CHEAP BAIL WAYS.

Southland Times, Issue 1128, 22 March 1869, Page 3

CHEAP BAIL WAYS.

" (From the 'Home New*,' Jan. 1.) Though the introduction of the Vic. to™ Loan pX.£2,OpQ/)0q has been post^nea^ the ariangeinents for it are completed; and, before oiir ne^xt number ir published, it will probably. bare been $11 mbscribed. As this loan is ctpsfLy

intended for railways, it will not be in appropriate, lo remark that opinion a home has become very strong in favor c the least expensive modes of construe tion, the lightest engines, and cue m>st econo nical systems ot working. As tai as possible all the new lines which th< new Parliament h asked to sauctiou wil be surface lines, without tU'-.uelliug^ oi costly embankments; and the engine: will be constructed accordingly. Mr R b\ Fair lie his the merit of having persistently directed attentiou to these matters, ani he has 'j rod need a system, o all others the best adapted to the exigencies .of the interior districts of new countries like Australia. Afber what we said on these subjects in our last, we neec not do more than express our hope thai in the expenditure of the capital aboul to be applied to railway construction in Victoria, regard may be had tc the ideas of the new school of engiueers, of which Mr Fairlie is clearly the most capable representative. Here iu England we are beginning to feel that the cost of Australian produce — whether minerals, wool, or food— will materially depend, more and more every year, up_m the cheapness of transit, not alone across the seas, but in the interior of the great island-continent. It would be almost, fatal to the rising trade in conserved meats if their cost were to be substantially enhauced; and we hive no ueed r.o say what would be the effect upon wool in the competition that Australia must continue to support in producing for the Yorkshire markets. It is superfluous to multiply reasons f.T cheap railways iu Australia, but one more must be mentioned, because it bears upon the encouragement that should be ghea to emigration from Australia itself. Agr at inducement to emigrate to the Uuiied States is the facility with which the emi graut, upon lauding -at New York, cuu move himself and his family iuto the interior. Ail parts of the West, and of tiafar West too, are accessible i y raii at lares within the meaus of all t te b-iCte-r class of emigrants, such as are now likely to be attracted to Australia, and ny-auu-bye the same class will find the co miry open to them to the edges of the .Pacific by meaus of the Union Pacific luie — a line constructed according to tie configuration of the country, ju t as Mr Fairlie would propose iu A ustraiia. It is made a merit of this Union Pacific Kail way that it will facilitate the seotlejnent of the country by attracting Europeau emigration. So it will, undoubtedly. What we submit to our Australian friends is, that, if so minded, they can do as the Americans are doing. Let them make their railways, and emigration will follow the railways and new populations spring up along trie 1 lines just as rapidly as they do in America. But the old costly system of the English railways must be discarded, otherwise the embarrassments which are clogging our lines at homes will be simply repeated in Australia. Even in America it is a fact, as auy o ie may verily for himse! f, that all those railway enterprises vvuich were commenced upon too expensive a scale are involved more or less in financial troubles ; but that ail which started upon moderato ideas are successful, and «ire able to take advantage, without much cost to capital, of any improvement that engineering science may introduce. These are all practical matters intimately connected with Australian prosperity ; and the opening of a new year is not an inappropriate time for their suggestion. Their execution is, of course, a different matter ; but of all our dependencies none is likely to benefit more by their practical application than Australia.