The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1890. SELLING THE RAILWAYS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2020, 15 March 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1890. SELLING THE RAILWAYS.

Seveea.li months ago we stated that the next step of Conservatism would be to sell the railways. They have borrowed very nearly as much as can be borrowed ; they have retrenched as much as possible, and that is not a great deal. Iheir policy has therefore reached the length of its tether; very little more can he borrowed, and very little retrenchment can be effected, but it is necessary to do something, and that something will be to sell the railways. The policy of Sir Harry Atkinson for the last 15 years that he has been almost constantly in power has never been more nor less than " another loan." That now is giving out, the end will soon be reached, and then Sir Harry, if he lives for it, will be hopelessly stranded. All the money has been borrowed by the party of property, and it has all been spent for the benefit of property. The day of reckoning has now come j the interest on the loans must be paid, but the very people whose properties have been quadrupled in value by the expenditure of public money show the greatest impatience of having to pay taxation. They appear to think that they can have the cake after having eaten it. The value of land has been quadrupled by the expenditure of loan money, yet they do not care to pay the tax necessary to supply the interest, and they want to get rid of it. 1 here is no way to get rid of it except one; and that is by selling the railways. The keynote has been struck by Mr Lance and Dr Hodgkinsoß, and before long we shall hear more of it. It is not at all improbable that the people will fall in with the idea. Our railways have not been successfully managed, and it has often been alleged that if in the hands of a company they would be made far more useful to the people. This is undoubtedly a delusion. They could and would be made to pay by a company, but it would be at expense of the people. We should have a higher tariff, some of the worst paying lines would be shut up altogether, the question of £, s. d. would be studied by the management, and the inteiests of the people would be disregarded. The present Commissioners have been appointed to conduct the railways on commercial principles. They have been trying to do so, and they have not been very successful. They have not ;> displayed any great ability, certainly; in fact, they have shown great stupidity ha many respects, but after allowing for all this, the great fact remains, that the railways are far and away too big for the population, and that the traffic to enable them to pay is not in the country. The whole question is involved in this : The railways have gone ahead of our population, the greed and avarice of land speculators forced on the construction of railways beyond reasonable limits, and hence the trouble. That, therefore, being the cause of all the trouble, a company would have the same difficulties to contend against as the Government has had. The traffic cannot be made. It is all nonsense to say that the traffic would increase immensely if the rates were lowered, It it opposed to common sense, and if a company bought the railways tomorrow it would raise instead of lower freight. People, therefore, may as well reflect on these things' A public company cannot'do things cheaper than Government—both have to depend on servants—and it is absolutely nonsense to say that men would work better for a company than for Government. The whole question may be summed up, therefore, in a few words: if we sell the railways we shall place ourselves under the thumb of another tyrannical money-grubbm» company, the freights will be raised, and we shall lose the unearned increment which time will develope. From a financial point of view, our railways have not so far been a success. "We have to contribute out of taxation about 2 per cent, of the interest on the borrowed money with

which they have been constructed; but better remits have been produced recently, and the day is not far distant

wh*n they will pay for themselves. IN ow such is the present result with our population, only a little over half a million people, and the question arises, What will it be when we have a population of 2 millions ? Simply

this : that then the railways will not only pay interest on their cost of construction, but they will also earn sufficient to wipe'out the National debt. If we were to sell them now we would get about £10,000,000 for them, and the present gain would probably be about the amount we pay through the property tax. Are we to discount the future for the present ? Are we to hand over to a company a property which must increase yearly in value, and before long become a magnificent inheritance, for such a paltry mess of

pottage ? If we do so we shall do a thing that future generations will condemn. Let us by all means resist any effort to sell the railways, they will soon be a magnificent property, and it would be madness to part with

them. We have enough of foreign companies ; they are practically ruliirthe colony, and to hand the railways over to another now would be the worst thing that could possibly be done.