RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 72, 20 March 1912, Page 6

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

ME. J. ALLEN’S VIEWS. (Per Press Association 3 Christchurch, March 20. Mr. James Allen was present at a social gathering last evening, and spoke on the subject of railway construction, apropos of the agitation for extension of the lino from Culverden to Waiau. He sajd that if greater powers were given to local bodies in the construction ■of roads and bridges Parliament would have more time to deal with larger matters, such as Imperial affairs and railways. At present the railways here cost £14,000 a mile to build. It •was difficult to make lines pay at that rate. Lighter _ serviceable construction was possible at £3OOO or £4OOO a mile. He did not believe in an extensive borrowing policy for the reason that .a depression of the London money market would cause a serious dislocation of industrial conditions, but borrowing must be continued for railways. He had been told that it would bo necessary to borrow fifteen millions in the next ten or twelve years for railways. If the Government could not prudently borrow that sum it might permit the people of the district t° I'i'ise a Joan of their own for the construction of the line they needed, on the understanding that such railways would be later sold to the State without goodwill. .