THE MANAWATU LINE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 246, 14 October 1908, Page 4

THE MANAWATU LINE.

A general meeting of shareholders of the Manawatu Railway Company was ■ he'd this week in Wellington, and the action of the directors in selling the line and the other properties to Government wa s duly ratified. This step practically transfers the Manawatu line to the State, and carries to its logical conclusion the policy long since inaugurated here of bringing all railways in this country under the State's direct control. We believe that on the whole this policy has been highly beneficial to the country, but in any case it i 3 far too 'ate in the day to revise it. We have State railways now for - good and all; ' and to leave the Manawatu line longer in private hands would have been inconsistent and unstatesmanlike. At the same time. Government is to be congratulated on securing so valuable a public asset after all the initial risks of starting tho line and developing its trade had been successfully undertaken, and when its financial success as an interest earner has been firmly established. When the Hon. T. K. Mac Donald said the other day that the line was worth two millions rather than one, he may have been overstating the case; but the high dividends paid to the fortunate shareholders are matters of common knowledge, and j it is a significant fact that the net profits for the" past six months arc over £3,000 j higher than the returns for the corresponding period last year. Clearly, if the line was to be taken over—and we hold that this course was inevitable —it could not have been transferred at » more convenient time. Now that the annals of the Manawatu line as a private enterprise are practically closed, it may interest our readers to recall some of the more strik- j ing facts in its history. It is nearly j thirty years since Government first pro- . jected a line to run from Wellington up the West Coast toward Taranaki, and work had actually been started upon I this route when the temporary collapse ! of our finances made it advisable to consider carefully the. funds available for j public works". A Royal Commission l was therefore appointed to consider the . rival possibilities of the Manawatu and I Wairarapa routes, and in spite of the I evidence of Bishop Hadfield and Messrs. i Travers and Stewart, who knew the I country better than anyone else, it decij ded against the Manawatu. Work on the line was accordingly stopped, and plant and men transferred to the Wairarapa line. But the people of Wellington, to their enduring credit, determined that ] if Government could not afford to make j the Manawatu line, it must be constructed by private enterprise. A movement I led by Messrs. Levin, Moorhouse, Gear, ' Izard, Nathan, Turnbull, and others j whose names loom large in Wellington's j early history, resulted in the j 1 formation of a company which j in spite of the financial and topographi-1 cal difficulties that ha.d to be faced, de- ! termined to lay the line by itself. With- \ in six years from the formation of the , company in 1880, the line between Wei- ! lington and Lonsburn was opened by: Governor Jervois. The company had; many serious difficulties to overcome, but i the land grants it had received from Go- ] vernment in recognition of the public! value of the work were a-very material > advantage, and in the end the company j was able to start its railway in full work- j ing order with every prospect of success. J That prospect has been abundantly rea- j lised. For since 1891 the annual divi-1 dend has been regularly paid, and from [ 1892 to 1907 it has risen from 5 to 7 per cent. The total net profit on an original capital of £500,000 has been over a quarter of a million sterling, and the position lof the Manawatu shares on our stock ' lists fully justifies the high estimate I placed by the company upon its assets. But from the national standpoint, the ; financial success of the Manawatu Company has been less remarkable than the j public spirited enterprise that produced i it, and though we can hardly endorse the i sentiment in full, we fully appreciate the element of truth in the assertion lately made by a southern contemporary, that the Manawatu line "will stand for all j time as a memento of the finest act of , self-reliant patriotism in the brilliant | records of the Dominion of Xew Zeai land."