FIRST RAILWAYS

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 November 1939, Page 2

FIRST RAILWAYS

VOGEL’S AMBITIOUS SCHEME The first railway iri New Zealand, between Christchurch and Ferrymead, was opened- in 1863. Four years later, the Lyttelton tunnel was opened, a wonderful undertaking for the young province of Canterbury'. Nevertheless, in spite of the enterprise shown in Canterbury, railway progress in New Zealand was slow. By 1870, there were only 46 miles of railways in the Colony. Moreover, tile progress had Been haphazard-. in this 46' miles there were three separate gauges, arid" New Zealand was on the way to commit the serious blunder of “broken gauges,” a blunder that cost Australia millions of pounds.

During the ’sixties the Mapri wars held back railway development in the North. Island.-. The South Island WaS pi’dsperous enough duriiig'this period, but it was a prospetity' founded largely dri gold, so that the very men_Who might have been, enipidyed' building railways*, roads', afid. bridges' were feverishly engaged, seeking their fortunes on the gold fields.

By 1867, gold production was Beginning to decline; and New Zealanders then began to realise how transitory was a prosperity founded on gold, and that the future welfare of their country must be built on the steady applica'tion of labour to the-soil. But Before this could be done the country must be opened- up. This meant the building of- roads, railways arid bridges, and the question was, how was this to be dorfe. Where was the mofrey to be harl?" For iri I'B7o a depreasioh lay over New Zealand; It was due partly to the Maori Avar's, and, partly,, jt. was the aftermath of the gold production boom;

FortUna,t'ely for New. Z'dalqiid at this, crisis ifi her History, a man arose who had. both vision and faith iii the fu-ture-of his adopted country. He was Julius Vogel, an English. Jew, who had come out to New Zealand in the earlysixties. He worked as a journalist in Duife'din for a period, but his true vocation was in the political sphere. In 1869, when he was only 34 years of age. he became a member of the Cabinst in Fox’s Ministry, and he wasPremier at 38. Vogel was a man of ambitious ideas, who believed iri tackling problems in a grand manner, and in 1870, as Colonial Treasurer, he staggered the country with a proposal to spend £10,000,000, spread ovei’ a period oT years, on railways, roads, iriiiiiigfation and extension of settlement. Iri these days, when the ptiblic has grown accustomed to governments spending millions of pounds as if they Avere so many shillings, Vogel’s scheme may seem extremely modest, but it must be remembered that.- 70 years ago the population of' Neiv Zealand Avas only about 250,000, and that this small community Ava-s already carrying a burden of public debt amounting to £8,000,000. But, though the country gasped, the Government agreed to Vogel’s plan and Avithin seven years the Colony’s railway mileage' Avas over the 1000 mark. This Avas a good start, but the rate of progress Avas not continued. In fact, Vogel’s vision so frir as railivays are concerned ha-s still to he fulfilled in its entirety, and it Avill probably never be now. For example, there will probably never be a railway all the Avay from Nelson to Hokitika, but Vogfel planned fof that. He also planned to link Wellington and Auckland by rail, hut this Avas not accomplished until 1908; also Picton and Invercargill, and the last stage of this line is only rioiv being completed. These are only a few examples. Vogel’s scheirie Avas nothing if not ambitious:

One reason for its non-realisation was; perhaps the fact that a proposal, made by Vogel, to enable the State to recoup itself for its expenditure on building raihvays Avas never carried out. He proposed that “excepting coal railways not a yard of raihvay in any part of the Colony should be authorised Avithout security in the form of landed-estate being given to the Colony.” In other words, his idea Avas that 6,000.000 acres of land through Avbich railivays Avorild pass Avere to be reserved to the CroAvn, and from the sale and rentals of this land the State was to recover the cost of the railways. But this raised such a storm of opposition from poAverful interests that. Vogel had to give Avay. Vogel also attempted to remove public works from political control, for he foresaw the evil that did arise very markedly in the case of the railways, nariiely. the building of lines, not because they were more urgent than other lines, but because they would benefit, a group of individuals that had a ••puli'’ with the Government. Now Zealand might have had a better railway system, today, if this idea of Vogel had not also gone into the discard.

Vogel was a man of vision. At a time when the country was ruled by nine Provincial Councils and a Central Government, with which the Councils were often at war, he was thinking nationally on such an important subject as railways, and maybe