Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 385, 26 August 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

We naturally look with some degree of interest to the result of our railway traffic. It was thought by many that railways were premature in New Zealand, and that they would not pay. That some lines may be laid that may not even pay working expenses, is not at all improbable ; but we have not as yet to deal with these. So far as Otago railways are concerned, those that have already been bnilt are promising not only to pay working expenses, but actually to prove remunerative. We have before us the receipts of the Port Chalmers line, those of the Bluff Harbor, luvercargill and Winton lines, for the last four monthsj and also the receipts for two months of the Green Island line, and hold the results to be encouraging for the present and hopeful for the future. The aggi'egate earnings of the Port Chalmers line for that period is £8586 12s. Bd. ; expenditure, including maintenance of way, £5861 4a. Id. ; balance, £2725 Bs. 7d. ■ On the Bluff Harbor, Invercargill and Winton line, the receipts were £7262 9s. sd. ; expenditure, £522219s.4d ; balance, £20a910sld. Even Green Island, with ititwo months' traffic, shows a surplus for interest. Now, we regard this as very hopeful indeed for the future. Let it be but borne in mind that the plant is as yet incomplete ; that the deficiency in rolling stock is a hindrance to a very great extent on even the present capabilities of traffic ; that, so far as the Green Island traffic is concerned, they have not nearly a sufficiency of trucks to supply the demands of Dunedin with the coal which abounds there, and that, notwithstanding the opening of the line, drays are still called into requisition to supply Dunedin with its staple ; and the paying capabilities of that line, as well as that of Port Chalmers, may bs fairly considered as demonstrated. Then, again, when the line is opened into the interior, the traffic on those parts of it already opened will become still moro remunerative, and will afford a surplus to meet the requirements of such extensions as may be made within proper limits still furthor into tho interior. Not that "we would advocate indiscriminate extensions, or any extension at all for the present beyond tfea lines scheduled ; but as some of these may not of themselves prove payable, they may in part become so as feeders to such parts of the line as pass through districts populous ana rich in products, and it will tend greatly to the increase of material comforts to have goods conveyed at a cheap rate during all seasons of the year, and to be able to economise both time and money in necessary journeys. When we see the way in which the heavy drays cut up the roads, and the expense afc which these roads are maintained, we certainly hail the opening of railways aa an immense boon to the country. To ourminds there is little doubt that the trunk lines already scheduled will prove moderately remunerative afc first, and every year will increase in value. Moreover, wherever there is a fair prospect of traffic, tramways which may not pay by themselves will secure a reflex remuneration, as it were, by the additional traffic they send on to the trunk lines.

We think immediate steps should be taken by the inhabitants of Tuapeka to induce the Government not to dispose of the Tnapeka Hundred, about to be thrown open, in larger blocks than 400 or 500 acres to one person. 'We cannot help thinking that the 15,000 acres comprising the Hundred will fall into the hands of one or two persons, if the inhabitants do not bestir themselves to get the acreagelimited. A& the Waste Lands Board has limited the quantity of land it disposes of on the goldfields to 400 acres, why should not the Government, in the case of a Hundred, also limit the number in a similar manner, seeing the object sought after is the same in both cases, viz., the settlement o£ the country. Why make a Hundred of the land in question ? ' The Government was nover asked to do so. On the contrary, the inhabitants, have, on many occasions by petition and otherwise, pled witli it to throw open the land, on the agricultural leasing system, which has been proved to be the very best system for the occupation of land on the goldfields and for facilitating settlement. It is not too late even now to prevent the Hundred from being proclaimed. A strong protest from' tfte inhabitants, we have no doubt, would have the desired effect. If those of our business men, who are anxious to see the district prosper, will take the matter in hand, they can easily carry it to a.snccessful issue. It will be too late- to remedy the evil when the whole of the land passes into the hands of one or two specula tora or- capitalists.