WISE, OR—OTHERWISE?

Cromwell Argus, Volume XVII, Issue 837, 28 April 1885, Page 3

WISE, OR—OTHERWISE?

TO THR EDITOR. Siu, ; —Being at present a sojourner, or sort c;f wayward pilgrim in these beauteous lands, so fertile and so superbly magnificent, I have been struck more than once with the fact that th people living in and about Cromwell must B/ endowed with more than the natural stock of patience, or Otherwise long ere now the Vincent County .would have,been not as now a desolation and a wilderness—the natural home and resort of legions of bunny, in conjunction with an extraordinary profusion of out-of-gearednesa in respect to the convenances of civilised life. I have seen that state of things doubly emphasised during the last ten days over a tract of country extending from Moryen Hills station to the head of Lake Wanaka. Every one ot the people having to do with affairs seems to be strongly somnolent or soporific, or at least under the spell of some strange magic wand of a fit of permanent inertia. The general and pervading idea seems to be that it matters not what they do this part of New Zealand is bound to prosper —yes, is bound to go ahead in the right way in spite of plethoric rabbit and lazy human biped ! Were the same territory transplanted from the south temperate zone to some regions in the States of America, Canada, or Europe, all portions of it would now be honeycombed with roads, bridges, railroads, and every other signofprosperouscircumstances, and especially the homes of countless numbers of happy and contented people. Really, entre nous, you Cromwellites must set your house in order, or when the “ Rooshians ” come over to have a brush at you this New Zealand will be in such a rickety state that a Tartaric invasion, instead of being a regular stand-up fight will resolve itself into a sort of guerilla skirmish, not worthy of the fair fame of trueborn Britishers. Anyhow, the sooner railways have penetrated into these out-of-the-way parts the better both for man and beast. I cannot for the life of me see what you have been doing all these years of gold-making ! Surely you don’t expect railways to descend from seme distant planet. Certainly, I should readily judge from the slow-coach way of doing business in these latitudes that the Vincentites had reverted to the pre-Noahian days and their modi operandi. Still, there is no accounting fortastes, and thereforeonemust judge leniently, especially in respect to motives of human action. It appears to me that the Cromwell people, instead of making the proper use of their wits for the sake of their own and posterity’s best happiness, have been acting a sort of grandiose part. Coming to particulars, I would advise the residents to take a plebiscite on the twelve wisest men in the county. Appoint these as delegates who shall go to the old country and try and get a syndicate composed of wealthy men to open up a railway from coast to coast — i.e., from the port of Oamarn to Jackson’s Bay or the mouth of the Haast river on the West Coast. All the settlers in these fair spots of God’s creation would then he in a state of not only comfort but affluence. All these now apparently desolate hills and huge mountain tracts that scarcely afford—owing to. the superabundance of the aggressive rodent—shelter and food to the runholders’ sheep, would be peopled with many a happy and contented family ; and instead of the shrill cry of the kea and weka then would be heard over all these peaks the sound and voice of God’s Zion doing homage and worship to the Church’s head. And yet as matters now r are, this little (comparatively speaking) territory of the earth is to a great extent the domain of untilled and uncouth

Nature. Nothing easier, Mr Editor, than to pierce the barricades of Nature that now dominate the habitable area betwixt the Kurow and the Haast. I admit that in a few parts some little engineering is requisite, as for example both saddles, eastern and western, or that between Morven Hills and Oamarama, and the one near the West Coast. But still the labor is not at ad insuperable at either. _ Consider thelenormous wealth of soil and timber that would be accessible and br eight into requisition were the above-sketched an accomplished fact ! Millions of pounds worth of valuable foivat would be then within easy reach of part, and from thence export**! to all parts of the globe. That of itself would be a paying concern for the railway. Thqp all the country thus perforated with the iron horse would be dotted with comfortable and well appointed homesteads. The settlers in that ca>e would hear about with them the sunny smile of contentment. Both man and beast would be at peace with themselves and others of their respective ilk. In the present state of iffairs you need not expect the Government to bring about such a state of things for your behoof. You must do it yourselves. You must put the shoulder to the whepl, and do so with some degree of energy and wisdom. Bawling, blowing and blustering won’t suffice for the task. On the contrary, ’tis some herculean powers—the aggregate of concentrated forces inherent in intellect as well as muscle that are potent to describe the no >■ seemingly impossible an actual fact. Then Pembroke, instead of being as now a few straggling houses or huts, would be a fairer, and I might say a happier, Dunedin or Auckland—or both in one vithout their sins and miseries. Why, Sir, bake Wanaka—another E len f r sunny beauty with its girdle of varigared mountain, fenn and f"ll—-would then be via-a-oi* to s iperbly-bui.t villas. The Lake its If, visited by shoals from ill parts of the globe, would be reported upon is one of the grandest regions ever seen. Surely, , Sir, that style of things would be better far than the reign of evcrlas lug tussock or persist nt rabbit —either of which in the long run means an impoverished country and an unhappy people.—l am, etc., Ulinda.