MR. VAILE AND HIS RAILWAY SCHEME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9151, 5 September 1888, Page 3

MR. VAILE AND HIS RAILWAY SCHEME.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Mr.Vaileasks, " Will my patriotism stand a ten-pound public meeting ?" I say, no. If, however, we take the late elections as a test of public belief in Mr. Vaile or his system, then I think he is not wise in courting another defeat. The onus is now thrown upon Mr. Vaile. He has but to deposit his £45,000, and bring his system into practice at once. If his scheme breaks down—as down it will break—without this security the country and not Mr. Vaile would be the sufferer. How indignant he is at my stupidity in supposing him to study or to write about the truck-trundling part of the business. Oh, dear no ! He must flash out upon our little world a full-blown railway manager; and yet it is a well-known fact that all the great and eminent men who have raised themselves have done so by study, and by mastering first the lowest detail of their several professions, and by patient toil have climbed step by step to the top of the ladder. But our genius must crow on the top of the ladder first, that is, provided some person is fool enough to place him there. Mr. Vaile denies the newspaper report of .his Penrose statement, but admits that his system will place the Waikato settlers in as favourable a position as him at Penrose. One shilling ticket brings you from Auckland to Penrose. Does any sane man suppose the train can carry him to the top of the Waikato for one shilling at a paying price. None but a Vaile could suppose so. But then in a sparsely-populated country his system fattens best. Take from the Waikato line the coal carrying, and from the Kaipara the timber, and you will find the earning much reduced. The distance is some 40 miles from Mercer to Hamilton, and in this space there are six or seven farms. What can there be to carry to or from Will Mr. Vaile's magpc word suffice : " My system creates a traihc?" In America it is evident they did not believe in these fads. The companies who built the railways—built houses all along the lines, and sold the land for two or three shillings an acre, in order that the line should pay, running through a populated country. Here was common sense, and until we adopt some such plan, either by the sale of our railways to a company who will do so, or the Government do so, and people are placed upon the waste land, I for one cannot see now our railways can pay, or how the country can pay to keep them running. These men of "fads and theories are to the unthinking most dangerous. Sir Julius Vogel found us a fairly prosperous people. His fad was for building railways. He would by leaps and bounds drive us to the highest pinnacle of success. Well, when too late we found that he had financed the colony to the brink of the bankruptcy court. Farther comment upon this class of men I take to be useless.

It appears we cannot get an expert from England under £3000 a-year, and not a first-class for that. These experts have acquired their knowledge by long years of practical experience. How is it possible that Mr. Vaile or any person can have thai" requisite knowledge independent of prao cal experience lam, Ac., J. McElwain.