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On this Page 20
SATURDAY, MAY 17, 189a
A GREAT POLITICAL LEVER.
It is', only natural that the inhobi-!
tauta of every district in the country !
should desire to have arailway. With
speculators, who leave the land urictilti-j
veited, and merely hold'it with, the
object of selling at & higher pric^ we
have no sympathy* although. thpy'are
usually the most persistent and (ilamorouB
in deputations to the Minister of Rail
ways. But when we reflect that'people
have been encouraged t6 tahp, up land ini
places far removed from; a station $ limit
they have spent seine years indenting
the soil by dintof l^td 'and hithert<>
badly 'requited ' leboprend.. '* 1
the cost of transporting their pro.
duoe over roads which a fall of rain1
turns into morasses, we cannot be
surprised. that the construction of
thousands of miles of railroad is now
demanded. It must be obvious, how*
ever, even to those who are moBt deeply
concerned in the extension of the rail,
way system, that it cannot be completed
in a day, or in a year, or in a decade.
Great as our credit is, it is not sufficiently
elastic to provide money for all the lines
that are asked for, nor would it be advisable
upon other grounds to include a very large
system in any one measure that is sub*
mitted to Parliament. Two principles
might be safely laid down for authorising
the construction of railways. In the first
place, they should be put through the
districts where there is the greatest amount
of production; and, in the second place,
they should be determined, not by what
are BuppoBed to be the requirements of
the next ten years, but by what
is plainly most urgent at the present
time. We may put this proposition into
other words. It Bhould be shown that*
the new railways will be self-supporting, ■
and that they are necessary in the life*
time of the present Parliament, and not
merely at some distant date in the
future. As it is clear that everyone
cannot possibly be satisfied by the coming
bill, the principle of authorising the con*
Btruction only of the lines which are
most urgent for the next two years is the.
sole method on which justice can be
done.
It is said that the Government intends
to provide in its next measure for the
construction of a thousand miles of rail*
road. That, of course, represents only a
Bmall part of the demands that have
been made, but it is still too much
to include in the scope of one
bill. So many years will be spent
in building the lines that the proposal
will virtually tie the hands of another
Parliament. It has taken half a dozen
years to work out the extension which
was authorised in the last great railway
measure, and, looking back now, we can
see that the colony has suffered. Rail*
ways have been constructed which are in
no way urgent, and Parliament has been .
prevented from sanctioning lines which
are clearly seen to be of much greater
importance. The same thing will happen
again. It is impossible to tell five or six
years beforehand what the fluctuations of
population may be, or what may be in
reality the moBt important lines. At the
present time one district may seem to be
prosperous; three years hence another
part of the country may have outstripped
it in settlement and have far greater claims
to an immediate extension of the railway
system. Considering the migrations of
the people, no Parliament should be
allowed to authorise more lines than can
be constructed within the three years of
its existence. When huge railway bills
are introduced, the inevitable process of
log-rolling begins. Every member is
anxious to have a few miles sanctioned in
his own constituency; there is a constant
cry of "Vote for me, and I shall help
"you;" and the community,is pledged
to make railways that will be unprofitable,
for twenty years to come. It is such lines
that reduce the returns, and change the
surplus of the commissioners into a
deficit, and prevent the reduction of
freights.
The proposal to build so many miles
of railway is no doubt due to the exigencies
of the Government. Few members will;
care to attack it until they have spent
the Bession in endeavouring to secure
concessions for their constituents. But
the principle of large railway ;bills is
nevertheless wholly wrong. Whatdoes .
it,matter after aU to the genuine farmer
whether the line to his district is
authorised now or not, if six years may
elapBe before a sod is turned ? The
speculator attempts to sell out and make
a profit from the increased value which
the mere knowledge that a railway is to
be built often gives totheland. But to
the farmerit ^nottbe %test aif*
ference whether a raff way that will not
be 'made before 1895 "'is authorised
by the present Parliament or by
another Parliament four years hence.
Supposing the Government, hill to
be passed as it stands, many of the
lines could not possibly be touched forw
number of years to cpine.
therefore gainsUttlphy $WP fpp^qpus
measures, while ParUament losea in
chapter,
having Vumbfit^yr;
This may be a lever" for the Government j
lu*v|y<m fhe cpun|gjr., -f _,... ,, , •£:»
the. toupfcry people *
toiling .stock. There h^ebeSti;.^oca»fo^
inthereoent ihistoryJtsoJi^ie ?.Viotorian
nnrinnneMUftUvto?
upar

goods for (he rural districts. It happens
almost daily at the country stations, ins
every former knows, that there is not a
truck to be had for some time, and that
the produce of the neighbourhood, in
stead of being forwarded to the market,
has to be left on the platform. The
more rapidly the lines are extended the
greater this deficiency is likely to be.
The contractors are in arrears with their
work, waggons that should long ago have
been running are still in the shops, and
the supply of engines is inadequate. As
the system expands the arrears in the
building of rolling stock appear to
become greater, and in a short time we
may see railways opened for which there
is not an engine or a carriage avail

able. If the linea are to be

worked properly they must be well
equipped, and the formers cannot be ex
pected to wait patiently while the
favoured contractors are dawdling over
their contracts. It being the " policy of
" the country " to have fill rolling stock
made here, we have to wait the
pleasure of the contractors while
it is being made. The farmers, who
wish to see well-managed lines, may
ponder with profit over the resolution
that forbids"any work being done outside
of the colony, and on the scarcity of
trucks that it has caused. The present
system of the unlimited extension of
railways and the limited manufacture of
rolling stock, has only produced trouble
and loss.

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