The Vogel Public Works Policy.

In 1870 New Zealand had a European population of just under 250,000, and there were only 46 miles of railway operating in the Colony. Then, on the 28th June, Mr. (later Sir) Julius Vogel proposed (and the House later embodied in the Public Works Act of that year) the construction over a period of about ten years of some 1,500 or 1,600 miles of railway at a cost of not more than £7,500,000, plus grants page 21 of land amounting to not more than 2,500,000 acres. Legislation of 1870 and 1871 provided—following the recommendation of the London engineering firm of Sir Charles Fox and Sons—that all railways were in future to be on a 3 ft. 6 ins. gauge (with the proviso that Canterbury was permitted to retain her existing gauge, where it desired, along with the other; which it did till 1877). Thus New Zealand, by resolutely facing the gauge problem at the outset, spared herself the difficulties that confront the Australian States, each of which has its own separate gauge, so that, in general, interstate traffic is impossible without transhipment.

Mr. Vogel suggested that a “betterment tax” should be levied on private properties benefitting by railway construction; but this idea, though it was revived from time to time, has always proved too unconventional for the Governments of the day. He also suggested—with almost equal lack of success—that the Crown Lands should be so administered (by lease or sale) as to pay a large part of the cost of the roads and railways.

The earlier railway authorisation Acts fixed a maximum cost per mile for most of the projected lines. The figure of £3,500 to £4,000 per mile (including rolling stock) appears to have been based on an estimate made for the New Zealand Government in 1870 by the London engineering firm of Sir Charles Fox & Sons; this covering the use of native materials for sleepers, bridges and buildings, 30-lb. per lineal yard iron rails, 350 ft. radius curves, 1 in 40 grades, six-wheeled locomotives with not more than six ton axle loads, 31 ft. long six-wheeled passenger carriages 8 ft. wide, four-wheeled 15 ft. long goods wagons 8 ft. wide, and a service speed of some 15 m.p.h. Actually, four-wheeled carriages 7 ft. wide, however, were constructed at first, and the first trucks were only 61/2 ft. wide.

The wisdom of this provision of a maximum cost per mile is highly debatable. Certainly on some routes it encouraged the engineers to find the most economical alignment. In other cases, however, it brought down the initial cost at some prejudice to subsequent quick and economical working: and on many routes carrying heavy traffic the capital sunk in these “surface” lines has had to be almost completely scrapped. The one in forty grades and the five chain radius curves due to the fewness of cuttings and embankments on the Auckland-Mercer line were levying so heavy a toll in operating costs that some of these curves had to be straightened and grades eased as early as 1885, while the question of improving the alignment and easing the grades throughout the whole of this route had to be faced up to in 1911. Similarly, the one in fifty grades on the Dunedin-Mosgiel portion of the Dunedin-Clutha Railway had, in the interests of quick and economical working, to be eased before 1914; and the narrow Otepopo tunnel, south of Oamaru, limits the width of rolling stock on the South Island Main Trunk Railway to this day. Official reports of 1871 and 1873 show that a governing gradient of one in forty— instead of one in fifteen (with operation by expensive Fell equipment) actually adopted—could have been used for the Wellington-Wairarapa line if it had not been necessary to keep down the cost within the limits set by the Act. Finally, an easing of the grades on the Auckland-Kaipara line (1 in 33) was undertaken in 1885, and a more complete easing in 1937, while a commencement of grade easements between Wanganui and Marton was made in 1936.

Under the Railways Act of 1870, the cost of the Auckland-Tuakau Railway (36 miles)—with a ruling gradient of one in forty—was fixed at £4,000 per mile; that of the Dunedin-Clutha Railway (52 miles)—with a ruling gradient of one in fifty, but with two lengthy tunnels—at £5,000 per mile; and that of the Picton-Blenheim Railway (19 miles)—also on severe grades —at £3,500 per mile. At the same time the almost flat lines in Canterbury were authorised on a total appropriation basis and not a maximum cost per mile: viz., Addington-Rangiora (18 miles—£92,000); Selwyn-Rakaia (13 miles—£48,000); Timaru-Temuka (11 miles—£67,000). It is by no means clear why rather higher rates per mile should have been allowed in the comparatively easy Canterbury country than in the more difficult country already mentioned.

The following authorisations were made by the First Schedule of the historic Railways Act, 1871:—

(1) Under Section 16 of the Railways Act, 1872, construction was not to be commenced on any new line until the Chief Engineer had reported that it was likely to pay working expenses from the date of completion. As the result of an adverse report under this section construction of the Auckland-Helensville line was discontinued from 1873 to 1876. The Helensville-River-head line—giving rail portage between the Kaipara and Waitemata Harbours— was completed in 1875, but the Helensville-Auckland line not till 1881, the Riverhead-Kumeu Section being closed in the same year.

(2) This had been substituted for the Auckland-Tuakau project of the previous year as giving better through transport to the Waikato—in its avoidance of certain navigation difficulties south of Tuakau and in providing a terminus at a point tapped by the main road.

(3) Originally a tramway with wooden rails was contemplated. The estimate allowed an insufficient amount for the crossing of the Oroua and Rangitikei Rivers—even with the wooden rails.

(4) High cost accounted for by heavy tunnelling in difficult country. The line was commenced just subsequent to the heyday of the Tuapeka gold rushes.

(5) Construction delayed till 1875. Additional lines commenced in 1871 under the authority of the Third Schedule of the 1871 Railways Act were:—

Rangiora and Kaiapoi to Oxford (31 miles)—to tap the only accessible timber in Canterbury.

Rolleston to Malvern (35 miles). Waimate Branch (4 miles). Racecourse-Southbridge (19 miles).

Under Section 11 of the Railway Act, 1872, the purchase of the Dunedin and Port Chalmers Railway from the Otago Provincial Government was authorised. This was carried out in 1873 at a price of £210,000 for eight miles of line. The line (which had originally been built by private enterprise) was then already in operation.

In the 1873 Railway Act there were authorised in addition to the lines already mentioned, the Mercer-Newcastle and southwards line; the Waitaki-Timaru line (42 miles) (£220,000); the Gore-Clutha (48 miles) (£260,000); and the Dunedin-Moeraki line (55 miles) (£430,000). Construction of the last mentioned line was held up till 1874 on account of the difficulty of finding, a suitable route out of Dunedin. At length a practicable route (with 71/2 chain curves as against 9 chains between Palmerston and Oamaru, and mostly 15 chains between Dunedin and Clinton) was found involving a 1,400 yard long tunnel at Mihiwaka, not to mention several other tunnels, one in fifty grades, and a difficult piece of sea-cliff excavation.

The policy of fixing a maximum cost per mile also encouraged the use of very light rails (mostly 40 lbs. to the yard), very light bridges, four-wheeled trucks and carriages, and very light locomotives (mostly with an axle load of six tons or less—or only about two-fifths the present-day main line standar—with correspondingly low speeds.

The Railway Acts of the early ‘seventies also contained power for the letting of contracts for the construction and/or operation of Marlborough, Auckland and Otago provincial railways (with an interest guarantee of 51/2 per cent, per annum).

The Railway Act of 1871 (with its 1873 amendment) charged the costs of railway construction against the Provincial Lands Funds. In 1876 (when there were 718 miles open for traffic) the abolition of the provinces placed all the earlier constructed railways in the hands of the General Government

(To be continued.)

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