76 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
Instead of the interest being made pay¬ 
able from the revenue of the State, the 
writer proposes that it should be charged 
upon the waste lands, and instances some 
American States where this has been most 
successfully accomplished. The following 
extract will give the conclusions at which 
the writer arrives :— 
The examples which I have cited establish two prin¬ 
ciples of railway finance for con nines of good external 
credit, hut with insufficient local resources. 1st, Con¬ 
struction by the Government, with the aid of loam, 
foreign or domestic, secured upon the general revenue. 
2nd, The subsidising of external capitalists by dona¬ 
tions of the waste or unalienated lands of tho territory, 
with or -without reservation. 
Upon the first point 1 must be understood as speak¬ 
ing with great submission, when 1 give my opinion, 
with some confidence, that this is not the course of 
policy for ns to pursue. A country whose public 
revenue is raised mainly by import duties, is not justi¬ 
fied in imposing, as it must impose, further burdens 
upon current industry to defray the annual interest 
upon undefined pecuniary obligations,' however urgent 
and necessary. Assuming the amount borrowed to be 
most advantageously expended, it may be generations 
before the effect of the expenditure will he appreciable. 
Adam Smith has properly laid down the general prin¬ 
ciple. 44 It does not seern necessary,” says he* 4 ' that 
the expense of public works should he defrayed from 
that public revenue, as it is commonly called, of which 
tho collection and application are in most countries as¬ 
signed to the Executive power. The greater part of | 
such works may easily be so managed, as to afford a 
particular revenue sufficient for defraying their own 
expense, without bringing any burden upon the general 
revenue of the society.” Tho improvement effected 
ought in fact to pay its* own cost, but only under very 
special circumstances ought the general revenue of the 
country to bear it. In the case before us, the object to 
be effected is to enhance the value of our waste lands 
by making them productive or rather of bringing them 
nearer to the market. If the road itself cannot, by the 
levenue which it is made to yield, promptly and readily 
defray the cost of its construction, why not throw the 
burden of that cost upon the land winch, by the con¬ 
struction of the road, you make saleable. This seems 
a preferable course to that of anticipating future re¬ 
venue, or tax-paying ability, by the imposition of pre¬ 
sent burdens in the form of loans. Tho lean, moreover, 
is a verv unnecessary one, ns we have no peculiar pride 
in keeping the estate intact, and would much prefer 
selling to mortgaging. The direct mode of accomplish¬ 
ing the object in view, is better than the circuitous one. 
Public debts are more easily contracted than liquidated, 
and it is bad policy to start in the wrong direction, as 
our American brethren have found to their cost. 
For the reasons I have ventured lo urge, ! doubt the 
policy of imposing upon the Government, tlie duty of 
railway making/ It is not a part of the legitimate 
province of Government* which is rather, to assist or 
encourage enterprise than wholly to supersede it Yve 
cannot construct the works ourselves, it is bad policy to 
construct them with borrowed capital. We lnvo not 
the money* hut we have the land. Why cannot we give 
the land in exchange for the required sendees? The 
capitalists who would lend us their money upon a mort¬ 
gage of our estate without considering whether they could 
get principal or interest back, would readily adventure 
their capital for the making of our highways, in consider¬ 
ation of a wholly or partially free donation of land, the 
sale of which would repay them their outlay, and, with in¬ 
fallible certainty, yield them a handsome profit thereon. 
The private company or association would most probably 
make the railway much better and more cheaply than the 
Government, and it would have a direct interest in doing 
1 the work expeditiously for the sake of the reward. Our 
Government is fortunately able to ratify such a bargain 
| as 1 have imagined. The reservation has been made in all 
I grants of land, from the very earliest period of our colonial 
| history, of a right of resumption by the State of all such 
portions of the land alienated as might thereafter le re- 
| quired for the purpose of making highways. The Govern- 
ment may regulate its arrangements accordingly. The 
site of the line, whether passing through public or private 
land, ought to be free of cost. The Government ought to 
give the projectors the right of selection of an agreed 
quantity of public land, the land so selected to be an abso¬ 
lute donation on the part of the public. If capitalist! can¬ 
not be stimulated by these tempting advantages to under¬ 
take* the work, it might then be worth our while to 
consider whether the State should offer to guarantee to 
the shareholders any and what amount of interest on their 
shares. I do not think, however, this latter alternative 
would be necessary, as I am disposed to think that the free 
grant of land would attract British capital for Australian 
railways readily. There is no reason to suppose that rail¬ 
way enterprise would be less successful in Australia than it 
has been in Canada. Canada in 1S4& had not fifty miles 
of railway, and the Canadian railway stock was held at a 
depreciation of from 60 to KO per cent. 11 had at the com 
mencement of the present year about 800 miles of working 
railway. 
Whether under the subsidising principle above sug¬ 
gested, the State should grant the line of perpetuity, or 
should only concede it, as in France, for a term of years, 
would be a matter for experience lo determine. It would 
not affect the principle whatever course was taken. 
As to the lines to be constructed, I confess my preference 
for well-built railways, whether we adopt a single or a 
double line of rails, though at first, prudence would sug¬ 
gest the former. The Americans have found that cheap 
railways do not answer, and their experience is a good 
guide for us. If railways are not constructed by the State, 
but left to private enterprise, it would be necessary for the 
Government to take security for the faithful performance 
of the work. 
At the meeting held on "Wednesday, Oc¬ 
tober 9th, 1856, the following paper on the 
Parramatta Water Works was read by 
E. 0. Moriarty, Esq., B.A., Civil Engineer 
There is perhaps no subject connected with the social 
economy of a country of more importance to the 
comfort and health * of its inhabitants than its 
water. Being one the first necessaries of life, it has 
always been considered, and undoubtly is, of the very 
greatest consequence that is to be obtained as pure, and 
tree from all deleterious matter as possible. 
That it was so esteemed by the ancients, is at once 
proved by the magnificent remains of reservoirs, aque¬ 
ducts, arid tunnels, which exist to the present day, and 
which exhibit, perhaps, even more strongly than their 
classic writings, the civilization and enlightenment of 
their times. That the subject is not neglected in these 
days of practical wisdom may be.learned trom the 
m.inv noble and ingenious works by which towns in 
the old country -are supplied with water. And when 
the extended works now in progress for supplying Syd¬ 
ney are completed, tho people of the Metropolis of New 
South Wales, at all events, will have no cause to fear a 
comparison in this respect with other cities. 
The sources from which water for the supply of towns 
is gene. ally derived, may bo classed under three 
heads ;— , . . 
First, —rivers and running streams, which must un¬ 
doubtedly be considered the best aud most economical 
under ail circumstances where they can be found 
within any sufficiently convenient distances trom try 
places to be supplied, inasmuch as the running water is 
a' most always purer and more free Irony organic 
matter of all kinds, unless where it receives toe 
sewerage of towns, or the drainage of lands under 
