The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1884.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXII, Issue 7350, 19 September 1884, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1884.

Onk of the most important questions which the Financial Statement promises to deal, with is the question of encouraging the construction, by private enterprise, of the West Coast .Railway, and probably a continuation of that line along the West Coast towards Nelson. To any attentive reader of the Statement it is pretty clear that no provision can be made as yet for these works out of the public funds. The State cannot afford enough borrowing for some years to come. A sound and reinstated finance is proposed for doing good work in preparation of a great policy which shall not increase the public burdens, while it enlarges considerably the Colonial population on whose shoulders that burden is laid. But this is a work of time, and during the period of waiting nothing on a largo scale that is new, or unauthorised already, can bo undertaken. That is the chief necessity of our caso. It is also a necessity, and not in any way of less importance, that the great arterial connection with the West Coast should be proceeded with promptly. Private enterprise, the State being unable, is the only resource open to us. The logic of circumstances has driven us to rely upon private enterprise. Private enterprise must, therefore, be encoumged. There is much curiosity as to the how. Public feeling generally regards procedure by concession of land as the most profitable, and the most expedient. The land to be traversed by the proposed railway can be valuable to the State in two ways only. There is the direct profit in the shape of revenue derived from royalties levied on minerals and of timber licenses, and there is the indirect profit which is represented by a mining population and its attendant industries. Agriculture and pasturage are, as far as any large quantity of these industries is concerned, both out of the question. The land is too mountainous, rugged and snowy where not clad with forest, but of great mineral wealth. The only direct advantage derivable by the State from this kind of country will be in the shape of royalties. The tendency of the day is to abolish all royalties. Only a few hours ago the abolition of the Gold Duty (for this very region amongst others) was agreed to. It is by no means improbable that the royalties on other minerals will share the same fate in their due time. The prospect then is, that the lands in question will soon cease to have any direct value to the State. If a proportion of them is given to a railway company as an encouragement to its enterprise, the State will lose nothing. If, on the other hand, the royalties are not abolished, and remain in force like the timber licenses, the new proprietors will be liable for the same revenue as the occupiers under State license, tempered by the same kind of political agitation. If, in the direct profit derivable, there will be no appreciable difference from the encouragement of private enterprise, the same cannot be said of the indirect advantages. If the lands are to remain, as now, the property of the State, they will never see a population; for the only possible provider of population for these solitudes is the investment of capital. The opening of a railway under public auspices would- quicken the flow of population. But nothing can quicken the flow of population - producing capital so much as the construction of the railway by private enterprise. For this reason: —a railway company owning mineral lands and forests available along the route of its line, would be well aware of the value of these resources, and at the same time most anxious to develop them. The great difficulty now is to get tho country’s resources known, and until they are known nobody can hope to see capital embarked in largo quantities in their development. Tho railway company would havo both the knowledge and tho goodwill, as well as the command of capital. To tho company we can then look with far greater confidence than to the Government for a stimulus to the increase of an industrious population, and eventually of a fine export trade, destined to gam for New Zealand mercantile pre-eminence in tho Southern Seas. The encouragement of private enterprise to construct this railway is therefore tho grandest method of developing om western resources. Parliament will not, wo hope, scrutinise with too close suspicion any proposal for baaing this encouragement on liberal concessions of laud.