RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION IN AUSTRALIA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1269, 25 November 1884, Page 3

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION IN AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand is not the only colony in Austialasian. Group which has lately had the an excess of fervour in the work of railway construction, nor is she solitary in the adoption of the land-grant system for securing additions to her railways, Vic toria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia have all large railway projects on hand, and the last-named colony has resolved upon tempting syndicates to undertake the work by offering large tracts of territory along the line of route. A tebgram which we published the other day stated that the land posals and Appropriation Bill had finally passed the New South Vales Legislature. These proposals embrace 1400 miles of line, of which 950 will cost £9OOO a mil ■, and the remainder only £3OOO a mile. Iu Victoria, a measure is now before Parlanient providing for the construction ft 927 miles of new railway, nt an average cost of £3900 per mile, or. a tptal of £3,926,077. The Victorian railways are to be of ttie light order of construction, but with cost of siiling-', material, ami railway stations, a loau of at least £4,000,000 will be n quired to cany out the work.

With regard to Western Australia, a cable message from London the other stuted that a syndicate was «|Uing, on the land grant systeiri, to, construct a 'railway between Baqbury and Bevei}y on the proposed Albany Hue, at a eos,t of £300,000, This is a section of a line agreed upon by the last ..v. I ftf tiiat colony. The representative of the syndicate referral to, whilst in West Australia recently, agreed with the Govern merit to make a line 220 miles in Jeng-ii from Beverly to Albany, via Perth and York. Another line on the land-grant system is ajso pro-. jected in \Y eßtu ? n , Australia, giving munication hetwaen Geruldion and Guildford, in the northern part of the colony. The land system is allowable iu a country, which, like the colony named, has about a million square miles of tenitory, and onlj

32,000 nf a populfitinn ; fur it would b" folly b<r seven or eight thousand adult ma los to t>x themselves to the extent necessary to s-oure railways, whilst 11 would be greater folly to want railwayif 'hey cau bo got t >y paiting with a few square miles out of their millions. The ease of New Zealand, with l>er very limited area, mid her compaiatively dens* and rapidly-increasing population, is widely different, and we sympathise to a large extent with those who prefer increasing taxation to alienating any considerable portion of the public estate. It is, of course, as absurd to call the laud the birthright of the people as it would be to compare die railways to a “ mess of pottage;” but though sentiment need not keep us from bartering our broad seres for steel rails, there is no solid reason why we should enrich a few capitalists by giving them a work to do which the Government would do more economically aad efficiently themselves.—Auckland Star.