RUINOUS WORKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22901, 2 December 1937, Page 10

RUINOUS WORKS

USELESS RAILWAYS HIGH CONSTRUCTION COST FOLLY OF HOMER TUNNEL

BY E. EARLTS VAILE

The appalling waste of our resources in the construction of worse than useless public works, principally railways, is proceeding on such a colossal scale that all responsible citizens should take thought for the morrow. As all are aware the main avenues for impoverishing our present and mortgaging our future resources are the Napier-Gisborne railway, the so-called South Island Main Trunk railway, the Nelson-Westport railway and sundry alpine roads, tunnels and West Coast harbours in the South Island. Let us consider these seriatim. There are seven viaducts on the Napier-Gisborne line of a total length of 4190 feet and the average height of the centre spans is about 200 feet. The total" length of the tunnelling is well over four miles. The cost of this work was estimated at £5,000,000, an average of £37,000 per mile. (How much must be added to this and other figures I shall quote for higher wages and less work has not been announced.) The route follows the sea coast, *draws traffic from one side only; suffers the competition of shipping and of the main road, constructed not long ago and upon which motors are now successfully handling the passenger traffic offering. As may be j" ed from the character of the work, aie country it serves is very rough and, except at the two extreme ends, unsuitable for settlement. Then-this railway seeks to carry the traffic in the opposite direction to that required. What trade is offering is with the Waikato and Auckland —not with Hawke's Bay and Wellington. The Railways Board utterly condemned it, saying that "It would not earn sufficient revenue to pay operating expenses" and estimating the annual loss at £195,000. South' Island Main Trunk This may be regarded as a champion, which bids fair to become a classic example of publio extravagance and ineptitude. It also hugs the coast drawing business from one side only, competing with shipping and lying parallel to a good motor road upon which there is now running an excellent service of fast cars;. The cost is estimated at £2,176.000, plus £195,000, for terminal facilities if a train ferry is adopted. The average cost per mile :is £36,275. In 1925 a commission of railway experts (not a Royal Commission) reported 'on this line. It found that without the train ferry the. line would fail to pay working expenses by £BO,OOO a year; to this must be added interest. With a train ferry the loss would be very much heavier. And /the line will be quite useless. The country through which it passes is very rough; much of it precipitous. None of it is settlement land. As regards freights: The commission reported sea freight between Wellington and Christchurch as £2 2s 6d. By rail and train ferry £5 16s lid. As regards passengers the present Position is: Steamer leaves Wellington .45 p.m., passengers reach Christchurch 7 a.m. Total fare (including berth), first-28s 9d, second 20s lOd. By steamer to Picton and train to Christchurch the fare would be 50 per cent higher and the time occupied would be longer. Nelson-Westport Line This line has one advantage, it does not hug the sea beach but goes right ' inland. Unfortunately, however, its route lies through mountainous country, very little of which is as level as the roof of a house and much is as precipitous as the' Walls. There is no settlement It is an extension of the NelsonKawatiri line, which runs through the only useful piece of country on the line and yet fails to pay working expenses bv £16,000 a year.. The Board estimated the cost at £38,600 per mile and utterly condemned the work. Rising Cost of Railway Building The cost per mile of our railways has steadily increased from £3300 up to 1885 to £5600 for the MorrinsvilleTRotorua line in 1894; £B3OO for the Palmerston North-Napier line in 1891; and £13,700 for the Marton-Te Awamutu North Island Main Trunk in 1909; now to £37,000. It is unfortunately cnly too certain that" the management has in the past experienced the utmost difficulty in making railways costing an average of about £IO,OOO per milo and passing through well settled country pay more than working expenses. What, then, will be the loss on lines constructed at nearly four times the cost through rough country which is incapable now, or at any future time, of carrying any but a sparse population? The Commission in 1925 showed that wages and services cost our raihyays slightly over half of the gross earnings, interest 22 per cent, and fuel, stores, repairs, etc., 27 per cent. If interest cost is to be trebled, it is easily seen what fearful losses must bo shouldered by the taxpayer. Other Schemes These are chiefly the Homer Tunnel, alpine roads," and Jackson's Bay Harbour, on the West Coast. The Homer Tunnel is to give access to Milford Sound, the present traffic being about 400 tourists per annum, each of whom costs this suffering country a fabulous sum. Doubtless a good motor road would vastly improve this—and it . would need to! The tunnel is, however, situated at such an elevation an 1 to he open for traffic for less than half the year. The danger to folk in the vicinity f t of its entrance has been disastrously demonstrated on ' two occasions before the work is half completed. The grade inside the tunnel is 1 in 10! When finished what good will it do? . At best it will enable tourists to look at a little more of the splendid scenery which New Zealand possesses in such "plenty in the midst of poverty." The value of public works is measured by the use which the public makes of them, and I will undertako that the Auckland Harbour Bridge would carry a thousand passengers for every ten that will use the Homer Tunnel. Yet our benevolent Government will. spend no' money on it. Before the Government will undertako the work it demands local subsidies and the imposition of betterment rates. "Who will grant subsidies or pay rates toward the Homer Tunnel? Nobody 1 And fox?' ther very good reason that it creates no values, there is nobody there and nobody owns, or wants to own, the scenery. There remain the very expensive highways,- over the Southern Alps, and this new West Coast harbour to add to the losses already incurred on its predecessors. No estimates have been published either of cost or probable traffic; but, judging by other artificial harbours on our coasts constructed with much more alluring prospects of success, the results are not likely to be o.ther than disastrous.