RAILWAY LEAGUE, CHRISTCHURCH.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1278, 1 August 1883, Page 2

RAILWAY LEAGUE, CHRISTCHURCH.

A meeting of the General Committee of the East and West Coast Railway League was held at Mr T. 8. Weston's Chambers last week. The chair waa occupied by Mr W. Clirystall, and there were present — Messrs W. I). Meares, T. B. Craig, 1 .. Higgins, D. lleese, A. G. Howland, K. England, T. S. Weston, J. G. Euddeuklau, T. Pavitt, and E. J. Johnston. The Committee met for the purpose of receiving and considering the report drawn up by the Sub-Committee on the report furnished by the Government Commission. The following is the report, which was adopted on the motion of Mr Ruddenklau, seconded by Mr England :— a The Commission that was appointed by the Government, at the instance of this League, having now published its report, it becomes the duty of your Committee to submit lo you its views with respect to the above question as considered in the light of the investi gations and conclusions of the Commissioners. would state that while disagreeing with some of the deductions of the Commissioners, it is of opinion that they have fulfilled the work imposed upon them with praiseworthy thoroughness and energy. They have collected and ably reported upon a great variety of interesting facts underlying and surrounding the question at issue. Your Committee would, therefore proceed to deal with the main features of the Commissioners' report. PRODUCE OP THE WEST COAST. In the most explicit terms the Commissioners have stated their conviction that the forest lands of the West Coast will. ultimately become of the greatest value to the colony. Without speaking particularly of the immense forests to the south of Hokitika and elsewhere on the West Coast, the Commissioners state that the finest growth of marketable timber is found in the neighborhood of Lake Brunner, and is said to cover 60,000 acres, while evidence was elicited to the effect that the land yielded a maximum of 70,000 and a average of 30,000f fc per acre ; and as to quality, the conclusion of the Commissioners was that the best criterion was to be found in the fact of ohe timber commanding a ready sale on the East Coast. Turning to coal, the Commissioners have stated that the West Coast coalfields are decidedly the largest in New Zealand. That part of the field near Westport had been surveyed, and the quantity in it estimated to coutain more than the enormous quantity of 140,000,000 tons. At Bruunerton, after making allowance for faults, the quantity of workable coal was estimated at 38,000,000 tons,, the Cornmissioneers adding that it was the impresion of experts in the district thab the extent of this coalfield was even much greater. With regard to the relative properties of Westport and Greymouth coal, the Commissioners have collected and published much interesting information. As a steam coal Westport was found to be equal to Newcastle, while for gas makin<r purposes the Grey mouth or Brunne*r description was found to be in request all over New Zealand, in the neighboring colonies, and was sought after even in New Caledonia. The Commissioners came to the conculsion that the bituminous coal uf Greymouth would find a ready sale on the East Coast, provided that its cost bore a due proportion to its superior quality. In respect, therefore, of the extent, quality, and general usefulness of these two products, namely, timber and coal to which your Committee has always mainly looked for payable traffic for" a railway the Commissioners have in their report fully confirmed, if not exceeded, the estimates and data previously recorded. PEOBABLE TRAFFIC. The following is a comparison of the estimate of the Commissioners with that of this League in its report dated March. 21 last :— Estimate op League. Timber, 12,000,000 ft. ... L24 000 Coal, 75,000 tons 46^000 Building stone 3000 Agricultural produce and merchandise, 20,000 tons ... 30,000 Parcels Sheep, pigs, and cattle ... 4,000 Passengers 25,000 L 143,375 EsTiMATE OF COMMISSIONERS. Timber 15,000,000 ft. C°al 70,000 tons Buddingstone ' No estimate Agricultural produce and merchandise "21 000 P , !irc els N ... L3OOO Sheep, 16,000 head, Cattle 3500 head « ,v - LIO,OOO sundries, L3OOO ■Total estimate of Commissioners, as worked out by Mr Maxwell, and including an additional sum of LIO,OOO added by him for passengers, L 120,000. In their treatment of this question your Committee is of opinion that the conclusions of the Commissioners are in some respects inconsistent with their own premises ; and this opinion is in one particular conspicuously corroborated by as high an authority as Mr Maxwell, the general manager of railways. In his letter of June 14th, addressed to the Commissioners, Mr Maxwell says that he makes an additional allowance of £10,000 for passenger traffic, because, he adds, if there is as large a goods traffic as the Oomnnssionei-shave assumed the item for passenger traffic seems disproportionally small. I v spe aking of passengers, the Commissioners say themselves that the traffic undoubtedly would increase enormously in consequence of the cheapness of railway

transit." If, therefore, the Commissioneers felt justified in giving expression to their views iv such sang- , vine terms as these, it might have r beon expected that they would have . set down something more than the inj congruously small sum of £10,000. In estimating the passengers traffic the Commissioners have apparently overlooked the special attraction which the West Coast would afford to tourists. The Commissioners say that " they had some difficulty in deciding how much reliance could be placed upon the estimates of traffic made by the ' Railway Leagues of Canterbury and Westland," partly because they were based upon an increased traffic and ' population expected to be created by the construction of the railway, and partly from the uncertainty of the competition by sea carriage, but they con- , tinue, " nevertheless, judging from the effects produced elsewhere by the opening up of railway communication, some large increase over the present trade may be fairly expected to result from the facilities afforded by the railway, and although the traffic thus anticipated may not at first be large, yet the growth of population and Uiatthe traffic may without exaggeration be expected to double itself in the next ten years." The Commissioners say on page 12 : — "The passenger traffic undoubtedly would increase enormously in consequence of the cheapness and expedition of railway transit. Most likely cheaper and readier communication with the other portions of the colony would tend to increase the population and cheapen the necessaries of life, and thus enable the various resources of the West Coast to be developed, which now are dormant from the expense of living, and consequent necessarily high rate of wages." And again, on page 7, the Commissioners say: — "It has been shown that the East and West Coast railway would have mostly a terminal traffic. Therefore, it would only afford this advantage to a limited extent; still, it offers these advantages in the present and the future to the dictrict it traverses, and it is difficult to say what requirements may arise even in the mountainous tracts tli rough which it is proposed to carry flhe line. But scarcely in harmony with these hopeful sentences is the remark in the concluding paragraph of the report — " The most sanguine view the Commission can take is that there is no prospect of the traffic paying moi*e than working expanses on the completion of any of the alternative lines." After a careful perusal of the minutes of evidence attached, to the report it is after all not surprising to your Committee that some of the conclusions of the Commissioners should be in apparent conflict with their premises. First, as to general question of the value to the railways of the traffic in coal, agricultural produce and live stock, the Commissioners seem to have relied mainly on evidence that is at variance with ascertained facts. Mr Maxwell in his letter of June 14th (to which the Commissioners refer as the main ground for their conclusion) says that the bulk of the traffic indicated, viz. : " Coal, agricultural produce, and live stock, being carried at rates that are unremunerative, or entail loss, leads to the inference that under the conditions stated the traffic indicated would probably not pay.' The published experience of the working of the New Zealand railways seems singularly against Mr Maxwell's theory. It is only necessary to refer to the statistics of the results of traffic ; n order to see that the railways in agricultural and coal-pvoducing districts are not only the lines that pay best, but about the only ones that pay at all. The General Manager wo^ld surely admit that the Canterbu% section affords a fair criterion for agricultural produce, coal, and live stock, and, as lie must be well aware, the result is that it pays 8 per cent over working expenses. On fie other hand, the Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson and Marlborough lines, on which a total of about £3,000,000 had been expended at June 30th, 188.2, and which, it is presumed, do not depend for their 'traffic mainly on agricultural produce or coal, yielded, in the aggregate, only the comparatively poor result of 1.91, or less then 9 per cent, over working expenses. Now, as to the " uncertainty of the competition of sea carriage," which appears to have been in the minds of the Commissioners, but on which they were apparently able, ultimately, to solve any doubt that they had by a consideration of the fact that all the harbors on the West Coast are, to use there own words, " as bad as they can well be." The curious evidence of Mr Back, the local Traffic manager, is especially noteworthy on this question. Speaking of the conditions under which the railway is in competition with water carrage between Lyttelton and Timaru, Mr Back is reported to have said — " 1 don't think a railway could compete with water carrage. I think Timaru is a very good instance of that," It is certainly remarkable that in examining an officer of the deparment a Eoyal Commission should have been unable to come within closer range of the actual facts. It is well known, and has frequently been demonstrated to the Department by the merchants in this city, that the railway rates between Timaru and Lyttelton, and vice versa, could be lowered to a point that would secure for the railway the carriage to Lyttelton of almost all the produce of South Canterbury, and the carrage from Lyttelton to Timaru of almost all the cement, sugar, iron and other merchandise they are. now carried by water, aud nil thi:; with fair profit to the rail-

~ — ~ «! way. The only reason why the railway does not compete successfully with sea carriage in respect of the Lytteltonlimavu trade, is because such a course would not be politically convenient tor tae authorities who control the railways ; and hi this is exhibited t\u>. anomaly of the efficient working of r .1 expensive railway service being sacrificed in order to influence the direction of a few votes in Parliament. The evidence of the Traffic Manager concerning the question of the ability of the railways to compete with sea carriage, and to which the Commissioners would appear to have attached some importance, is therefore valueless* Your Committee, of course, does not believe that the Traffic Manager had any personal end to serve in not making the facts clearer, but regards his curious evidence as being simply the natural outcome of the anomalous system of railway management. But, as has been said, the Commissioners were fortunately but little influenced by Mr Back's evidence. They were satisfied that all the harbors on the West Coast were utterly bad, and their evident, conclusion is that sea carriage could not compete successfully with an East and West Coast railway.