THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1912. RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10601, 6 April 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1912. RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

Wthen tihe liberal Administration is dharged with the extravagant expenditure of public moneys, its apologists indagnantl(y repudiate the charge, and demand evidence in substantiation. By so .doing they delude the public into thinking that all is serene. It is as> well, therefore, that wihen proof is fort'limming it should be supplied. One of the most scandalous illustrations of extravagance is to be "found in.the maiMier. in which railway and other publio works in the Dominion are prosecuted. Som<e year? ago the \average cost per mile of constructing tfaiiOiways was between £6OOO and £7OOO. To-day it has. reached the enormous sum of £14,000 per mile, it is argued tliat tlie cost of labour and material lias increased, and that fchb country through which railways' now pass is more difficult of penetration than in former years. If thet'o • alignments bo conceded, they surely do not account for the- disparity m the cost'of construction which has taken place /since the Liberal Govern- j iment assumed- office. The real ex;pl]ai).atioin of the enormous increase is to be ifpinid in the methods employed. In its issue of Wednesday J-ast, the Tivranaki Herald furnished information' concerning the manner in which the Stratford-Main Trunk line is being constructed. This throw? a lurid light mpon the antedeluvian and expensive methods at present employed. "Here," says outr contemporary, "may be seen the co-operative system in fiu'Wi swing with all its weaknesses and imperfections. The great- idea seems to be to avoid the use of labour saving appliance* a<s .much as possible." The Herald (proceeds' to say that "at tbe present moment there are some four or five hundred men engaged upon this work, and tlie extravagance of the system will be understood (When we say that handcarts and wheelbarrows are being used all la long the Line instead scoops, horses, trollies and tram-lines. The (system, indeed ,we are given to understand, forbids tbe use of these aids to quick and economical eoustrnoticn except in special cases.

TSro'llies and tramlines are, of course, used in the tunnels, and scooope may be seen at work at the Whanga station yard, with t'liiree horses to a scoop lifting half a yard of spoil. At the same spot, however, may be s<een men with handcarts instead of trollies on rails carrying the spoil to the tipheads. Minis the cost of construction is materially .increased. Then there is an apparent want of foresight on the part cf someone. Many years ago, when the Poro-o-taiba tunnel was pierced, it was a. scandal that material for the work was conveyed at encrmicus cost miles ahead of the irailway formation work, and when the tunnel was completed- the line was nowhere near it. Similar things go on to-day. 1 he-re is lying along the •route* of the Stratford-Main Trunk [line- in the Ma.uga.re Valley gravel '(brought frcm the Slkinner Road pits twelve or eighteen months ago and darted over the "Whanga Saddle at a cost of, at a very conservative estimate, fifty shilh'ngs a yard, and possibly double that. Yet it is only now being used, and it might have been ttaktein all til's way on rails through the tunnels- in time for the work upon which it is being used. Nor is this all. A very large sum. of money isibeing spent in forming a large station yard at Whanga, and it wall be necessary to continue spending money for a long time to remove a great hill 'as it slides into the yard, when the purposes' of settlement would be better served by the station being established a-few miles further on-, up the valley;. To reach this yard, too, "it is necessary to erect two bridges which would not have, been required otherwise. This', of course-,' is a .question' apart' from the' actual system- of carrying on; the "construction -works, ibpt it furnishes another instance of ithie waste of public money. Much snore might be said of the weaknesses of the co-operative system, but iout. purpose just now is to show how ithe cost of this particular work- is increased by the absurd method of doing by tinanual labour what might be done, by labour-saving appliances. It explains in a large measure the excessive cost of railway construction."