THE Marlborough Express SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1870.

Marlborough Express, Volume V, Issue 229, 7 May 1870, Page 4

THE Marlborough Express

SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1870.

** Givb me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all other liberties.’ —Milton.

It would appear from the speeches which have been recently delivered by Mr. Fox at Dunedin, and Mr. Stafford at Timaru, that both parties have arrived at the conclusion that great arterial works throughout the Colony should be carried out either by or with the aid of the General Government. We cannot but approve in general terms, of such a laudable object, believing as we do that the establishment of main trunk roads—the Queen’s highway as it used to be styled at home—is one of the first civilizers, and calculated to bring about a great change for the better, and for adopting such a course, the Assembly would find a very ancient precedent in the means used by the Romans for the subjugation of Britain. Mr. Stafford couples his project with Immigration. He says—

“ I want to see a well-considered system laid down, which will involve the completion of a chain of public works from Auckland to the Bluff, and contemporaneously involve the introduction of persons who, by means of such works may obtain engagements for at least from six to twelve months, leaving them free at the same time to leave in order to adopt permanent industries. Ido not want to make slaves of them. That is foreign to ourselves, and would only recoil on the heads of those who attempted it. But I desire to see the honest, hard-working people of the old country, who ask nothing more than ‘a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work,’ coming out here, and us saying to them, ‘we will employ you for a specified time and give you the means of settling yourselves.’ I would employ them on the great arterial works of the colony, at least the bulk of them, but not them exclusively, because I would not refuse labor to any man who wanted it. . . I want to see the General Legislature and Government of the colony take possession of the arterial works ; and local affairs, such as branch roads, where -local information is required, managed without going to any provincial centre or to the General Government.” Mr. Fox, on the other hand, is averse to the General Government ‘ peddling and meddling with Road-making, which certainly does seem unnatural,- and prefers to encourage and assist the Provinces in making their own Roads and Railways. He says— -

j “ The desire of the Government was to promote the interests of all the Provinces, and he believed that as they got rid of their miserable j war, they would be able to create roads and j railways throughout the country ; and he trusted I the Provincial Governments would not hesitate ' to go ahead with them ; and Provinces not having land revenues would be able to do the same by means of a loan.” That the present Ministry does entertain such a policy, is apparent from the speech of the Superintendent of Nelson, , at the opening of the session, who told the Council on the day previous to that on which i the Premier spoke at Dunedin that “ the | Government had intimated the possibility iof including the Nelson and Cobden line in ta general scheme of Railways for the Colony, which it appears is now under their ■ consideration.” \ Should either of these schemes be carried cut, the value and importance of the result ; can scarcely be over-rated, and it would be futile for us to enlarge upon so obvious a fact. We may illustrate the reproductive powers of a railway by an extract from a ■ recent issue of an Australian journal:— “To illustrate this power of railways on the '■value- -of land only,- -I—shall- -take—the -district Wound Narracoorte, which is about sixty miles rom a seaport. However extensive the area and i;ood the land there may be, the present cost of ■arriage renders it almost valueless for agriculture. Were a metalled road formed, the i owest cost per mile would be 6d per ton of 38 /oushels of wheat, or 9to lOd per bushel. Suppose a railway instead, the cost of transport at 3d per ton per mile, or double the highest cost mentioned by engineers, would be only 4|d per bushel, or a saving of 7s an acre, producing 18 bushels on the average. This item (7s yearly) would increase the value of the land as an investment at 10 per cent., equal to £3 10s per acre beyond what a metalled road could do. The grandest features of the reproductive powers of railways are shown most conspicuously in America by raising up large interior communities and cities ; by giving vitality to industries that would be dead without them ; by making numerous other things pay besides themselves; by saving time and money, between two places, say by one half, is equal in effect to lifting them and placing them that much nearer to each other. A greater change than even this will be effected between Adelaide and the south eastern district when the Government scheme of railways in progress is completed.” As an appropriate addenda to tlie above, let us add that from the provincial statement of accounts for Canterbury, as just published for the last quarter, we learn that the receipts from the Railway amount to £14,070, and the expenditure—working expenses, stores, maintenance, and contin-gencies—-to £9,347 155., giving a surplus of £4,632 ss. for the quarter, or at the rate of £18,529 for the year.