RAILWAYS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5196, 16 November 1877, Page 5

RAILWAYS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

(From the South Australian Chronicle,)

In treating the question of the injudicious increase in the railway traffic of this colony, we referred to the contrasts which were shown by the railway management of New South Wales and Victoria as compared with our own. We refer again to the New South Wales report, rendered by Mr. John Rae, Commissioner of Railways (not a responsible Minister), in order to show the importance which the Government of that province attaches to efficient and economic railway management. The Railway Department of New South Wales furnishes its account in a full and intelligible manner, so that whether a Minister’s policy may be expansive or restrictive. it gives reliable data by which* it may be decided hew far that policy is justified. A liberal railway system, intended for the development of the country, to be successful, requires population and cheapness of carriage. Settlement is presupposed and the consequent traffic. It should be taken for granted that the country through which an iron road passes, or is to pass,’will support a considerable population, and yield a large amount of produce. To make railways pay at moderate charges for carriage there must be economic administration. In this New South Wales seems to excel. We do not wish to make invidious comparisons ; but when we see the railway report of that colony of 106 pages, dealing with almost every detail which should form part of such a document, we canot help being dissatisfied with the meagre, illarrauged account furnished by our officials. This alone is evidence that the Railway Department of the older colony has an efficient organisation, which does not exist here. Mr. Rae tells us that at the end of 1876 there were 509 miles of railway open and in work. This is exclusive of a further length of lines amounting to 179 miles to be opened in 1877. New routes were under survey for new lines, and the prospect is that before long 266 miles additional will be added to the railway lines of the colony. Different routes to the extent of 1469 miles of line have been surveyed, and it is expected that from these surveys 856 miles will be constructed. Against South Australian projects these figures are simply wonderful ; but more wonderful still when we consider what railway experience has brought for the grand old colony. Her railways have a splendid traffic, for she beats Victoria in wool exports, nearly all of which passed over the iron road?, by 21,826,924 pounds in 1874, and by 43,004,409 pounds iu 1875, the relative differences in value being in the two years £612,328, and £1,815,484. The interest on capital invested in railways in New South Wales stands thus when compared with that accounted for in, other places:— New South Wales, 4 - 39 per cent; United Kingdom, 4 - 25 ; Victoria, 3’74 ; South Australia, 2’66; Queensland, I*6B. We have given these figures before, but they are worth repeating. We have also shown the expenditure per train mile in all the colonies, the South Australian rate being highest. Victorian railways carry wheat cheaper than ours do, but charge more for merchandise. The tariff for goods on the New South Wales railways is about 3d. per mile, but then the gradients on the principal lines being so severe the cost of haulage is, of course, very much greater. The New South Wales report, though ably written and well arranged, is, as we observed in a former article, deficient in one thing, and that, as a question of railway economy, is material. There is no information as to the cost of fuel. This we consider a very serious omission, because it would be obviously useful to show how much of the expenditure is for coals or other fuel. To the complaint that our railways are so much more expensively managed than those of other colonies the ready official answer of course will be “ Oh, coals are so much dearer here.” This argument, as we have lately urged, cannot apply to the comparison between South Australia and Victoria. There is not much, if any, difference between the value of coal at Port Adelaide and Melbourne, and when we consider that a large proportion of our railway fuel consists of wood, which is certainly not dearer than in Victoria, it is evident that very little of the excess of expenditure in this colony as compared with the neighboring province on our Eastern border is due to the cost of fuel It is to be. hoped that in our future railway reports the expenditure on fuel will be given separately. It is astonishing how little attention has been paid iu the South Australian Parliament to railway management or mismanagement. A telling speech like that of Mr. Hawker’s last session is now and then made on the subject, and then it is allowed to pass out of notice. No legislator seems willing to make the question his own, or else no one is able to grasp it, or has patience to do battle with official inertness or ohstructiveness, -