HOW TO BUILD LIGHT RAILWAYS.

Evening Star, Issue 12763, 16 March 1906, Page 4

HOW TO BUILD LIGHT RAILWAYS.

COMMON SENSE v. RED TAPE. Mr Teesdale Smith {general manager of the _ Karri and Jarrali Company of Wcstnalia) lias explained to the Press of Perth the details of the roffer of his company to construct, 1,000 miles of light agricultural railways at £I,OOO per mile, finding the .whole of the equipment, and to work the some at £2,700 per annum for each thirty-miles section. He claims that the departmental engkteere, having been trained to do lie construction of standard railways, are incapable of devising schemes for light linos, while his engineers thoroughly understand tie work. He asserts that when he started to build railways on Ids company's timber leases he engaged railway engineers pf the highest qualifications, but he had to get rid of them because they could not build cheap lines over difficult country. The Minister of Works (Mr F. Wilson) had declared that Mr Smith could prove his bona fides in the matter by tendering for the construction of the lines when tie Government advertised for tenders, and to this Mr Smith replied : “ To tie me down to plans and specifications prepared by engineers who are unfamiliar with this class of railway work, and who are moreover hostile to it and its ' possibilities, would be to make it impossible for me to proceed on the lines of my offer. On this point there could be no giving way. The Government would indicate the route, and I would build the line according to my ideas. Where the engineers would probably insist on a bridge I would get across a gully in a much cheaper fashion, and, working on plans that we have successfully followed with our timber lines, should effectively open country by methods that departmental engineers would condemn.”