The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1884. DISTRICT RAILWAYS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1247, 2 October 1884, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1884. DISTRICT RAILWAYS.

The second reading of the District Railways Bill has been carried by a large majority, and tbe whole colony is now to be taxed for the benefit of a few. When this Bill was introduced a week or two ago, we explained its effects upon the colony. We pointed out that these District Railways were made by companies of landowners who could not get the Government to make them, at-cl who wanted to increase the value of their lands. These companies were given certain privileges,such as giftsof land, etc., and according to Mr Montgomery a sum of £900.000 was advanced to them out of the consolidated funds of the colony. Tet Ibis is not enough. The railways have been made, the landowners owing to hard times have not been able to sell their lands, and tbe railways instead of being a help to them to sell are the reverse. For instance, land on tbe Waimea Plains, in Otago, has to pay a rate of 3s 4d in tbe £, and consequently it has lowered instead of increasing in value on .account of the railway. It is so, more or leas, in several of tbe other districts in which these railways have been made, and this is the kind of burden Sir Julius Vogel’s Bill aims at throwing on tbe shoulders of tiie whole colony now. The whole colony will have to pay instead of the districts benefited, and the landowners in these districts will reap all the benefit. There has been no political jobbery equal to this in connection with our railways hitherto. We may talk as we like of political railways, hut these are railway lines that even the most corrupt Parliament would not touch. It was only because there was no hope of Government making them that the landowners undertook tbe work themselves, and now we are called upon to provide £600,000, together with £900,000 already paid, to lease (with a purchasing clause) them from the Companies that built them, and we shall have to bear a share of the cost of maintaining them also. Now, what is the use cf making a railway through a district where it costs Bs 4d in the £ rates to maintain it ? Such districts have no right to such luxuries, for they cannot support them, and it is scandalous to throw the burden of maintaining them on poor, unoffending, overtaxed ratepayers, who will never see them, MORTGAGES. The Wellington correspondent of the Press says:— “Some interesting figures regarding the extent to which borrowing on mortgage is carried on in the colony is contained in the annual report of the Land Transfer and Deeds Registration Department for 1883-84. It appears that the total amount secured by mortgage during the year ended Slst March, 1884, was £4,072,328. The amount ot mortgages paid off during the same period was £2,038,044, and the amount remaining secured by mortgage on the 31st March last was £24,412,343. The amount of money secured by the new mortgages in 1883-84 was only about two-thirds the amount in 1882-83. The district of Canterbury is far and away at the head of the other districts in amount it owes on mortgages, as will be seen from the following list : —Canterbury, £9,003,926 ; Otago, £4,990,453 ; Southland, £3,223,345 ; Auckland, £2,371,133 ; Wellington, £2,335,203 ; Hawkes Bay, £2,500,263 ; New Plymouth, £396,771; Welson, £343,661 ; Marlborough, £177,800; Westland, £69,774.” This return proves, as we have all along held, that the amount which is being paid away in interest is what is causing the depression. If the reader will again read the above paragraph he will see that the Canterbury district is the most heavily mortgaged, and that it is the most depressed. Otago is the second, and it is the next most depressed ; while the other provinces are depressed in proportion to the amount they owe. The above return only shows the mortgage on such land as has been bought under the Land Transfer Act, but there is a great deal besides that. For instance, we are told the total sum lent on mortgage is over £30,000,000, whilst the sum shown by the Land Transfer Act returns is only a little over £24,000,000. There is therefore somethinglike £6,000,000 more to account for, and we may safely allot £1,000,000 of that to Canterbury, which at that rate must owe over £10,000,000,' and accordingly pays about £1,000,000 a year in the shape of interest. This is

enough to crush Hie people, and we take some pride in having been the first to point out that (his was the cause of the depression. Before we put out this theory politicians were attributing the depression to taxation, but since then a great deal of attention has been given to the high rate of interest, and to the cure we suggested. There is no cure for the depression but the National Bank ; all other efforts will prove useless, for so long as the people are thus handicapped so long must depression last. If we had a National Bank lending money at 5 per cent £500,000 a year would thus be put into the pockets of Canterbury landowners. These would spend it in the towns \vith the tradespeople, and prosperity would become general. The sooner people open their eyes to these facts and insist upon Parliament giving effect to their wishes with regard to the Bank, the better.