Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1894. OUR LUNAR RAILWAY EXTENSIONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4649, 15 February 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1894. OUR LUNAR RAILWAY EXTENSIONS.

SECOND EDITION

At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, this week, Mr Duthie, M.H.R., expressed an opinion that the line beyond Eketahuna would not be finished under five years, and if the Chamber rested on that assurance they would not probably get it done for three years longer. Theexaot position of the affairs seems to us to be this, A short length of line which could be completed under contract within one year rill take ten years, from start to fimsbjtoconssrnot under the crawling co-operative system, It is not difficult to gouge the financial results of this system of building railways, If a man built a house for himself and it took ten years to complete, and till the end of the ten years it • could not be occupied, that bouse would ruin him, Jn much tho same way the Colony is being ruined by the present mad method of contraction, Say that five thousand pounds be spent tho first year on a line like ihe Ekmabuna extension something like- two thousand pounds interest on this sura lias to be paid before a shilling in the shape of a return is obtained from tho work, Thtn again the eaitbwo.kdoneat the beginning is injured and broken down before tho completion of this job, so that another thousand is probably required to patch this up. Again under the cooperative system we get only about foujr thousand pounds of value for five thousand pounds worth of work, anil the not result seems to be .that for eight" thousand pounds spent, viz,, five thousand poyuds .construction, two. thousand pounds iDJierest, and one thousand pounds repairs, we get four 'thiusand poui.da worth of work, The common seme point of view seems lo be that for j each hundred thousand pounds spent i by the Government we gel only fifty thousand pounds worth of railway, and lose, absolutely lose, fifty thousand pounds. The only consideration we obtain is that we keep some two thuwaud discontented' men pushing and shoveling on a remote up country line, who'might otherwise be worrying Ministers in the large towns of the Colony. In spending half a million' a year on public works after this faahion, we possibly give .a quarter of a million away. This is very generous on the part of the Government, but is it jast to the ratepayers who have ultimately to find the money? A man who took ten years to complete a work which ought tx> be finished in one year, and especially if be borrowed the money to do it from a trust fund, would be regarded wit| suspicion by his fellowmen, A man who insisted upon paying ten pounds for every five pounds worth of work dow, would be admired by those on}y who did [ the work for him. A plan ofexeou- ] ting work which would bo utterly j ruinous .to any private, person is i supposed to b.e profitable to. the i Colony, Supposing a syndicufe pro* I posed to run awoojlbh factory, and required an advance of ten thousand ' pounds from its, bankers, would the j advance" be'granted if it were explained that it would take them fully I ten years to complete the building, < and get it into working "order. ' Time is always an important !

condition in the profitable construoI ttbn of a railway; In America a j length equal to the extension beyond Efctahuua has been made within a week. What would our Yankee oousins say to us if ihey were told that a specific work which thuy could pat through in a week took New Zealand ten yearß. The faotiu that New ZeHlandors in the matter of railway construction are now the biggest fools under the Bun and for slowness and Btupidity are breaking the world's record. Wo would not mind if the Government were .straightforward and called their public works department the" Government Relief Works" or the "Govn'mneut Obarity Bureau," We may for a time afford to pay half a million a year for political benevolence but the burden of it in time will oppress the industrious produoers of New Zealand and arrest the pro» gress of the colony,