The Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, 11 April 1868, Page 3

The Daily Southern Cross.

LUOIO, NON TOO. * If I bar* iMin txtinrulihtd, jr»t th*n tin ■ j ▲ thousand baaoona from tba'ipuk I boit.

SATURDAY, APRIL 11.

"We think Mr. George Graham would have done well to omit the silly insinuation which concludes the first paragraph of his letter published to-day in another column. Such remarks do whatever towards strengthening a case, and merely show that a man is incapable of arguing a question upon its own merits. "When Mr. Graham adduces evidence to sihow<rjtlhat we are opposed to the establishment of peace, or the doing away with a wasteful war expenditure, we shall be prepared to meet him. ' Mr Graham seems to think that we treated him unfairly in expecting an estimate in. his ffirßtrletter. ,, To us,, the value of such -a scheme without an estimate appears absolutelv^nil r even now, Mr. Graham gives us no estimate of distances ; and, as he does not tell us the point at which he purposes leading his canal into the Waikato, or the point of departure from the "Waipa of the Taranaki tramway, or how far out of the direct Jine he intends to go for the purpose of opening the Taupo country, we v are not in a position to/anivetatany distinct notion of what the cost of the line is expected to be. The whole plan is so visionary and impractical that it is impossible to deal with it seriously. In one place it is said that the eonfiaeated lands might- be immediately sold for one hundred thousand pounds ; in another it is alleged that-we-ihave no JLand^to give away for the constcaction^of^tesev works. Mr. Graham "beHeVes'^ithat'twos-.^undred pounds a^'mife Ndiy>a..tiufficient^ta' pay for tramways . wJix£h -have to. Jbe-takeri :\through a rough country of er - u • high range of hills, for at least thirty jniles through heavy bush country, and across a large number of riyeip, The estimate is so outrageous that it needs no further comment. "iSx. Graham further "believes" that the canal works would not cost more than sixty thousand pounds, but why he believes it, or on what data his 'calculations are based, he refirsnns from telling us. In our former remarlra we said that- we did Hot think the <£gst, of transport would,, be reduced to bnertentn of the present rate by connecting the ."Waikato. and Piako rivers ; Mr. Graham is'ha'ppy'to say that we are mistaken, but, asjhe dpes not give one tittle of , evidence to-prave-this;_we-confess ourselves unreasonable enough to adhere still to our former opiniansj fshe,; only; reply io our doubt is a question as Igjwhat we think on the matter. As it is Mr. Graham who , is, advocating this scheme, the question is not what we think, l?flfe*rtifl*)iept*mate h$ ba&ismved at/ and ion what grounds. •«[W« siaitedi thatiwe could not see that \ the traniWi3rffto v Ta*anaki;and Whanganui would be' j any 1 ) material! improvement upon the, present system of sea jsommun'ication. Mr. GrahaiiL. ( 6pnsiderg, that tfoy would,- .because they would open up the intermediate country. Dftu-fstirifeft' '&'- 'out-former remarks that there couljljbe nQ .doubt of the desirability of opedftg J rf0 v ftfc country; ; bSit o this is a ques|ion^ altogether apart that, of commj^iatiga^tjireen.the centres ojf .eolbnisafcipn^and it was in relation to the last that i£ele^presqesour opinion. As to the opening up-of tne couniay^y.meanatof-'trainwayef it

jmust depend upon the general practicability 'of the scheme, and its cost, and it appears to jus that Mr. Graham has utterly failed to |demonstrate><. that his propositions are at all (practicable. t As to Mr. Graham's political object and (his influence with the natives, he obliges us (to state that we have no faith in either. The {quotations from our correspondent's letter ishow clearly that it would be the height of folly to undertake such works as are proposed, and as these works would have to be icarried out by the Government we do not jsee that Mr. Graham's power over the Maori mind would simplify matters. Our opinion, Jhowever, is that the Maoris listen to Mr. i Graham simply because they know him to be a private gentleman of a thoroughly harmless iand a good-natured turn of mind. Make ,him a Government officer, and he will either »have to .descend to gross flattery of the ! natives, or become suspected as a member ,of the Government and so lose the ear of his ! Maori friends.