ABSTRACT
Beginnings of railways, with railway rumours, railway prophecies, and railway fears, met us everywhere on our passage up the islands. It must always be remembered that these colonial railways are not private speculations as they are with us, but are constructed,—or to be constructed,—with money borrowed by the colony for the purpose. If it be calculated that the money can be borrowed at 5 per cent., and that the expected traffic will pay for the working of the railway,—two positions which the advocates for the New Zealand railway system take for granted,—then the question is this: will the value of railway communication to the colony be worth the interest which the colony must pay for the money borrowed? Any partisan could talk by the hour,—if given to talking, or write by the chapter,—if given to writing, either on one side or the other; or first on one and then on the other. Facts can prove nothing in the matter, and speculation must carry the day either on that side or on this. That a national debt is a grievous burden to a young community is of course not to be denied. That railways running through a country, at present deficient in roads, will increase trade, and add greatly to the value of the land and to the value of the produce of the land, is equally manifest. Such a question in a community governed by free institutions, representative parliaments, and responsible ministers, at last becomes simply one of partisan politics. There will be the borrowing and spending side of the House, the members of which will be great in their oratory on behalf of progress,—and there will be the cautious side of the House, which would fain be just before it is generous, whose oratory will be equally great in denouncing the reckless audacity of the spendthrifts. The borrowing and spending side will generally have some great prophet of its own who can look far into futurity, who can see ample returns to the community for any amount of expenditure, who is himself fond of political power, and who can see at any rate this,—that the great body of voters in the country, on whom he must depend for his power, are for the most part indifferent to future circumstances so long as money at the moment be spent in profusion. When I reached New Zealand Mr. Vogel was the great prophet of the hour,—and under his auspices money had been largely borrowed, and great contracts had been given for railways which are ultimately to run through the two islands from The Bluff up to Auckland and north of Auckland. Of Mr. Vogel and his fate, while I was in the colony, I shall have to say a few words when speaking of the parliament at Wellington; but I have found it impossible to touch the subject of railways in New Zealand without mentioning the name of a man who I was assured by one party will hereafter be regarded as the great promoter of the success of his adopted country,—or, as I was assured by another party, be denounced as her ruin.
