THE FINANCIAL POSITION AND THE RAILWAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7404, 12 August 1885, Page 3

THE FINANCIAL POSITION AND THE RAILWAYS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —The article by Mr. J. C. Firth on the railway policy is well worthy of attention, since we are brought face to face with bar® facts. Put the matter in another way. There is a mortgage on the country of about 10s per acre, which requires an annual sum of about sixpence per acre to be sent to the mortgagees living elsewhere. There is more land opened up by railways than the oountry can profitably occupy. The railways in existence do not pay interest on cost, whilst those projected will prove a veritable white elephant, for remember that sleepers rot and iron rusts, whether there be traffic or not. I include the Auckland Wellington line in the last category. The beet remedy for the present hurly-burly is a Land Tax sufficient to pay interest on railways and their attendant losses. The reason is that the owners of land (or perhaps more often, the* expectant owners) are the promoters of rail, ways, and therefore they should suffer the losses as well as reap the benefits. At any rate, it is time to stop borrowing, if only to try the experiment of paying our way. Your dram drinker might take " bitters" for a change. •' Purge yourself and live cleanly" might be posted in the House.—l am, &c., Auckland, August 5, 18S5. 8,8,