by the Governments of four of the adjacent colonies, and having regard to the notorious fact that, in consequence of prevailing distrust m the mind of the community in the safety of the main line, every calculation of advantage from it is disappointed, and must continue to be so, until the lino is constructed, equipped, and worked in conformity with the conditions of the contract, the Executive is obliged, though most reluctantly, to decline acceding to your request for a further pecuniary advance. Already the disbursements from the revenues of this colony on account of the main line of railway exceed ninety thousand five hundred and seventy-six pounds ; and without the express sanction of tho Legislature, the Government would be compromised by making any additional payments In tho face of pro*

fessional reports that the company haa not fulfilled its contract engagements.” The company are about to proceed against the Government in the EngHeh law courts.