The Southland Times. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1534, 6 February 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1872.

In last issue we presented our readers with a detailed statement of the financial affairs of the Southland railway lines for the year 1871. As a debtor and creditor account the statement is upon the whole satisfactory, despite the fact that a number of items charged are for permanent works, and do not, strictly speaking, apply to current expenditure. After providing for maintenance, working expenses, &c, a sum of £317 16a lid remains to account of the original cost of construction. Under ordinary circumstances this would not be accounted a paying speculation. In the present phase of the railway system of Now Zealand, however, that is not the light in which it is looked at. "Works of this nature are designed with regard to their collateral advantages- — their effect upon the settlement and material development of the country — so that we only estimate them aright when they are viewed in relation to their results in that respect. Adopting that basis, we find much in the railway system of Southland that is highly encouraging. The growth of settlement and increase of agricultural operations along the entire through line, more especially in and around Winton, is unequalled by any ? other district in the late province. Other branches of trade — saw-milling, meat-preserving, fellmongering, and such like pursuits — have sprung up, for the establishment of which there can be little doubt that we are mainly indebted to the railway communication. Before, finally disposing of the question as investment, we are bound to refer to the want of system displayed by the G-overnment in regulating the affairs of the line. The bare fact 5 that a large proportion of the wool prodace oi the conterminous districts was conveyed to town by dray proved the existence of a drawback in the working of the. line. These defects have since been remedied, but unfortunately the re^nedy was provided after wool-growers had entered into engagements for transmitting their wool

by dray, hence traffic returns have been made to suffer in proportion. Again the running of passenger trains on the northern line was a source of much annoyance. Settlers found it more convenient to visit town on horseback, and for a length of time the trains were run to all intents and purposes with empty carriages. This state of things was persisted in by the Government rather than incur the trifling expense of erecting an engine shed, so as to admit of the line being worked from the Winton terminus. Now that matters are improved, a corresponding improvement in the passenger traffic has taken place, consequently the traffic receipts both in this department and that of the goods are bound to increase. The extension of the railway system, however, to Woodlands in the first instance, and eventually to Mataura and Kingston, will bring the full extent ,of our traffic resources into play. It will be then that Southland railways will tell their tale not merely as a colonising scheme, but likewise as a remunerative investment. Every effort in that direction should continue to be watched, and no exertion spared to get the work carried into effect at the earliest possible date. Apart from its bearing on the question of railway communication, the statement is fraught with lessons on the whole question of public economy which cannot be too carefully studied. According to the provincial estimates for the current year, it is proposed to spend on main trunk roads and other public highways a sum of £36,193. The direct estimated i revenue from these is £11,000, set down against " Tolls on Eoads." We have ! here a deficiency of £25,193 to be made up out of the general revenues of the province. The railway on the ether hand is not only selfi supporting, but it actually yields a surplus ; towards the expense of its original construction — a surplus which may by judicious management be so increased as eventually to cover the entire cost. Had Otago, instead of making and forming expensive highways, inaugurated at the very outset a judicious system of railways, all the collateral advantages of main trunk roads would have been secured, the lines rendered selfsupporting, and in all probability very considerable headway would have been made towards recouping G-overnment for the first cost of their formation. Briefly put the question of railways versus main trunk roads stands thus. The former have all the relative advantages of the latter in a greatly increased ratio, besides which they possess the additional advantage of having within themselves the elements of becoming a reproductive work in the strictest sense of the word — an advantage to which the other cannot lay claim. Turning to the expense of maintenance, we find that the cost per mile for the railway bears no adequate proportion to the cost per mile paid for our highways. The sum put down in the railway statement is £74 3s 4d. From the published report of the Engineer of Boads and Bridges for the late province, we find that a sum equal to £217 per mile was spent on the Great North road ; £137 on the Mataura road ; and so on in the same proportion for other roads in the district. In every respect the statement is both encouraging and instructive. It shows the urgent necessity that existed for a revised system of public works, such as that initiated by the present Government of the colony. We shall only add in conclusion that the present working management of the Southland lines has done much to remove the odium by which their construction was surrounded, and there can be no doubt that the statement just issued will go still further towards reassuring the public mind in the matter.