The Lyttleton Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1865.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1391, 25 April 1865, Page 4

The Lyttleton Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1865.

We could wish tbat the accounts of the proposed road to the West Coast by way of the Bealey and the Ofcira rivers were more satisfactory than they are. Mr. Dobson is one of the most experienced and most trustworthy men who could be employed to find or make a road ; and it is because his reports are doubtful that we cannot be confident of success. The Government, nearly two months ago, determined that a road should be formed from Christchurch to the Teremakau by Arthur's pass; and Mr. Dobson has justified their persistency, to the extent (if proving that there is no pass by the Waimakariri better than that which the Government guessed at. But this is negative and not positive evidence. It may be true that there are many impassable saddles, rivers, and gorges ; but is this one really passable ? That is the question. It appears that the Bealey river has to be crossed in its ascent about half-a-dozen times, and that at the last or highest crossing, the natural dray road, which is more or less available up to that point all the way from Christchurch, ceases. Then, even for pack-horses, a road has to be cut, somehow or other, down the Otira gorge on the northern side of the pass. Mr. Dobson says that to form this road will require ninety chains of heavy rock cutting through the gorge. But, in the true spirit of an engineer, he declares that there is no real difficulty about the whole affair, provided the necessary funds be forthcoming. That is exactly the point. Heavy rock cutting may cost anything from a hundred to a thousand pounds per chain. Before much more is done, the public ought to know what the estimate for this work is. There are large parties at work on the road up to it, costing at least £700 a week. What is to be the end of their labours ? Even when the Otira gorge road is completed, it will be impass'able in times of rain. And, after all, it will only be a bridle road. To returning diggers in need of supplies it will matter little whether they go on up the Teremakau and get provisions at Lake Sumner, or come by the Ofcira and get provisions at the And the worst of it all is, that the Ofcira only leads into the Teremakau at last, and leaves the worst part of the road still to be travelled; that part of the road, namely, which the party of police, on their return a few days ! ago, described as almost impassable, on account of its rottenness, between the "pad* dock" and the Greenstone Creek. It appears, also, that Mr. Dobson has not quite made up his mind how the road shall go, down the Otira. The difficulty is evidently not a slight one; and we cannot say that the first unfavourable report" by Mr. George Dobson has been proved incorrect. Our regret is that, after so much delay and enquiry, the small resources of the province should be applied at last on an uncertainty; and one that at best cannot be any very valuable substitute for the existing track. The time has passed by for making a good road by Arthur's Pass before the whole is closed in by winter ; and a far better road may be very soon found by the Kakaia. It is a pity io spend money in making only a second bad foot-road; and it would be a far greater mistake to set about such a large expenditure as would make the Otira road decidedly superior to the Hurunui road, before it is known whether or not there is a third route better worth spending money on than either.

SubeliY the great Moorhouse scandal is exploded at last. Both parties long laboured under the difficulty of not knowing what the charge was. The Press believed in the truth of a rumour and made broad assertions on the strength of its belief. Mr. Ollivier has only now got sufficient hold of the actual assertions to contradict them. We think it will be admitted that the contradiction is ample to refute all the charges that have yet been made. But as public rumour can be got to say anything, it does not follow that no further changes can be made on the satne foundation as the others. All we ask is that they shall be distinctly made, if made at all. In order to narrow the ground, we may remind our readers that any story which has to do with Mr. Moorhouse's candidature for the Superintendence in 1863, must be dated in the first fortnight of November in that year; for it was then that Mr. Bealey expressed his intention to resign the office. The charge first advanced was that Mr. Moorhouse then consented to stand, on condition that a grant of public money should be secured to him by his friends in the Provincial Council. This scheme was said to have been concocted at a meeting of Mr. Moorhouse's friends at Mr. Ollivier's office. There was, as it happened, such a meeting held at the very time referred to; but there is conclusive evidence that no such scheme was even mooted at it. The other side rejoin that there was another meeting of members of the Provincial Council. This is true also ; but it (or rather they, for there were two meetings) happened after Mr. Bealey had withdrawn his threat to resign, and therefore when all question of bringing forward Mr. Moorhouse was at an end. Dr. Turnbull, who was present at one of these meetings, though he does not give the date, asserts that " a consideration to Mr. Moorhouse " was spoken of by Mr. Ollivier. But even he, who seems somewhat hasty to condemn his polit'cal opponents, does not assert that the meeting took such a subject into their consideration, stiil less that Mr. Moorhouse was cognizant of any proposal of the kind. And Dr. Turnbull ends his letter to the Press by admitting that he may have greatly misunderstood what took place. As we have pointed out, if the first meeting be meant, then we have the distinct evidence of nine gentlemen that no such proposal was made; if the seqond or third meeting, then the time

had gone by when «uch a progcwal could be made. Mr. Ollivier in his vanoUß "PMO™ 1 " and letters lua stated these facts; but they are enveloped in a covering of not ummturallv angry words, and of course fail to have their die weight. At the frank manner in which he and others hove stepped forward to challenge the promoters of the scandal ought to hare its due weight with the public. The wonder only is that the rumour ever gained ground. It is traceable publicly no further back than to the Superintendent's letter to the members of the Council in April, 1864, where his Honor confounded his own proposal about an honorarium with his own offer to resign his office ia favour of Mr. Moorhouse, the former having been made in the middle and the latter at the end of the previous year. The confusion of dates was pointed out at the time. But naturally those who desired to think evil took up his Honor's statement and made the worst of it.