The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. MONDAY, JULY 14, 1902. THE MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 165, 14 July 1902, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo.

MONDAY, JULY 14, 1902. THE MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

For the cauM that laoks assistance For the wrong tiiat needs reeistano< Vw the future in the distance Kv.-\ the flood that we oan do.

With the issue of the Financial .Statement the hopes of even the most sanguine believers in the speedy advent of the Main Trunk Railway must be finally shattered. We must admit that the prospect of seeing the line completed by 1904 has seemed to us for a long time growing , "small by , degrees and beautifully less." Still we think that the people of Auckland had some right to take a hopeful view after the assurance given in this city less than four months ago by the Acting-Premier. On February 25th Sir Joseph Ward met a large and representative deputation of our leading citizens jand members, which urged upon him the necessity for pushing on this important work with all possible speed. The Acting-Premier's, reply was as confident and reassuring as it could possibly be made. He gently rebuked the misguided Northerners who had insinuated a lack of generosity on the part of the South, and assured the deputation that the people of the South were, just as anxious to see this work completed as we could be, and that the South collectively regarded us with the most philanthropic and fraternal affection. But Sir Joseph Ward's genially optimistic sentiments are of less importance to us than his statement that the promise of the Minister for Public Works would be kept, and that the Main Trunk line would be completed by 1904.

At a meeting- of the Hallway League, held in May last, Mr Mitchelson put the financial aspects of the case clearly before the public. He pointed out that the vote for the Main Trunk Railway in 1899-1900 was £70,000, and the amount expended £46,000; that for 1900-1 the vote was £ .130,000, and the expenditure £110,000; that for 1901-2 the vote was £100,000; while up to the end of March about £ 185,000 had been spent. Not only has the "expenditure fallen short of the amount voted for the purpose, but the total votes have been altogether inadequate to bring the work to a point at "which we can expect its completion within the time so definitely fixed by Government. In three years about £341,000 has been spent on the Main Trunk line. A low estimate fixes the balance necessary for completion at £800,000. As Mr Mitchelson said, it takes a very simple arithmetical problem to calculate the length of time that iwill be required to expend more t\mn twice the amount already voted for the line. Unless more than threequarters of a million is voted within the next two years for the work the Ministerial pledge to complete this line within four years will share the fate of so many solemn promises made in the past to Auckland.

What prospect is there of any such

allocation of the public fubds? Absolutely none. The total amount out of the new loan set apart for railway construction in the polony is £750,000, and the precedent of past years does not lead us to expect more than a third of this for the North Island for bfatfch lines as well as the Main Trunk. If the North Island got the whole of the three-quarters of a million the work would still not be done by 1904. The reply of the Minister for Public Works to Mr Witheford's question on this subject shows that the Government has already given up any hope it may have entertained of keeping its word and finishing the Main Trunk within the stipulated time. What, then, can be done to expedite this important work? We have already expressed a strong conviction, that the colony is borrowing too faat, and it would be most unwise, in the present stateyof our finances, to increase our large public debt even for so laudable a purpose. It U highly advisable that our representatives should combine their forces and compel the Government to show more respect for the requirements of the North than we have hitherto received. But even complete unanimity aod concerted action among our members is not sufficient. It is uillikely that eveu under the most favourable circumstances the Public Works Statement will provide adequately for the needs of this province, and at the present rate of going ten years would be a moderate estimate for the completion of the line. But it may be possible to deA'ise other ways of financing this great undertaking, and with one of these schemes our readers are not unfamiliar. At the meeting of the Railway League to which we have already referred, Mr. Mitchelson pointed out that the land bought out of the £1,000,000 borrowed and earmarked for this line is already of great value, and that the timber along the line is alone valued at about ' £1,000,000. Mr Napier and Mr Massey fully endorsed Mr Mitchelson's remarks, and insisted most emphatically that the land so purchased is an asset, not of the colony, but of the Main Trunk line. The Act specifically stated that the loan must be expended for no other purpose than the construction of the line. Mr Maasey and others considered that the value of these assets id quite £1,000,000. Mr Massey, tit, the i/vgue's meeting, stated that he hud endeavoured to get these assets vested in commissioners, who should be empowered to raise money on them to complete the Hue. The income from the sale o-f timber-cutting rights or leases of these lands would go to pay the interest on debentures, and the sale of such lands would go to pay off the debt. It is the opinion of several of our members and public men that with money thus raised the line could be finished without adding a shilling to the consolidated debt. Even if this opinion is over sanguine, the scheme at least affords a means of raising a considerable sum for the Main Trunk line without straining further the resources of the colony, and as our prospects of more direct assistance are lamentably poor, we hope that our members will give it their earnest consideration. The colony has no legal claim on the assets of the trunk line, and there seems to be no good reason why, now that other methods have failed, we should not utilise them to the best possible advantage.