RAILWAYS

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 14, 6 April 1867, Page 1 (Supplement)

RAILWAYS

We direct the attention of our readers and of the government to the following important “ remarks relative to this subject which we have extracted from an able leading article in the “ Sydney Morning Herald.”—The construction of railways has this important result, that it brings the population of a country within the limits of easy communication; that it facilitates culture; that it improves the market; that it assists in furnishing the means of improved civilisation; that it diminishes the general cost of government; that it Removes one difficulty from the want of effective surveillance ; in short, that it is one of the greatest instruments by which wealth is increased and universal prosperity promoted. A few years have led to this conviction in almost every European country. The growth of railroads and electric telegraphs is the marvel of the age. The maps are crossed and intersected in all directions, with these wonderful and costly constructions, and though much has been wasted and much has been lost and stolen, still the outcome of the whole is that the wealth of the countries were these roads are possessed has steadily and largely increased. It is found that in consequence the power of consumption of all articles which s uppty the the revenue is also multiplied. It would be much more satisfactory, indeed, if there were some way in which the public could be better indemnified generally for what to seme extent is a local outlay. If the laud on lines of road were still in the hands of the Government, and were sold as in America, to assist in the cost of construction ; if where great advantages are conferred upon the population of the place, a special contribution could be obtained, all these things might be most desirable: but it must be remembered, nevertheless, that the inhabitants on the line of road, as well as those at each terminus, are largely tributary both to the general revenue itself and to the amounts collected at the different stations for the use of the liue. The borrowing of money for productive works is not only a universal practice, but if made with prudence, and with a plan for liquidation it is a legitimate mode of providing the cost. It is bot fair that the present hour should be burthened with labors which are for all time to come, or that the convenience of the present time should be entirely denied, because it may impose a charge upon the future period when probably it will be light in the comparison with the benefit inherited. Nor must it be forgotten in the construction of works of this kind, if judiciously made, that large items of expense are avoided if they are not delayed too long. When the land is in the hands of the public, one great charge is avoided, as well as all those costly modes of valuation which are necessary when private interests are to be conpensated. Thus it may be questioned whether at the end of twenty years, the colony may not have gained by the construction of works which within the last ten years will not pay, providing they are remunerative during the next ten years. The construction of a railway at the present time, unless there be considerable engineering difficulties, ought to be much cheaper than in former years. Every article for such works is now produced at the lowest cost of manufacturing industry. It is no longer a special trade with peculiar mysteries, but it is as open and subdivided as the trade of watchmaking. Not only may all articles in demand be supplied with great facility”, but the market price is perfectly ascertainable, and so the room for abuses which formerly existed is greatly diminished. We have also the advantage of new methods of excavation if we knew how to employ them. The laborious system of cutting rocks and moving earth which prevailed at one time is elsewhere now superseded by methods which have lost the doubt by which novelty is ■encompassed. That which was imagined has been attempted, and that which was attempted has been accomplishes. In mining, in particular, we are told that methods of piercing the rock and blasting it, are now in full practice, which prove one-half cheaper than the cost of manual labor even in those countries were men work for a shilling a day. The marvellous apparatus of Mont Cenis now penetrating through miles of rocks is adopted in simpler forms for less undertakings, and will no doubt be finally brought into easy manipulation. When however, we speak of the cheapening of the cost of raihvrys we certainly have no fancy for those that are commonly called “ cheap.” We cannot afford to lose two or three hundred people in order to save a little excavation, or to risk the tumbling over a precipice, we will venture on the last possible margin of safety. Ostentatious cheapness is iu almost every instance dearness —often it is danger, and not unfrequently it implies a want of tenderness for life and moral insensibility which would be a disgrace to any people. Let our work be done reasonably and without useless ornamentation, but everything solid and safe, so that when we part with our friends for a journey it may not be with any serious apprehensions that a telegram will tell us they are engulphed in some chasm or lost in some stream.