THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1805, 25 June 1886, Page 18

THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

The quarterly meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, held on Wednesday, was attended by Messrs J. T. Mackerras (chairman), D. Reid, J. L. Gillies, Baxter, F.W. Kempthorne, K. Ramsay, R. Glendining, G. Bell, G. L. Denniston, B. Sievwright, R. Chisholm, R. E. N. Twopeny, J. M. Ritchie, J. Davie, W. C. Kirkcaldy, 11. Wilson, T. Brown, G. P. Farquhar, R. Wypcr, R. Nimmo, W. Henderson, J. Gray, and Captain Fox. The Chairman read a letter hmn Mr R. H. Leary, who staled that he regretted being prevented from attending thu meeting, as the question of the Otago Central railway was to be brought forward. He trusted the chamber would strengthen the hands of the Otago members of the House of Representatives by affirming by a large majority thy necessity for such further expenditure as may be necessary to complete the line to a point that would command the traffic between Dunediu and Central Otago. Until this was done it w»s obvious tbe colony would continue to pay thousands per annum by way of B interest on the money already expended without receiving any return, and the longer the completion of the live was delayed the greater would be its cost to the colony, not only by reason of the accumulated interest, but itl.io in consequence of repairs to works already constructed. The CnAiRMAN then delivered the following address : — FREIGHTS FROM ENGLAND. A resolution will be submitted for your consideration on the subject of the rate of freight from England to New Zealand, and I leave this question to the proposer of the resolution. THF. OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY. There will also be a resolution submitted to you for consideration urging the vigorous prosecution of this important work, and I hope that this chamber will be as decided and unanimous as it has hitherto been in pressing on this line of j railway. Having been associated with this railway from its inception, I crave the indulgence of the chamber in referring to it a little more at length than has been deemed necessary in the vast. As early as 1873, in our good provincial days, the necessity of opening up the centre of Otago by railway was recognised, and a committee of the Provincial Council appointed to take evidence on the advisability of constructing a line of railway from Dunedin to Cromwell. This committee went to great trouble in investigating the matter and taking evidence on the probable traffic. The result was a strong report in favour of constructing the line. Estimate of Traffic from Dunedin to Ckomwkll, made by the Committee of the Provincial Council : — 12.000 tons of merchandise nt JB3 per ton ... £36,000 3,000 ton* dowu at £:i per ton ... ... f',ooo 30 pai«enger» per day at 80s »aoh ... 28,080 £73,080 Nothing further appears to have been done until 1876, when a large public meeting of the citizens was held, at which resolutions were passed strongly urging upon the General Government to proceed immediately with the construction of & line of railway to the interior of Otago by way of Strath-Taieri. At this meeting a committee was also appointed, the result of I whose action in a great measure was the appoint-

ment of a Committee of the House of Repress itatives in 1677 to inquire and report on the .subject of communication by railways with the iuterfor of Ofcago.

This committe was composed of representatives from all parts of New Zealand ; and so strong was the evidence in .support of the immediate construction of this line via Strath Taieri, tliat the committee unanimously reported in favour of it; am] a motion by Mr Pyke, that thi* recommendation of the committee be given effect to, was carried in the Hou.se by 37 votes to 21. In 1878 this live was placed by the then Minister of Public Works on his .schedule of railways to be constructed, and a vote of £5-5,000 was passed for it.

From year to year since Parliament has voted large sums of money for the carrying on of this work, amounting in all to £751,400; while up to tho present the total expenditure, including liabilities, does not amount to £-100,000. With a view to refresh the memories of members, I will read the report-, of the Oommitteo of Parliament on the Otugu Central line, 1877:—

Haute No. 4. The line via Strath-Taieri commands the largest quantity ot Crt.wu land* available for settlement, pre ents t:>e fowi-sLei gingering ilifticulties, passim entiivlv through Ciown hmiio, and has the gnat advantage of being the nearest and mobt direct line i loin tlu; u.terior to i'Uiifuliu. It has l-eet' shown in evidence that this lino will directly op-n 1,200,000 acres ot Crown Ui.ds, ot which it has been v.i i.msly estimated that Irom 100.0 i(J to .".00, OOnores lire imnii diatoly ad»p*ed tor agrieultute. in addition, ifc affords "railway communication for 1,0(55.000 acres ot land above Cromwell, which ia tht* i.ntural outlet forall tho traffic of the basin of tlm Olufc a liver and (he M;.wcu and WauaUa. This line possesses tho further recommo..riati n of having In en bcivcted by Mr Ulair, the Distr.ct Kngineur, alter a personal inspection of the .several proposed routes, as the best m engineering and economical point of view ; and Mr Blair's opinions arc full.} sustained by the evidence given before your committee by the Mirveyor-general, Mr Thompson, the .Assistant Surveyor-general, Mr M'Korrow, TVJr Roberts, merchant ot JDuuedin, the Hon. the Minister of 1 ands, and the Hon. sir l-ruucia Dillon Bell. '1 he highest summit level on this line would be ISOO teet, and it is worthy of remark that from Cromwell to the West Coast, at Jackson's and Op'i'i Lay. the highest point to be Mirnu .tinted is only 170 > feefc above the sea level — namely, in the lliiast Pass ; and the continuation of this line to in** West t otst is only a question of time. Jt has been stated in evidence that a public comp.ny could be tormed in Dunedin to construct the St'rath-'laieri Hut', under Government supervis on, provided a concession were made to them of SOii.OOi- 1 acres oi l«nd, being about ono-fourth the area of the unsold land which would be tapped by the said railway.

Members will also remember that an adverse report on this railway was given in by a Royal Commission in 1880, but it was so manifestly uureliable that it was literally laughed out of the House and was never given effect to. Before this Commission furnished their report, and at their own request that the Chamber should forward to them for their consideration any information the Chamber might desire to furnish on the subject, the Committee of this Chamber, as the most conclusive information on the subject they could possibly supply, simply forwarded copies of Mr Blair's report and the evidence taken before the Committee of the House in 1877, accompanied with the following resolution of the Committee of this Chamber :—: —

Thafcfcbe Committee, having carefully considered the question of the Otago Central Itailway, are of opinion : — 1. That this is the most important line now projected in Otngo, and its prosecution is a matte^ of very great importance both to the miners and settlers in the interior and to the ci;y of Dunedin. 2. This railway is one that must eventually become the mainaitery of communication with an immense tract of country exttnding as far as the Waniika and llawea Lakes, and even to the West Coast, and including the principal mining centres of Otago" and a large area of agricultural and pastoral land still in the hands of the Crown. Every section of it as the line advances will be a benefit to the country.

3. The engineering difficulties, at first thought to be considerable, arc now found on unquestionable evidence to bo but very slight, and are chiefly coniinedto the sections now in couise'.of construction.

4. There is no other line wh'eh aould be made in Otago that from a colonial as well as a local point of vic-w aff rds gre ter promise of benefits, both direct and indirect, inasmuch as it will encourage both mining and agriculture, an i largely assist in increasing the population ot the interior by opening for settlement land which could not poßsibly be occupied profitably till connected with the coast by railway. The sale for cash of a portion of this laud Mould provide a sum which would go far towards paying lor the cost of the line.

5. The annexed extracts from evidence collected from official documents regarding the practicability . n i the value of the line, and the area of the land which it will open up, rhould suffice to satify the Commission and the Governm' nt that the Ot-igo Central is a line which should be put in the first rank of railways to be constructed as funds are available, and that the works in hand should be pu-hed on with all possible speed.

One effect of the report of this Royal Commisssion was the appointment by the counties through which the proposed Otago Central railway passed of an independent Commission, consisting of Messrs Donald Reid, John Bathgate, Henry Clark, and Horace Bastings, to inquire and report on this line of railway the result being that, after carefully travelling and taking evidence along the whole line of the proposed railway, they reported in stronger terms than ever as to the colonial nature of the work and its payable character. A great deal has been said and written, and continues to be said and written, about the nonpaying capabilities of this Otago Central railway by people who know nothing at all about it, I have been at some trouble during the last day or two looking up the evidence of reliable experts as to the extent and value of the lands which this line of railway would open up, and also in collecting the most reliable information as to the probable traffic which this line will command. Mr Blair states in his report, on the authority of the chief surveyor, that the following areas of agricultural land in the hands of the Crown would be immediately benefited by the construction of this railway, viz. : — Acres. Strath-Taieri (including Moonlight Flat) ... 110.000 Manlototo Plains ... ... ... 180,000 Ida Burn Valley ... ... ... 70,000 Manuherikia Valley ... ... ... 120,000 480,000 In the evidence taken before the Committee of the House it was shown that, in. addition to the above area of agricultural land, 720,000 acres of pastoral land would also be beneficially affected. Taking the agricultural land as improved hi value by the construction of the railway to the limited extent of 20s an acre, we have ... ... ... £480,000 and taking the pastoral area as improved by 5s an acre, we have ... 180,000 making a total of ... ... £660,000 or a sum nearly equal to the total cost of th« construction of the railway. I think I may fairly congratulate members that we have now no longer to take up our time by deploring and casting about for remedies to remove or ameliorate the severe and unprecedented depression that hat prevailed bo long, not only in New Zealand, but all over the world. Tho recent welcome newt of a iharn aavanoo

in the price of wool in the London market coupled with an important advance in the price of grain iv the Melbourne and Sydney markets, are, I take leave to say, the harbingers of a brighter future for us in New Zealand. All we want is a little heart, which this rise in wool and grain is bound to give us, and our native elasticity will speedily take us out of that slough of depression in which we have been so long wallowing. To give some idea of what an advance iv wool and grain meaus to us in New Zealand, I may say that, taking our last year's clip at Sb\6oo,ooolb, au advauce of 2d per lb, which I tuke tho advance now advised to be, raeansjover £700,000. The Government estimate of our ykld of grain for 1885 and the present year is :— 18S5. 1886. Wheat 6,8'itJ, 777 bushels 4,2 i1, 162 bushels Oats ... 12,H(50, 149 „ 8 314,513 „ Tho advance in price recently established of 8d per bushel on wheat atifl 4>l per bu-hel on oats gives £1.42,133 14^ 8d on the former and £138,5(5 14s 4d ou the latter; in all, £280,714 0s for extra circulation iv the country. By comparing the Government estimate of our yield of graiu for the present year with last year, a considerable diminution'is noticeable. This arises entirely from the large area of land thrown out of grain cultivation on account of the low prices prevailing of late years. In fact, the same state of thiugs prevails all over the world where grain is grown, and iv consequence there must of necessity ba a corresponding diminution iv the world's productiou. It may therefore be reasonably concluded that before long the advauce which has recently taken pj.ice in the colonies from purely local causes will extend tojbhe Home market. la connection with the diminution in the growth of graiu, we find th.ifc farmers have been forced to look for other means of utilising their farms, and hence a great impetus has been given to the export of frozen mutton, as is evidenced by an increase of our exports for this year of 150,000 carcasses. A large iucrease has also taken place in the number of our dairy factories. This latter is an industry that is capable of almost unlimited expansion, through the special suitability of the soil and climate of Otago and Southland for grazing. And here, in passing, I think a word of praise is due to our fellow member Mr Thomas Brydone, who was the first to give practical shape to this industry — at all events, in this district. This year the factories actually at work in Ofcago and Southland turned out about 400 tons of cheese, yielding £20,000 at the lowest estimate; and next year, from the number of additional factories now in course of erection, it is not unreasonable to assume that the production of the district will be doubled. While the increase in the production of cheese by meaus of our dairy factories is very satisfactory, it is noticeable that the production of butter at our factories is very small indeed. But this may be accounted for by the fact that the manufacture of cheese is found to be more profitable than butter-making ; for, while one gallon of milk is estimated to produce one pound of cheese, it requires three gallons to produce a pound of butter. No doubt, however, when our dairy factories are sufficiently numerous to produce more cheese than can be taken off by our neighbouring markets in Australia) attention will be given to butter-making, and I feel sure the care bestowed in the manufacture by the factories will establish for this article the same favourable character which already obtains regarding our cheese. When our produce of butter and cheese exceeds what can be taken off near at hand, we have the markets of England and India to look to. The imports of these two articles into London alone annually amounts to — Butter ... ... £11.772.933 Cheese ... ... 2,287,356 I find by the statistics published by tho Government that the value of our exports of butter and cheese for the year ended March 31 was considerably in excess of the previous year, as below : — 1385. 1886. Butter ... £68,593 £102,387 Cheese ... 25,095 35,857 The following is my estimate of cost, working expenses, and revenue : — Kail-way to Chomwell— l4B Miles. CHARGES. 1. Interest on cost (original estimate, £907,000 or say less 15 per cent.) now £970,500, or 4 per cent. ...£32,980 0 0 2. Working expenaeß, os per mile, or £74perday... ... ... 23,162 0 0 £56,142 0 0 BEVENUK. 1. Goods through and intermediate, say 9000 tons at 60s ... ... ... £22,500 2. Passengers through and intermediate, say 50 per day each way — 31,300, at £1 each ... ... ... 31,300 3. Wool, say 3,000 tons at £2 ... 6,000 4. Grain, say 2,000 tons at 10s I.OJO 5. Sheep, 70,000, or 875 trucks, at47s6d ... ... 2,078 6. Cattle, 2,500, or 417 trucks at46sßd ... ... 973 £63,851 9 0 Surplus ... ... ... 7,709 0 0 With the figures before us which I have just given, and which are not only capable of confirmation, but which could have been ascertained by any member of this chamber really desirous of acquainting himself on the subject, I do feel surprised that Mr J. M. Ritchie, a member of this chamber, should have gone out of his way to publish, through the press of Wellington, grossly incorrect statements with regard to the Otago Central railway. Some two years ago, Mr Ritchie, while a member of the Harbour Board, wrote through the Press of Dunedin condemning the action of the Board and urging the suspension of works in the Upper Harbour, on the ground that it would involve an annual deficiency of £20,000 to £25,000 in the revenues of the board, and that if the draught of water aimed at existed then, it would not suit the trading community that the Home vessels should come past Port Chalmers. What is the result to-day? The revenue of the Harbour Board for the year ending 31st December last amounted to £41,662 ; while the expenditure, including departmental interest and sinking fund, amounts to £35,712 ; which leaves a margin of £5950 to the good, instead of Mr Ritchie's deficiency of £20,000 to £25,000. And as to the Home ships not availing themselves of the Victoria channel, the crowded condition of our wharves to-day is the best evidence to the contrary. Besides, I find from the Harbour Board returns for the month of May last that the general cargo landed at Dunedin amounted to 4451 tons, at Port Chalmers to 325 tons. These figures do not include timber or coal, the greater part or which are usually landed at Dunedin.

Verily Mr Ritchie is only a prophet of evil, and I confidently predict that the result of the completion of the Otago Central railway will prove that Mr Ritchie is as far astray in his statements about this railway as he has been in the case of the harbour works.

Mr G. Bbli. moved — " That the delay to complete the construction of the Otago Centra]

railway has resulted directly in heavy loss to the colony annually through payment of interest on mo»ey already expended upon it, and indirectly it has retarded settlement on large areas of agricultural laud aud reduced the popularion of Otago through non-development of the means of profitable industrial investment. That having repeatedly urged upon the Government the necessity for completing this line from Dunedin to Lake Wanaka, and the Government having several years ago affirmed the advisability of so doing, this chamber again would emphatically impress upon the Government the duty of prosecuting that work energetically, so that the benefits that will accrue from its completion may be realised." These railways were the only means of distributing the goods imported aud required by settlers, and of collecting goo>ls from various districts in order to send them to vai ious colonial markets. It therefore beemetl to him a most extraordinary thing that year after year there should have been no money spent on this railway, and no attempt mado on the parb of the Government to connect the parts already formed with Dunedin. It required very little calculation to show what a loss this meant. If only £470,000 were expended iv the construction of that line, and if the interest on that were calculated at 4£ per cent., there would be alread}' sufficient money expended on interest alone to construct ten miles of the line. Then there were townships in the infceuor which ought to have tho greatest possible access to a port. If anyone compared the appearance of the goldfield townships of Otago now with what they presented some 18 or 20 yi-ars ago, they would .see that they were now what is sometimes popularly called quite "dead-.-ind-alive." Townships where the populace yielded a revenue to the Government, and where tradesmen invested in land expecting prosperity to continue, are now iv a dilapidated condition — houses deserted aud gardens abandoned. And why ? Simply for the reason that produce has fallen in price, and that it would actually cost a greater sum to transport produce from the goldfields in those districts to a port of shipment than what the produce would fetch. Taking that into consideration it seemed a very absard thing that two million acres of land waiting for cultivation should be allowed to lie idle. But that was not the worst. To-day people were beginning to abandou-the country in Otago and the country was becoming a desert. Then look at the nibbi't pest, which has made such havoc in the district of which he had been speakiug! Did they suppose that if the population had increased those rabbits would not have been extirpated before this? Did they suppose that if large arears of land had been cultivated that the owners would not have taken care that the rabbit pest had been kept in check ? It seemed to him that they had doomed all that district, through their neglects, to a desert. In confirmation of what he had said about the rabbits, it had been intimated to him that evening that some persons had received orders to ship £30,000 worth of rabbitsJrins annually from Otago alone, and it was expected that that quantity would be obtained without difficulty. With reference to effect effect that a railway would -have on the production of gold, the speaker said it did not matter much whether the goldfield was near a railway or not, but a railway being near would snable it to be got with much greater facility. In Otago, however, they were dependant upon other things besides gold — upon agricultural produce, upon dairy produce, and produce of different descriptions from the soil, and it must be plain that unless they give facilitations for communication between large areas and the town, that they could not expect to realise that, profit in the produce which they otherwise would have a right to expect.

Mr G. L. Denniston seconded the motion. He said that until recently he had not been through the Otago Central country for 20 years, but on his last visit he was astonished to find the amount of fine level agricultural land through which the railway passed was so large. Mr J. M. Ritchie said he would oppose the motion. He said he would begin by saying that he could not feel quite flattered at the chairman's reference to his remarks about harbour improvement, though he had no fault to fiad with the way he had put them. He was not, however, going to justify himself at that stage, further than by saying that Mr Mackerras did not put the position quite fairly ; for he (the speaker) at the time he made the remarks referred to, was arguing strongly in favour of tho works a the Heads which had since been started and had he ventured to say, proved of great benefit to the port. — (Hear, hear.) Iv so far as he had in previous years under-estimated the advantage of the Victoria channel and the facilities now given to the shipping of this port, he was only too glad to find that he was wrong. — (Applause.) But aa to the motion before the. meeting, he was sorry to say he could not support it. Mr Mackerras' statement as to the cost of working the lino, &c. wns not based on any reliable data, aii'l he (Mr Ritchie) would venture to bay that he could make up a series of figures shewiug a much larger deficiency than Mr Mackerras' surplus, which it would be equally impossible to controvert. As far as his position in the matter was coi:c«-rned, the reason he had been moving in the matter for some months past was to show that it was of much greater importance to the colony as a whole that the borrowing for colonial works and the large expenditure consequent thereupon should be minimised. He had taken the matter from a colonial standpoint, and had tried to show that the present was not the time to increase our borrowing for unproductive purposes, and that it would be dangerous to do so. He argued that not one of the railways recently proposed by the Grvernment would be in the leoat likely to produce 4 per cent, per annum, aud if that were so, then the question arose wherher we could at the present time afford to increase our taxation in order to make them. When the time came when our revenue was sufficiently elastic and we could afford to make them, he would not be opposed to borrowing. These were his ideas with reference to borrowing generally. Then he was led to think by what reason this diminution of borrowing could be brought about. If the members for each provincial district pushed their requests for further loans then there would be no diminution, but rather an increase of colonial borrowing. He had never been in favour of the Otago Central line, but if any one on the list should be gone on with this one should, as soon as the finances of tho colony would permit of the necessary monoy being obtained. At the present time many of those who had property along the line, and were most interested in its construction, gave it as their opinion that it would not pay. Even Mr Scobie Mackenzie gave it as his opinion that for the present it should not go farther than Blackstone Hill, while he deprecated any large expenditure on the work in the present state of the colony. Other men interested had privately expressed themselves in the same way, and the only reason they did not support bis view of the case was

because they were afraid to do so. One man had told him that Mr Mackerras would he angry with him if he did. These people told a different story in the street to what they would get out of them in that room. Our borrowing could only be reduced by each district exercising a certain amount of self-denial with reference to the works t,o bo gone on with within its own area. Oue of the benefits of the construction of the line would be the" settlement of tho people on the land, but they must remember that there was already a large quantity of land opjned for settlement which was already tapped by railways. He knew that ho was not on the popular side, but he felt that his view of the matter should be placed before the public, and his idea of writing to the Wellington papers was that the matter should be placed before the members. He had already received several letters from members, several of whom ere in entire sympathy with his view of the case.

Mr E. R. Bradshaw thought that Mr Ritchie was mistaken in his arguments as to the wrong of borrowing money for completing the Otago Central. Two reasons were given, firstly that the railway would not pay interest on the money borrowed. "Well they all knew that ; no one expected it to. But if it were not gone on with they would have to pay interest whether they liked it or not, on the money already spent. Aud as Mr 801 l had said, there was also the fact that millions of acres, month after month would become, by the ruin of the present landholders, nothing better than rabbit warrens. As Mr Bell had remarked, so large an idea had the people at Homo and in Australia of the rabbits in this country, that oue firm had actually arranger! credits for £30,000 worth of skins— not 30,000 skins — within six months. His arguments in favour of the completion of the line were, firstly, that we had to pay £25,000 a year interest on the present outlay ; and secondly, that if it were not gone on with the settlers could not make the land they at present held pay; it would be thrown up, and the keeping down of the rabbits would become a charge on the Government.

Mr D. Reid was pleased to hear Mr Ritchie makejhis graceful acknowledgement with respect to the harbour, but remarked that the great difficulty they had about the operations at that time was that Mr Ritchie and some other friends were wishing to preclude the board from getting sufficient money to carry ou the works in the upper harbour and at the heads. Mr Ritchie's speech on "the Otago Central question was moderate, reasonable, temperate, and well argued, and if it had been delivered nine years ago the speaker would have been at one with him. He (Mr Reid) attempted at that time to dissuade those who he thought were unduly pushing on the work, but to-day it was very Afferent. A large expenditure had been incurred, a heavy yearly burden was being added to the cost of the line, aud we were getting no advantages. He thought any prudent man of business, who had to face yearly such a call as this, would try to •• hedge" a little, and to get without much further expenditure some return. It was our bounden duty to try now and push the line on to such a point that some return would be obtainable.

Mr Ritchie : To what point ?

Mr Reid should say to somewhere about Kyeburn. That would take a good deal of money, and when we got there it would be found that we should require roads to converge on the line, and we could carry the line on as cheaply as we could mako the roads. He did not think we could impress too strongly upon our representatives our views as to new works. The great bane aud curse of the public works policj' was that the people themselves did not believe in it, and did not feel confidence that it was going to last. The idea was to get this or that begun and then it was bound to be finished. There was a want of faith, and when that faith was to come, he was not prepared to say. In his opinion it behoved the Chamber to pass no resolution that did not urge upon the Government the necessity of carrying the line to some point where the traffic could converge from the in'and plains. Even if carried to the Taieri lakes it would secu.e some traffic, but he thought the natural temporary terminus was Kyeburn.

Mr K. Ramsay sympathised generally with Mr Ritchie's remarks. He never was an advocate of the Otago Central for the simple reason that he never believed it would pay, and he weut so far as to say that this line was responsible in a large measure for many of the other railways which had been constructed and which would never pay. It was evidently to the object of putting a stop to this wretched log-rolling that Mr Ritchie bad addressed himself that evening. He never travelled over the Otago central line, but in conversation with merchauts he had come to the same conclusion as Mr Ritchie, viz — that there were many who would tell you frankly their views on the subject, but would not come forward to a«sert them at a public meeting. Mr Bell did not think there was any necessity to reply to the arguments brought forward against the motion, as they refuted themselves. It was not a sufficient reason that they should abandon the Otago Central railway because other railways which had been projected did not pay. Did it seem common sen?e that a railway, on which a large sum of money had been spent, and upon which there was a continually increasing losf, should be abandoned? He thought he need only put it i:i that way to show that at anyrate they were not called npon to deny themselves in order that they might teach a lesson to others.— (Applause.) The motion was then put to the meeting and carried, only Mr Ritchie dissenting.

Mr Bell moved that that this resolution be transmitted to the members for Otago to lay before the House of Representatives. — Carried.