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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 24 September 1880, Page 2

The Hakateramea Railway js progressing apace. There arc now between 300 or 400 men enscged on the works. Messrs, Allan aud Stumbles, the contractors, are deserving of great praise for the energy which they have displayed in regard to their contract. They commenced operations on tha Ist September, and the line will be fit for traffic by the end of the year, ao that all the Hakatetamea produce will come by rail to Oamaru season. •The line will be 14i miles in length, and, the *ontj?act price, including the five bridges necessary, is L 41,200. This line will open op 40.000 aorcs of agricultural land in thn JJafcaieraqvea Yalley, and nearly 10,000 acres of Jap'd in the Upper WaCtaki agd f&OJiOO acres of Ijmd of various ,qua}itie* ooe HabU to be rated in order to pay any defiqit tikai rajvy arise between the net earnings ana t&us interest on the moßey expended in -its construction, -it ,wiH be Been that there will be ao l&kfik WJWfc V. j

for the line to- perform. This is the system on which all oiir railways should have been constructed; If land owners who desired the construction of railways had beeii compelled to submit to this principle of taxing, their lands to meet any deficit; the Colony would not -now be saddled with a large number of non-paying lines which sprung into existence for no other reason fhan that tliey .werfe wanted for political supporters. We Have especial pleasure in writing of the Hakateramea lino, because we feel that iii it we shall be blessed rather than cursed: This line will, some day—when the Colony rises to the fortunate position of being able, with wisdom, to borrow money for the extension of its railways—be one of the first to be taken into the interior, wheii its full value will be realised.