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Why the Evil Effects were Not Sooner Felt.

But I shall be asked if this system is as bad as you describe it to be, how is it that it has lasted so long? For the following reasons:—

Railway construction commenced in England with the Stockton and Darlington line, in 1825, or sixty-eight years ago. Let anyone examine the map of the United Kingdom at that time, and they will see it covered with numerous and prosperous country towns and villages. Most of these towns had their own corn and wool markets, some their butter markets, and all a considerable local trade. In 1838 the London and Birmingham line was opened, other lines connecting the provinces with the great city rapidly followed, and then the work of concentration and absorption went on apace, and the local markets gradually but surely disappeared. But Great Britain was a thickly populated and wealthy country. She, too, for many years enjoyed almost a monoply of the manufacture of railway material, and to her fell the lion's share of the £6,000,000,000 the railways of the world have cost, but now that they are for the most part constructed, and her population and trade largely concentrated in a few chief cities, she feels the strain, but it takes a long time to absorb a country so situated.

When in 1831 railway construction was commenced in the United States, there existed in that country a large population on the sea coast and the shores of the great rivers, they had an immense undeveloped interior country to deal with, the produce of which found a ready market in Europe, their enormous railway construction employed a vast number of her people, and the constant stream of immigration brought in immense wealth. Their interior is now opened up, their railway system approaches completion, immigration has greatly fallen off, and in America, too, the pinch is severely felt.

The first railway in Australia was opened in 1855. The same conditions that prevailed in America also existed in Australia, but in a less degree, and consequently the evil effects of the vicious concentrating system sooner made themselves felt, and we all know the state her railways and finances generally are in now.

In New Zealand railway construction commenced in 1870. Here also the American conditions, but in a still less degree, prevailed. Our experience so far is a comparatively short one, and our grand coast line and splendid waterways make us less dependent on railway transit, but for all this the same evil results are rapidly manifesting themselves.

In all these countries we have the machine, a very-perfect machine, too, but again, how about the administration?

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More than a century ago the Abbe Raynal wrote: 'Let us travel over all the countries of the earth, and wherever we shall find no facility of travelling from a city to a town, and from a village to a hamlet, we may pronounce the people to be barbarians; and we shall only be deceived respecting the degree of barbarism.' He was undoubtedly right. We, however, need not flatter ourselves, that the mere fact of the existence of our splendid railways proves that the mass of the people enjoy transit facilities: they do not. If they did, the dream of the Stephensons that 'the time would come when no poor man could afford to walk,' would long since have been realised. Nor can it be pretended that railways are worked for the general public good. Only too often they are worked to inflict positive injury. Numerous instances might be given of the truth of this statement. For instance, there is the well-known fact that, by a manipulation of the railways, in ten years the value of agricultural land in the State of New York was depreciated to the extent of, £45,000,000. The same thing is going on in this country (New Zealand) at the present moment as regards Timaru, Oamaru, etc., and the British bondholder has already suffered in consequence. While this sort of thing may bring, and often does bring, some present gain to those who have the control of the railways, in the end it brings ruin to them also, for the destruction by absorption of trading centres must mean loss of transit trade.

Railway controllers often have it in their power to defeat the laws of the land. For instance, the Government of a country may make a large grant to improve a harbour, but the railway men can set the rates against that harbour and so make it practically useless. Liverpool was greatly injured in this way, and Oamaru and Timaru in this country are being ruined by the same means.