STATE-OWNED RAILWAYS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12506, 19 May 1906, Page 13

STATE-OWNED RAILWAYS.

TO THE IDITOB OT "TUB. PRESS."

gir,—"Referring to your article re "State Purchase of British Railways," I am of opinion that there can be mo doubt about the reason why such an Act was passed, including a clause setting out a statutory basis of terms and oonditione of purchase. I fail to see how that particular statute has any Ixyvring on State-owned railways as a policy. No British. Government Ins so far ever evinced any desire to enter wit-) competition with railway or other trading companies in tho British Isles. Tho reason most apparent for passing the Act would seem to be that should tho State deem it necessary to acquire a line of railway, it would be an urgent requirement for public benefit attached to the War Office or Admiralty. Sir Joseph Ward, we read, has recently delivered certain opinions very much in favour of State-owned railways. It is the boldest attempt to confute wellknown and established facts that any p?r£ftptly sane man ever attempted by rhetorical! ability, and there can be no possible hope that liis utterances will bo accepted as an earnest and solid conviction. Lord Maoaulay gives his opinions on thia subject in an essay (page 109), which are worth consideration. Inter alia, ho cays: "Buildings for Stato porposee tlie State must erect, and here we think that, in general, the Stato ought to stop; we firmly believe that five thousand pounds euljecribed by individuals for railroads or canals would produce more advantage to the public than fivo millions voted by Parliament for tho same purpose. There aro certain old saws about the nrastor'e eye and about everybody's business in which we place great faith." Again, "The fame of public works is a much less certain test of their utility than the amount of toil collected at them."

"In a corrupt age, there be direct embezzlement. In the purest age there will be abundance, of jobbing." "In a bad age the fate of the public is to be robbed outright. In a good nge it is merely to have the dearest and the worst of everything."—Yours, etc., W. A. M.