RAILWAYS.

Southland Times, Volume 1, Issue 4, 21 November 1862, Page 4

RAILWAYS.

The I>ailjr is ; -Tv-f>li worth perusal :-4:- i*- . :;;;; .-. ;i; ' ■■■'•■■; ; ; :• ; Tlie extension of our railway system, so aaio include the most populous! and permanent townships iri th'e icitenor- will depend mainly upon the .commercial suc--cess of the lines now •' in operation. If thesa. return what would be considerea in the colony a small per centage- upon- the capital inrested, after paying _ working ex r pense^, no diflßcuity' 'wi'irbe ,^^experi^nce^ in disposing 'of ;the : railways to^^British capitalists. They-will be only too.happy to invest in an undertaking which combines undeniable: sreurity with a rate of ; interest from one to two per cent, higher thaii that which is deriyable; from the funded debt. When the last mail left England, millions of money were going begging at from two to two and a half per cent. ; and this plethoric condition of the London money market was stimulating the ingenuity of speculators to devise all, sorts of projects, for the purpose of providing employment for this redundant capital. ■ Hence the time is favorable for bringing the matter under the consideration of capitalisisathome; and it should be the policy ■ of the government to resort to all legitimate methods of developing the traffic on the lines, while omitting no effort to manage them as economically as is consistent with their efficient working. Mr. Mitchell, weobserve, estimates a net profit of rather more lhan four per cent, to accrue from the government railways ; and, if these expectations are v, ell-founded, that return will rapidly reach five per cent. ; for railways, as is well known, create traffic by multiplying the facilities for social and commercial intercourse. This is especially the case in a new country, where population and setlement follow the iron road, just as, in old countries, they formerly followed the course of navigable rivers. And although relatively the number of people in a coiony is small, yet their average circumstances are so much belter than those of the inhabitants of European countries, that they are enabled to travel more frequently, both for business and pleasure, and can afford to pay higher passenger rates and traffic charges than the same class at home. If, therefore, the Government lines, at the very^ outset, can be depended upon to yield a net revenue of four or five per cent., that revenue must continue to expand concurrectly and commensurately with the growth of population and the progress of industry. Nor would this view of the subject be overlooked by British capitalists contemplating the purchase ef our railways; while a glance at the map of Victoria would show them the future importance of these main arteries of communication between the seaboard and the interior, the valuable basis they would offer for future operations and the absence of all competition. They would rememuerthat the London and Birmingham and the Great Western Railways when they constituted the exclusive media of travel between London and Birmingham and London and Bristol respectively, paid len per cent, dividends, and that it was not until parallel lines and superfluous " loops " were constructed that the dividends dwindled down to the insignificant figure at which they now stand. There is little prospect, we trust, of our emulating the wasteful folly of the mother country in this Tespecl ; and there is the greaier inducement for English capitalist* to embark their money in the purchase of what will really amount to a monopoly, guarded from becoming inimical to the j public interests by the customary limitations

Once established the remunerative char acter of the Government lines in this col >ny, arid we shall not only be enabled to sell these at par, and to cancel thedebt we have incurred for their construction, but any amount of capital will be forthcoming for the purpose of railway extension, wherever a fair prospect of profit can be shown. Private companies will cheerfully undertake the enterprise, upon the Legislature giving them a guarantee of four or five per cent, upon the outlay ; and the lines ihus formed would be constructed at much less cost, and worked far more economically, than is possible for any Government to execuie and manage them. The influx of so much additional capital, and the creation of so much immovable property, would be highly beneficial to the country, irrespective of the larger advantages to be derived from improving and extpnding our means of inland communication ; and for the encouaragement of the promoters of the undertaking, and with a view to making it still more subservient to the settlement of the colony, it might be desirable to bestow grants of land hear the termini of the lines, upon the lahorers introduced by the capitalists or contractors engaged in their construction. Already a feeling of dissatisfaction is beginning to manifest itself among the inhabitants of those mining townships which are excluded from any direct participation in the advantages secured to their more fortunate neighbors by the . railways which connect them with Melbourne and Gelong; for that exclusion 1 , as a gold-field paper remarks, "implies the payment of an enhanced price for every article consumed, for the machinery and tools of the miner, for the agricultural implements of the fr rmer, for the merchandise of the storekeeper, and for the imported produce consumed by all classes of the community." This disability is felt with peculiar force in the populous centres of quartz-mining districts, where the succesful prosecution of that branch of industry is more or less contingent upon the cheap and easy transport of cumbrous machinery; and it is only natural ihose who suffer from such a disability should be eager for its removal, and should seek, by railway extension, to be placed upon the same footing as their neighbors at Ballarat, Castlemaine, and Sandhurst* How to accomplish this desirable result without increasing our railway loan, is the problem which the^ Legis lature, at no distant period, will be invited to solve. A simple and practicable solution of it seems attainable in the manner indicated above ; so that the prudent management of our government lines of railway will be attended with a twofold advantage — it will enable us to dispose of them without loss, and to redeem our obligation ; and it will invite English capitalists to provide us, without risk, either to themselves or to the colony,' with such additional railways as the requirements of the country may demand.