RAILROADS AGAIN.

Southland Times, Issue 692, 5 July 1867, Page 2

RAILROADS AGAIN.

(PBJf JATOB~O? THB"SOUTHIAIO) TIMBS.J Having in my former letters dealt in a general abstract way concerning^railroads, its expediency, or , r otherwise, I will, now enter more fully into i\xe details of this sMpendous question; in order to show how the expected benefits railroads will confer on the few^will eventually; ttfrn to the ruin of the many. The New Zealaird""QoTnpany's proposal, hy^ their agents' Messrs. Douglas and Co., to the G-overnment, 'to construct a line of railroad ;ir6m.Tlarer.ca;rgill ; to the JtiEataura, for the,: <3pnsid,eratipn of 200,000 ; acres of land, value £1 an acrej will appear to a superficial observer a reasonable-proposal; if, as I am led to understand by the vague wording, in ..the proposal, that ' rollingstock, station buildings, &c, are included, which would be somewhere about £6000 per mile. In the eighth clause r of the said proposal we read,-that' " the railway works >to be constructed. at the risk of the Government." To the casual reader, "all will' appear proper and right, as "a matter of course, in- every business transaction By . looking a little .■closer -into this business, even without the aid of a microscope, we, become aware that the few .words. "at the risk of the Gfovern-menfel"-signifies-a. great deaL _ A most, wealthy Company, whose capital -is invested in land, steck improvement, &c.i:ampunt_s tomillipns of pounds, proposes r to' ; the G-overnment (or in other w^rdsj_ to the poor almost bankrupt people of Southland), to build a railroad, (withj-the exception, of three or four dozen small farmers) to their own (the Company's) absolute use, and we, the people of Southland, to pay them for the building of this railway, give 200,000 acres of land r value £200,-000, and-the-said-rail-way is to be built at the. risk pf; the people pf Southland, viz., the people -pf Sputh,larid to "keep" the railways, rolling stock" >, bridges, viaducts, buildings, &c, in workable repair, -which approximately, will amount annually say £2000, and pay annually & deficit of working expenses :of another £5000, andthatthis sum of £7000 the poor, desponding people of Southland^ do -bind themselves down to pay, v'teyeryr /.yeajp for .the ; rest: ; pf . ytheir natural lives, for the sole- benefit of this all opulehfrah'dfoighfrv Gpmpan^ besides the said 200,000 acres ofc.the best picked put land ; .andlin order to. raise, the. said £7000 each man, wpman, and child will have tP- be taxed £1 extra, a-nnually to provide Alpha, and Betta, and Q-amma, and Omega with, the convenience of railways. The man who by means of some magic conjuration, brought up from a hidden depth this phantom of a railroad bull, must be a great magician indeed, or else he would riot have sue; ceeded to bring, . about , the, present clamor; for more railroads. • '■' Now let us take this quixotical phantom of a railway bull: by. his horns," and look fora few riliriutes steadily in his face ; we will sponJbecpme aware -that; the irpn bull- is- the -most -vicious- animal -in- the world, when you can't find him. enough work to T 'do.' ; I; have known some of them at home, to devour all; the ; gold, silver, and coppers, and even the coats from off their owners backs, and leave them in rags. And even v .here, ' in Southland, it is Baid they had- one, who, when ' they' could not - find' him •'suflicieriifc" work, 1 always .sneaked about the Provincial Treasury, and devoured all the gold arid silver ncr could find therei;^ and m that this ■•: vicious animal devoured about' % thousand -piece's of gold,' arid that^besides 1 he trampled 'all the roads made, of the stately, pine , of Southland to pieces, and that. they at last had to sell him for a bond slave, to grind in' the mill for all the days of his life; arid irrorder to prevent him sneaking' away, they- plucked, put his eyes, as they did to one, Sa^mpson _pf_. .pld^ and they. _ also .cut off tour /of his legs, but left him the other four to stand upon, to grind in the mill, with an iron halter round hiß neck. . The argument which is sp bften heard, that the extension of any railway will cause the whole line to pay- better, is.. a most fallacious one, as the following facts will prove. In New South Wales, when the southern line only extended from Sydney- to - Liverpool,- -20 miles," ~'~- it paid five . per cent.: interest ; it was then confideritly believed by every one, that as ,the line extended- it would pay..more,. more, as much as 10 per cent was expected ; four years after, 18 miles being added, the line payed four per cent.i and -the last three years, when the line extended /52 niiles inland;'3t per pent.^per -annuni 1 was all the interest .^he/ t KrieT'ear.n ! e4,,qn the sunk capital ; let jyaptHer; 'sQ miie^|e added, and ypy. may, ealsfly calculate what ; the earningswiu be. Precisely the aaina rule kys\m to aj| m

countries — the further tKe line is carnejL from the centre of population, the Ws it 1 will pay. . - % - ~ / The next argument, that population will set in where railways 'have been opened, ia equally N incorrect. In_all the Australian Colonies, no ,_ per-.; ceptible increase above the usual crease of former years, when no railways existed, has took place on account of railroad extension in America ; we would be led to a contrary conclusion were it not that the facts' of a former extension of population which took place when no railways- existed contradicted the assumptionthat railroads ; were the, cause of it.: The causes,- immigration from Europe and from the Eastern the richness of soil in, the west ; ,these causes existed always irrespective of railroads. .. i£ my memory, serves me right, as much as 20,000' tons of freight have been conveyed east on the Lake Erie and St Louis line of railroad, arid 10^000 tons west — in all 30,000 tons ; in the course of one autumn, month. v N^ow, if.fpr.-the sake of statistics, some, one was to undertake to count tne tonnage passing in or out of town near Invercargiir— either ,qn the North or East Road — I should -suppose he would find that at the time when he had' counted the 30,000 tons" he <"wxruld have grown some years alder. Invthe shape qf-a. syllogistic formr— it will read thus -.—ltailways have never been known to pay where a scarcity of population exists. But Southland's population are but a few. Thererefore .Ba»Zways will not pay in. Southland. Most of our present . railway agitators - iri- r town disguise their real object they have in view;;; the expenditure of say £60,000 in the province for work, and a : consequent temporal revival of business ; they,: cloak : over their motives by such trash as utility, expediency, influx^ and augmentation of population^ v &e. ; they are like -the-lawyerj-who,~whendefending a bad.capej will humbug, the jury.^fdr hours' with a defence,, making it appear that every word he., utters, the most orthodox, and all "the while he himself not believing one word of what he says, and this all for the paltry fee he receives. ~ There are others le&s cunning, whoavow openly that they have no faith in. railways paying for years to come, f but . . they :.. say. we want some money put in circulatidn ; we want ,wprk, we want a : stir-up in business; '&&: ; tniey do not care, they^say, whether a railway is built to the Mataura, or elsewhere,.as long as money is made to circulate. ' They are merely asking alms in fofmapauperis ; they < are here to-tlay, and away td-morrow. Wpthing will deter them from a mad scheme they 'have set their minds upon ; it .is the bona fide citizen and farmer, wioj^ when niade--to -see things— in stheir proper shape, will: it'- is hoped,, oppose a mania of all the manias, with all his might. The English railway mania, some dozen years ago,.had its origin on the supposed profits which would fall to the shareholders; here the re verse, is the case,; a mania for loss and ruin.— Your most; obedient servant, J. A. Eichteb.- . Waikivißush, June 29th, 1867.; 1