The Wairarapa Daily MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1880.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 579, 27 September 1880, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1880.

Last week the Wellington and Foxton railway movement was revived in the Chamber of Commerce by Mr J, H. Wallace, who wanted to make capital out of the late accident : oii : the Rimiitaka. The device was a sorry one, and the Chamber would not resort to it. The discussion, however, which it caused has brought the subject up again in the Press. The New Zealand Times is perhaps the only City paper which has taken a moderate or com-mon-sense view of the question, and though it has necessarily to take a local rather than a Colonial view of the line, it has been free from the ridiculous rodomntade emitted from its evening contemporary, The Times, estimating the cost of the extension to Foxton at £500,000, suggests that £IOO,OOO should be raised by a private company, that the Government, should give another £IOO,OOO, and that the other £300,000 should be borrowed in the English market. From a Wellington point of view the proposal is a fair one, but from a Colonial point of view it simply involves the Colony in a new schedule of liabilities, to defray which new taxes will have to be invented. From a local poiut of view the Wellington and Masterfcon railway was a boon, but from a Colonial point of view we regard it as a bad speculation, We are quite content to class our own railway in one schedule with the West Coast one, and stigmatise them both as costly luxuries. Out of ten millions spent on railways, only one has been spent on works of a permanent character—viz., earthworks, The balance has been spent on bridges, rails, and rolling-stock, which will last but a few years. The Colony has not yet realised the losses which it has sustained by its mad railway scheme, and even Major Atkinson, bold as he is, dare not make up a balance-sheet, or deduct from the railway receipts £BOO,OOO or. £300,000 a-year as a depreciation fund. The Colony is in a false position with its railways, and is still trusting to a special providence to relieve it from its embarrassment. The Public Works Office is practically insolvent, and we would sooner see it file its schedule than enter upon new and unknown liabilities, The Colony is, however, bitten by a public works dipsomania,andthereisa restless craving for stimulants still apparent which the strongest Government is powerless to altogether check.