CANTERBURY RAILWAY GRIEVANCES.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10238, 6 January 1899, Page 3

CANTERBURY RAILWAY GRIEVANCES.

TO THE EDITOR OS THE EB.ESB. Sir,—The threercolumn letter from the Minister for Railways, which'was published in "The Press" of December 23rd, may, for all I know, be correct and convincing in every other particular, but the passing reference to our Lincoin-Little River line is both misleading to the general reader and unfair to the Akaroa County. This branch railway finds itself in the list of those whose "net result of 19s 6d per cent, on the capital cost" is "after so many years of working extremely disappointing," and it is also made to figure as one of v those Canterbury lines "to whose initial expense the settlers in other parts of the,colony, who are not served by railways, have to contribute largely." Now, sir, this railway was not constructed out of loan money, but out of the proceeds of two endowments set aside by Parliament for the purpose of taking a railway to Akaroa. The first endowment consisted of 35,000 acres of unsold land in the Akaroa county, which in due course' produced £70,000; and of this sum the county virtually contributed £14,000, which would otherwise have been handed over to it for road construction, under the Financial Arrangements Act, 1877, and which it did not get. The second endowment was a reserve estimated b the Public Works Department in 1885 to be worth £84,000, bu l this reserve was (unfortunately for us) "appropriated" for "sett Cement under lease" some five years ago. Anyhow, when the line (as far as Little River) was on the eve of completion our account stood thus— Total value of endowments „. £155,498 Required for works done and in hand, including rolling stock, &c- ... ... „., 85,903 Available for extensions ... £69,595 which does not look much as if we were a burden on th» unrailwayed taxpayer then. Locally,, it is "extremely disappointing" that to two-thirds of the county the Bea should still be a more convenient route than the State railway. And, if 19s 6d per cent, is (?) the average yearly return on thirteen years' work, that no effort is made to increase the returns and convenience the travelling public by "a daily train service and a more suitable time-table. And it must be "extreme.y disappointing" also to Canterbury visitors, or residents, that a trip to the historically interesting and picturesque shores of Akaroa Harbour should, for want of a short seven mil_* of railway, be still a matter for consideration, instead of (as it should be) an enjoyable excursion of less than three hours' duration to Akaroa itself Yours, &c., F A.A. December 30th, 1898. .'..'■