THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14184, 9 April 1908, Page 6

THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

It will not be expected that Sir Joseph Ward will, during his present visit to this provincial district, commit himself with respect to the probable action of the Government in the immediate future concerning the Otago Central railway. Ho indicated in Dunedin last Saturday, arid lie has since indicated in Central Otago, the difficulties that will present themselves to the Government when it is called upon to determine the appropriations which it will propose to Parliament in. the ensuing session. And clearly, it is unreasonable to endeavour to pin Sir Joseph Ward down to any decision upon the point, the fact being, indeed, that he is really not ip a position at the present time to answer for the Cabinet. What is entirely necessary is to furnish the Minister with proofs respecting the immense areas of land that will be opened up by the railway when it is pushed to its objective and respecting the productivity of the soil in the fertile districts of Wanaka and Hawea. Sir Joseph Ward mentioned at Pembroke that the Otago Centralline has not paid in the past, and that it does not pay at the present time. This information will, we are sure, bo most soothing to our estimable Christclmrch contemporary, tho Press, which is extremely annoyed because the, system of accountancy that is employed' by the Railway' Department does not admit of its finding, out for itself what the earnings of the Otago Central line are. It has, however, been no official secret that the' line is not a. profitable one under existing conditions. As Sir Joseph Ward justly observes, the railway is heavily burdened by a largo initial expenditure consequent upon its construction for many miles, at great cost,, through country that does not yield any traffic to speak of. It would ■be a strange doctrine, however, which would veto the construction, of a line of railway through and into country that is known, to be exceedingly productive because, forsooth, it has been built for a portion of its length through unproductive country. A more- sensible .plan is to extend the line into the fertile land which lies in vast tracts before it in order that the loss that is now being incurred upon the working of the line may be converted into a profit, as it almost assuredly will whop the rich fields of the Upper Clutha Valley are tapped by it,and when the portions of Central Otago that are now lying more or less waste through the want of water-receive the blessing of irrigation. We are, however, , under the impression that the Press has, by fjome curious inadvertence, applied to the Otago Central line a description which , must have been intended to be; applied to another and very different' railway undertaking. When it is said of a railway in New Zealand that "it is well known to be merely a line of rails extending through wild gorges and barren hills," and when it is further alleged that " the wonder is how any sane-'person could ever dream'of constructing a railway through such unproductive couiitry," the vision of the Midland railway at once springs before the reader. For no such "huge imposition " as this wild scheme for connecting the East- and West Coasts of this island was ever before perpetrated upon an innocent .country,- tad we trust that the taxpayers of New Zealand may never again be burdened with such a "great white eleplmht." It has, however, had the yoke thrust upon it, and it must submit to it with the best grace it can. It may feel that' the enormous price it is paying to link up the two lengths of line on either side of Arthur's Pass, represents nothing more nor less than a waste of good money; hut certainly it is enduring its trials in a, spirit of commendable meekness. When, however, Our contemporary has "swallowed a camel" in its approval of the acceptance of a tender of £599,794 for the construction of a, tunnel of less than six miles on the Midland line it should not have,been expected to "strain'at a gnat" by expressing its'horror at the 1 suggestion of an expenditure of about £408,000 on tlie constructiop of fiftyone miles of the Otago Central line.