OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 52

OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

I CLAIMS FOR EXTENSION. DEPJTTATJON AT CROMWELL. (From Oitr Special Repobteb.) CROMWELL, August 7. While the Minister of • Public Works the Hon. R. M'Kenzie) was at Cromwell to-day a deputation brought under his notice their claims for the extension of . the Otago Central railway. Mr E. Murrell, in opening the discussion, said the residents wanted the railway carried aito Cromwell and to its destination at Hawea. He thought the Government should carry it right through to Wanaka. Going to Clyde had taken away the market from the farmers in this district. | Mr Horn said that in Dunedin the Minister had put it as a business proposition, and he (Mr Horn) proposed to treat it as such. By its continuation the railway would serve 1,500.000 acres from Clyde up, and out of that there was only, about 7 per cent, alienated. The revenue which the Crown received at present from the land in the district was £6349, and this would be doubled if the land was cut up into small grazing runs. That would make the revenue ±512,698. Then there were 500,000 acres of agricultural land, from which £18,750 would be" derived, and this gave a grand total of £31,448. The interest on the money for the construction at 3 per cent, he estimated at £7500, so that there would be left clear the sum of £23,745— a decided increase in revenue. The cost of extension he estimated at £250>000. The cosfc of the lower end of the line, he contended, should never be a charge against the line. That portion should have been constructed from Palmerston, and if the Government had made a mistake it had no right to penalise the people in this district for it. If the first section of the railway was taken off and the revenue considered it would place the matter in quite a different light. The upper end would make the railway a payable concern. Replying to the Minister, MrHorn said there were something like 2500 people on the 1,500,000 acres he had referred to. There were about 250,000 sheep, but not a great many cattle. - The Minister : And do you- say that that number of people and that number of sheep would pay the cost of constructing this railway. Mr Horn : No, but I am going to multiply that by 8. — (A Voice : " It's no use, Jimmie; he has made up his mind.") , Mr Fraser, M.P.. said he could not help thinking that the policy as to railway construction was a mistake. He did not think the population should precede a railway. He thought a railway was the means of settling a population. The Minister : How- -much a year bhould the Government spend on railways ? Mr Fraser : That depends upon your ability to- borrow and the facilities you have. It would depend upon the area of ground to be tapped. Settlers can do nothing upless they are connected with the seaboard. Mr George Neill expressed the opinion thai a light line from Clyde to Cromwell might be constructed at £2000 per mile. Mr L. Harris then referred to irrigation, and complained that the Government had not brought in the water nor would it let others bring it in, the warden having refused an application in this direction. The Minister said it was a mistaken idea to think that the Government was not doing anything towards bringing in the water. The Government had schemes before it. Water was scarce in Central Otago, and it would l>e a mistake to allow the Roaring Meg or the Kawarau to get into private hands. He outlined the schemes previously referred to by him on two occasions, and said that if they could persuade Mr Fraser to induce other members of the House to support him in getting the railway through the gorge without irrigation well and good, but he did not think they would support him. It was impossible to get the railway extended unless *he members would agree to it. The Government had offers now where people were prepared to guarantee 3j- per cent, on the cost of construction of a railway if the Government rould only undertake the work for them. If the Cromwell people were to offer 3^ per cent, on the cost of the construction' of this railway they would have a case on parallel lines. There were a number of plares where people were prepared to t-ate themselves, to pay for railway construction. He was not in a position to say that although the Otago Central was osing money it was not caDable of being; nade" Diiyable, buL he said they wanted : rri nation to make it payable. Take their estimate of £250,000 for the line. It would take the whole of that to bring tlv? line from Clyde to Cromwell. The bulk of the construction between the two places would cost £20,000 a mile. The deputation then thanked the Minister and withdiew. THE DELAY IN PROSECUTION. HON. THOMAS FERGUS'S STRICTURES. In propceing a voto of thanks to th« president at Friday's meeting of the • Chamber of Commerce, the Hon. Thomas Fergus made some strong and sweeping statements regarding the delay of the Government in continuing the constructioni of the Otago Central railway beyond Clyde. This railway, said Mr Fergus, had been) neglected for years, notwithstanding the fact that it had claims upon the Govern- ( ment such as were not possessed' by ftnsj other railway in the Dominion. Waa there anywhere else in New Zealand, ha demanded, a railway proposed such as thu* one, the coat of which might he borne by Ihe rents derived from the landW through which it would pass? In Canterbury they were constructing a railway to connect two seaboard* and to carry coals to Newcastle. Was that line to be com*

pared with the Otago Central? If the Government would only give Ocago an endowment of the rents of the lands traversed by the Otago Central line it would be sufficient to carry the line to a legitimate conclusion. They had been told it did not pay 6s per cent, on the cost of its construction. What did that matter? He wondered it paid so much. It had cost a third more than it ought to have cost by the iniquitous manner in which it had been constructed. The money now spent on it should have carried it to its ultimate destination — Lake Hawea. He had been looking through the Public Works Statement recently, and he found that hundreds and thousands of pounds were being lavished on useless buildings from one end of the colony to the other. Palatial premises were being erected for employees who could do their work equally as well in more- modest domiciles, while the means of communication to settlers on the outskirts was denied to them. This railway was the subject of a just grievance on the part of the_ people of Otago, and on every occasion the Chamber of Commerce should support its construction with the fullest vigour it could throw into it. Many thousands of pounds were spent annually on roads. What per cent did that money pay? It paid nothing. But it placed people on the lands, and kept them there,, and made the farms accessible to trade. Yet they had bean told the Otago Central line did not paj 6s per cent, on its cost. When the Prime Minister told him that in his private room in Wellington he replied, " Ward, that's utter bosh. You know the Government is to blame because it has over-manned the line and because it has constructed it on expensive principles, and now you wish to stop it while you are carrying on works of lees utility than this one is likely to be." The Committee of the Chamber would do well to keep thismatter in mind and to keep the Ministry in mind of it. He trusted .the electors ( of Otago would also keep in mind the importance of the line. He also wished to saj this: It was a great pity to hear people advocating one railway as against another. Some people said the Otago Central should not go on as it only paid 6s per oant-, and the Catlins line should go on, and the Lawrence-Roxburgh line was not wanted, but that they wanted a railway up the Clutha ValAey. The projects were all excellent, and did not come into conflict. If the four lines wexe constructed? in proper order, and as funds were available, and kept on a parity with railways in other parts of New Zealand, Otago would get only what was due to it. It was a fallacy on the part of the Govermnieait — it -was stated that the Hon. Mr Millar — to suppose that the line from Clyde to Cromwell would cost between £200.000 and £300,000. Such a statement was utter bunkum. He liad gone over the plans of the railway himself with the ex-district engineer (Mr Ussncr), and made out the quantities of everything from the Clyde station to the Cromwell station ground, and he found uh&t it could easily be constructed for £50,000. He was quite willing to undertake it to-morrow at that money. — (Applause.) He would make a good profit out of it, and in carrying out the work there would be no need to grind the labourer down, for no one would be paid tees than 8s a day. The Government had over-estimated the sum required for the work. Of course, if they were to construct it by co-operative labour, which wag the biggest curse that ever came here, it would probably ccst between £200,000 and £300,000. He was confident it would. He had seen the co-operative method. A man took a wheelbarrow for four or five chains on planks, and, having tipped the barrow, had a smoke. A oomtractor would do the work with a plough and a scoop and two or three horses. In that way, the labour would be minimised. He was pleased to sec that the Otago people were waking up. If another election had to be fought now, tho people would have something to say to any Government or any member seeking their support who would not gee to it that this important work went on as expeditiously as any other railway in the colony. He also agreed with what had been said respecting the representation of the chamber on the Harbour Board, and supported the president in urging that more energy was required by the members of tho chamber to raise it to the level it should occupy in the community. — (Applause.) In corciusion, he congratulated the president on the excellent speech he had delivered. The Chairman : I have to thank Mr Fergus for his kind remarks in connection with my address. I ccrta-inly think he is perfectly correct in practically everything he has said in connection with the railway, and I also agree with what has been said about Harbour Board representation. I myeslf think that the Canadian method of constructing railways for settlement could be adopted here with very great advantage. I think if the GoVernment invites settlement it should certainly provide settlers with the means of carrying their belongings and their produce. .