THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1893, 2 March 1888, Page 10

THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

The history of the Otago Central railway furnishes a very cogent commentary upon the extravagance and inefficiency of our public works system. Ten years have now passed since the first vote was taken in Parliament for this line, and its construction commenced in 1878. Since that time, according to a detailed statement made in the House by Mr Scobie Mackenzie, over eleven millions have been spent upon public works throughout the Colony, and nearly £-100,000 upon this line. What is there to show for this expenditure ? Not a single mile of the line is yet open for traffic, and nearly £100,000 has already been squandered in interest. The existing contracts, which are very much in arrear of the contract time, extend to a point about seven miles below Middlemarch, where the line enters upon land available for settlement. Last session a sum representing the balance of the money appropriated to the line by the last loan was allocated to carry the construction of the line over the seven miles from Sutton to Middlemarch. The expenditure of this sum is to spread over three years, which may be construed as four in the official construction of terms of contract — if it does not extend to five or six. The line will then be open for, traffic some 40 miles at a cost of over half a million. During the period of its construction over thirteen millions will have been spent upon public works throughout the Colony.

We quote these figures as to the relation of the expenditure on the Otago Central railway to the general public works expenditure because they seem to us to furnish one of the strongest arguments for relegating the further construction of the line to private enterprise. Our present public works system is practically governed by the principle which Prince Bismarck has made famous in international politics under the title of do ut dcs, and successive Treasurers play the part of " honest broker " affected by the German Chancellor. Expenditure must be proportioned between districts, and if the Otago Central is to be pushed on it must be paid for by grants to other works all over the Colony. We do not accuse our neighbours of being any wcrse than ourselves. No doubt the Auckland people honestly believe the North Island Trunk railway to be a highly desirable and likely to bs remunerative line, and the wish is father to the same sanguine

belief with regard to every petty road in every district which has to be provided for. But the burden of interest which this system of mutual admiration and assistance has engendered has now grown so oppressive that it has become of urgent importance to put an end to it. The only way in which there is any prospect of doing this is by throwing both the Otago Central and the North Island Trunk railway upon private enterprise. Their removal from the loan schedule would make it the interest of a large majority of the districts represented in Parliament to oppose further borrowing. Kegarding these lines only it may be urged with some truth that in the end it will be more expensive to the Colony to construct them on the landgrant system, but the practical point is that the land-grant system is less expensire than the construction of these lines by the Government j^ks the multitude of premature and unrcinunerative works which will have to be authorised to secure what is termed a fair division of each loan all over the Colony.

That it will cut at the heart of the borrowing system and "save the country," in Mr Mackenzie's words, " from a very large and serious amount of borrowing," is a strong recommendation of the adoption of the land grant system for the Otago Central railway. But it is not merely a case of making the best of a bad job. On the present system it is evident that the Colony would become overburdened long before the railway would have any chance of reaching Lake Ilawea. Another great advantage of the relegation of the work to private enterprise is that private enterprise will in its own interests carry out the line as speedily as possible, and that for the same reason it will sel tie the adjacent land, or at least such portion as is given to it, as speedily and thickly as possible. These are very great considerations seeing how the town and the interior alike are languishing for want of communication. Opinions differ as to the value of the Otago Central plains. But that their opening will be of considerable advantage can hardly be gainsaid by those who examine the evidence carefully. The Surveyor-general, a cautious Scotchman not given to rosecoloured estimates, who is perhaps better acquainted with the question than any other man in New Zealand, reports that there are three and a-half million of acres awaiting settlement on and adjacent to the line of the Otago Central railway. Most of this is pastoral. But he estimates something over half-a-million acres as agricultural land. All this country is now useless, or at least comparatively of little use to that which mig>t be made of it if egress were afforded.

|to the coast. That it is important to the 1 interests of the Colony in general and this province particularly to open up this area as speedily as possible is evident. That will be one of the best and most legitimate means of removing the depression. And there is another reason for opening this line in the necessity for keeping faith with the large number of settlers who have taken up land in the Otago Central district on the promise of the construction of the line. Besides this the difficulties of construction are now over, and the expensive part of the line made. Hitherto the line has had to be carried through the mountain barrier between the Taieri Plains and Strath-Taieri, and it only begins to tap the country at Middlemarch. To stop here would be to render the line so far made of little use to the settlers in the interior, and to leave it ineffective as an agent of settlement. The object and reason of the line is to tap the heart of Otago, the Maniototo Plains, the Ida Valley, the Lauder and Manuherikia Valley, and those of the Upper Clutha, — these so-called "valleys" being "plains" in the ordinary acceptation of the phrase. The thing needful now is to prevent the half -million already spent from lying useless. There are certainly, as we have previously indicated with regard to the Midland railway, great objections to the land-grant system ; but the necessity for such a work as the Otago Central railway is very pressing, and if proper precautions are taken we believe that the greatest objections can be met to a very large extent. The first consideration, of course, is to see that we make a good bargain and do not offer too large a value in land; the next to retain the right of repurchase of the railway at a fair value. Care must also be taken to retain land in such positions that it will share in the improved value given to their land by the company who construct the line, and prevent the creation of a land monopoly in opposition to the settled land policy of the colony. Above all, it is essential that the authorising Act and the contract under it should be drawn up in such a way as to avoid all future complications such as arose with regard to the Midland railway concessions, and to make it impossible for the line to be eventually thrown on the hands of the Colony. In these respects the Government have a very striking warning before them in the history of the Midland railway contract. But the experience gained there ought to be able to show them in what direction the principal pitfalls in such contracts are to be looked for, and enable them to frame an Act which shall be at once practicable for contractors and efficiently safeguard the interests of the I Colony.