MR BACK ON THE NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1472, 25 February 1886, Page 3

MR BACK ON THE NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS.

The following remarks were made by Mr Back when returning thanks for thn kind wishes expressed at the presentation gathering at Christchurch on Monday last:—

He thanked (hem for the way in which they had drank success to the railways with which ho was shortly to be connected. He wanted to say tin’s, that there was to much croaking about their railways here. [Cheers.] He had received a letter from Mr Williams, the Secretary of the Midland Railway, in which he said—“ Traders are doing a small but safe business, and there are agitations all round to reduce rates, so that the lot of railway managers here is by no means a happy one.” Now, that is just the position here, so that he did not think there was any necessity to croak. With regard to the value of their railways, he had seen it stated in public print by someone that the'r railways, if sold, would pay half their national debt. Now, ho was of opinion that they were far too fond of underrating their railways. They did not in estimating them take more than the prime cost into consideration, altogether omitting the value of the land over which they passed. [Hear, hear.] Let them consider for a moment the ultimate position of their railways, and they would see that there was every probability of their turning out to be the best paying lines in the world. [Hear, hoar.] They were paying 3 per cent, now, running as they did in some parts through a sparsely peopled country ; but what would they do when our population was trebled or even doubled 1 [Cheers.] He looked forward to them being, as he had said, the beat paying railways in the world. [Cheers.] The rolling stock had all, so to speak, been entirely renewed—there was scarcely a wheel left of the original—and this, of course, had had to be paid out of the earnings of the line. It was a well known maxim of railway management that as work increased the working expenses decreased ; that is, they could do a larger amount of work at a less cost than a smaller. The time would come, he felt sure—it might be within the next ten years—when the New Zealand railways, though not doing as large a business as the English lines would return a far greater amount of profit. [Cheers.] _____________