The New Zealand herald.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 170, 30 May 1864, Page 3

The New Zealand herald.

Ox more than one occasion we have lifted our voice against the reckless course being now pursued by the Committee uf the Auckland and Drury Jfailway. Wo have .stood alone in the trap between the people of this. Province and the wasteful expenditure of their money which is now going on within closed doors, and which otherwise they would not have learned until too late to put a stop to such procedure by the unmistalceable expression of public opinion. ] t is time that the people themselves moved in this matter, lor we tin uo( believe thai any halfdozen public men would persist in acting against: tho expressed voice of the citizens condemnatory of the course being pursued by the Committee, that of plunging the Province irretrievably into debt, and virtually abrogating to themselves the power of the Provincial Council ilself. We can see little difference between spending unappropriated money, and in spending money, already appropriated, in such a manner, as to compel (he expenditure of further sums to prevent that, already spent, from being entirely thrown away. And this is exactly what the iiailway Committee are now doing. They know well, according to the system on which they are proceeding, that when the £100,000 voted has been expended, and when they have reached the limit of £30,000 to be borrowed, if they can get it, upon the works constructed by the first sum, that then the line will be only half finished, and will remain a useless and unproductive investment until another X 1.'H1.000 has been found from somewhere, and perhaps another large sum after that to purchase rolling stock, and provide the heavy current expenses of working the line when it shall have been once finished. This course we suppose they would defend upon the plea, that the end justifies the means, and (hat the electors of the province generally, or their representatives, will be benefit led bv having a railway l'oivcd upon them, the expense of constructing which, if left to be provided by legitimate constitutional means, might not perhaps be so readily incurred. But is this honest ? is it fair towards the Northern constituencies: , is it fair towards the Province generally— that when they have reluctantly and with much discussion consented to incur a debt of .C 130.000 they should be compelled as it were to plunge deeper into debt to save the money already expended from bcintr uselessly sunk. We thinU not, and we know that the public generally (c<l as we do upon this puinl. We admit and maintain the necessity which exists for the completion of this railway. To Aiu-kland it is something more than a mere public work, it is a mercantile and political necessity, and because it is such we wish to see it carried out in such a manner as to accomplish the grand object of having a railway at all, tinronnrcfioii o/'l/ic ll'aiknto river inlh AuckliniiL To effect anything less than this object the £100,000 already granted might, we think, be more profitably invested elsewhere. A trawway would, if merely to connect Auckland with Drury, have answered the purpose just as well. But it is because we are anxious to see this work fully carried out, to see the trade of the Waikato and the interior find its way to the City of Auckland, instead of passing away from us to other colonies, that we urge upon the Auckland public openly and uiimistakeably to protest against the reckless expenditure of ail the available capital for the construction of the railway being spent on a few miles of road connecting Auckland with what ?—a mere bush district ; when, by a judicious expenditure of the money, the railway might be carried on at once to some point on the Waikato, or to the northern terminus of the road being now constructed by the General (Joveriimenl into the heart .if the Waikato. And we have reason to think that were such done, the (ietieral (Jovci'iimciit would be nut unwilling 1o continue !lu line, ill any rate as a tramway, to Ngaruawahia. \Ve have shown on former occasions thai it is more to the advantage ol'a new country to construct a railway, say one hundred miles in length, that will last ten years, than to construct one fifty miles in length, lor the. same money, which will last thirty years or even longer. Let the railway lirst make the country, and (hen it will be no effort at all for the country to construct a dozen permanent railways if necessary. We showed also that in America and elsewhere wooden rails were used for the sake of of cheapness, not only in the saving of iron, but in the construction of the works in many other points. These wooden rails have been found to answer admirably, and they have been used, moreover, with eminent success in ihis very Colon}'. A eotemporary, which allows its jealousy of ourselves, as a successful rival, to interfere wilh its duty to the public, and which systematically opposes every useful public undertak ing which is lirst ven tilaied and discussed in these columns, asserts that wooden rails have been triedand found to fail in Australia, lie mentions that, the woods used were stringy-bark and iron-bark, two of the most unsuitable that could have been selected, especially the former, woods which anybody who knew their nature would have at once predicted as likely to split up into shreds ;—but we have cross-grained woods as well as cross-grained journalists in New Zealand, and would use neither stringy-bark nor iron-bark. Besides we are not told the weight of the engines, or the amount of the traffic used upon these lines, and have only the iinaiithenticated assertion that such rails were used on lines in Australia, anil the equally unaiithciilicaled assertion, that, if tried, their trial resulted in failure. Against these endeavours to upset the value of wooden rails let us adduce authenticated testimony of what has been done in the Province of' Southland. liegarding the durability of Davies' system of railroad, the Southland JS r aws says : — "The adaptability of this principle in the " construction of engines and carriages to " wooden rails has been thoroughly '• established during the formation of the " Jnvercargill and Bluff main road. In "making this road, it was found economical to " lav down a wooden tramway for four miles •' for the conveyance of metal, and on thi« a

it (,„, Daviee' paleut ]»-m- ---„ cll weighing some eight tons, h:is been „ y. u, ™ n « loi- five months, carrying materials lor the railway, :indalsofortheroadruimin<» ' P»™Uel with the railway. During the l'onod we have named, this engine has upwards of 1f).'200 miles, drawing (( at each trip loads varying from thirty to lorty tons, and causing so little friction on '• the wooden rails that the saw marks are not eftaccd. These rails were mil from • i\ew Zealand timber, which appears to be "well a<l,t|><ed Cor tho formation of wooden "railways." If w , W ;m1; a m>;irer illus-,n-tion - w <- ''ave tho Qiieen-Rtreet. Wharf. AJI honor to the man who line left his mark upon the commercial and mercantile ad-vancement-of Auckland in the construction of tins temporary but useful work-. It is an act which covers' a, multitude of errors, a standing witness to the sagacity, at least, of him who planned it, AVhere should we have been now, commercially speaking, if we had expended the same money in n. permanent stone structure? "Where but with a wharf extending scarcely to low wnter. The very plan which we now advocate of carrying out a temporary work and so creating the wealth which will without effort, complete a permanent one bye and bye, wan successfully pursued in the case of the Queen-street wharf, the days of the usefulness of which are far from being yet numbered, and if we go upon the wliarf itself we shall see an illtistniiion of the durability of New Zealand wood, as a substitute for iron rails, in (lie cross planking of the wharf. Laid down in the first place on an uneven surface and consequently exposed ■to a severe strain, worn, battered and bruised with the cross action ofthewheelsofhundreds of drays throughout the day, it is really wonderful how well the wood has stood this tremendous traflic. "Will anydody who has seen a loaded dray striking and bruising this cross planking' say that the smooth regular friction of engines and carriages along the rails, would be anything comparable with the grinding bruising friction from dray wheel* and iron hoof's that takes place nil the day long upon the Queenstreet wharf? "Would the amount of trafic even be as great in a whole year upon the railway as for one fourth of that time upon Ihe wharf. Eetween two hundred and three hundred drays upon (he average, pass backwards and forwards on the hitter every week day in the year. But it is not that wood is condemned and iron substituted, that our voice is raised against the reckless squandering of the public money in Hie const.ruction of this railway —the suggestion of using wood instciid of iron has been thrown out by us, though no novelty in itself, because we sec in it a means by which we Ihink great advantages could be secured to Auckland with certain prescribed funds at disposal for their accomplishment. So far we have placed it beyond the power of the Committee to plead ignorance of certain facts ;il sonic future day. It is in respect to the costly nat tire of the works, as at present contemplated, (he expenditure of over on a single mile of the line — tlic construction of a line of railway strong enough and permanent enough to carry the trallic between London and Liverpool, instead of the comparatively limited trallic of a yet wild and tiuin'habiied country, that we complain. In a future article we slniil show that the four-feet-eight-inches gauge with rails of .sixty-live pounds, is an unnecessarily and cosllv waste of money, and that in other respects the line, if carried out as contemplated i»y the Committee, will he a gross mismanagement of the revenue of our already heavily burthened province.

SI'ECTEMUIt AGENDO. " Glvo ovory man tliino car, Imt few thy voice: Tnko ouch mini's censure, but reserve thy Judgment. This übovo nil,—To thtno ovvuself bo truo: And it must follow, na the niglu the iliiv, TUou canst not thon bo liUso to nay mini." AUCKLAND, MONDAY, MAY 30, ISo-l.