RAILWAY'S FOR FRANCE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5366, 8 June 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

RAILWAY'S FOR FRANCE.

France, feeling that she is not nearly so well burnished with railway .communication in tho interior of thecountry as is Britain, has resolved to supply tho want. A. grand scheme of “public . works, has been -Introduced in the Chamber of Deputies by M. de Freycinet, the Minister for. that department. It. .is contemplated by M: de Frey cinet’s Bill that the State shall construct 9000 inileS of new railways, at an-'average cost of-£13,500-per mile, or £120,000,000. in all,' together with a further expenditure of ; £40,000,000 - in . making new canals, deepening rivers; so as to extend the navigable part of them to their improving harbors, and constructing, new ones where required, for the ready shipment of the produce and other merchandise of the districts.;; Some of the proposed railways are for purely local purposes, while others are primarily military lines for the defence of the country. The railways are proposed to be constructed before the harbors and the ’ deepening of .the rivers, &o. The money required is ‘ to- be 1 raised-by an internal loan upon the security of the new railways,; In addition to that of ; the State itself. ■lt "is to be raised by instalments extending over the next ten years,- by the end of Swhich period it is expected that the new railways will be fully constructed... The repayment of the loan is to be made by instalments. , M..Freycinet estimates that .the Trench people save £60,000,000 per - annum, and thinks they will have no difficulty in . lending " the State £120,000,000 for railway construction,'out of teu years* savings.--; ■ - -*