COMPLETING THE RAILWAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17337, 8 December 1919, Page 6

COMPLETING THE RAILWAYS.

One of the planks in Sir Joseph Ward's platform is the completion, of the New Zealand railway system by the expenditure of £2,000,000 a year for four years. All who realise the vast economic importance of railways will sympathise with the ideal p\it forward by the Leader of the Opposition. Mr. Massey is not one whit less enthusiastic. He says the completion of the railways is " more urgent than almost anything else," and one of his principal objections to Sir Joseph Ward's nationalisation schemes 'is that they will divert public energy and public funds from the construction of railways and roads and the harnessing of water power. It is well that the policy of the Public Works Department should come to the forefront of the election issues, but it is still more desirable that the electors should understand what the railway requirements of their country really are. Speaking on the Public Debt Extinction Bill in 1910, Sir Joseph Ward gave a list of proposed lines with an aggregate mileage of nearly 2000, and, allowing for expenditure on lines then under construction, estimated that the programme would cost £20,500,000. Since then nearly £10,000,000 has been spent on railways, so that on Sir Joseph Ward's own estimate the completion of the New Zealand railway system will involve an expenditure of at least £10,500,000. The greatly-increased cost of construction is another considerable factor for which allowance must be made. A mile of railway might in ISIO have been laid for £8000 ; how it would take something like £10,000. Sir Joseph Ward would certainly deserve the portfolio of Public Works if he could complete the railway system for £8,000,000. Unfortunately when he had spent the £8,000,000 he would either want another £4,000,000 or £8,000,000 or leave a good many lines unfinished. The Otira tunnel would doubtless be furnished to the last brick, but what about the East Coast, North Auckland and Taranaki connections? Sad experience of previous Ward administration will lead the North Island to fear that they would be among the slaughtered innocents four years hence when the £8,000,000 was exhausted.