GUARANTEED RAILWAYS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 113, 11 May 1909, Page 3

GUARANTEED RAILWAYS.

The announcement made by the Prime Minister in the course of his speech at Invercargill that legislation would be introduced during the coming session to provide for the construction of railways under a form of local guarantee, indicates an important departure in connection with the Public Works policy of the Dominion, and one that is evidently made necessary by the ever-increasing demands upon the Government for expenditure upon railway construction. The suggested alteration in the law is obviously designed to meet the case of the Roxburgh railway, the closing, down of which has created so much hubbub in Dunedin, but will be applicable to a great many other railway projects that are continually being brought forward. The proposal is that after experts have gone carefully into the matter, and have declared that? there is no reasonable prospect of a projected railway paying interest at the rate of 3 per cent, on the cost of construction, the settlers desiring such a line may band together and agree to make up the deficiency, and on their doing so in proper form, the work will be proceeded with. The Prime Minister did not disclose the details of his scheme, but presumably the guarantee agreement will be arrived at' under procedure similar to that of the Loans to Local Bodies Act, the deficiency, if any, to be met by a local rate, and the security for such deficiency to be the property of the ratepayers. It is a pity that some such scheme as this had not been brought into operation years ago. It would have saved the country from the loss of many thousands of pounds involved in the operations of a number of minor lines which are not paying interest on the cost of construction, and would have put an end to the log-rolling system under _ which public money is expended in districts where there is the most clamor or political pull. "With regard to the Gisborne-Rotorua railway, such a provision need not have stood in the way of its construction, for there was good evidence, which has been confirmed by experience, that the line would pay; and even if there had been a slight deficiency in the earlier stages, the amount is so small that a rate spread over the whole district would have been infinitesimal. If the Gov-