FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 21

FIFTY YEARS AGO

ITEMS PEO3I "THE POST"'

THE THAMES MINES

"We are glad to see that the people of the Thames have, in their reception of Professor Black, risen superior ' to the miserable spirit of local jealousy which led the Auckland papers to strongly censure the Minister of Mines for sending him to Auckland," remarks "The Post" of this date fifty years ago. "They professed the utmost indignation at the idea of an Otago professor being sent to Auckland, and apparently the Professors of the Auckland College felt equally sore about it, for Professor Brown showed a good deal of temper in the manner in which he declined Professor Black's generous and courteous offers to share in the work of initiating a sort of School of Mines. The reasons assigned for turning down. the proposal were of the flimsiest character, and it was very evident that the Northern Professor was extremely jealous about his southern compeer coming (as he seems to have regarded it) poaching on his preserves. The result has fully justified the course pursued by the Minister. Professor Black has found the Thames to be extraordinarily rich in mineral wealth—rich to a degree hitherto unsuspected. Silver and lead, he says, abound there, but the miners have not known them. Is not this fact a somewhat strange commentary upon the practical value of our exceedingly expensive Geological Department, and what will Professor Brown now have to say of it having been left to Professor Black to make such a discovery almost at Professor Brown's own door? The practical miners of the Thames seem to appreciate Professor Black. They are eager for useful scientific knowledge bearing upon their own pursuits and the country around them. Professor Black and his assistant, Mr. Montgomery, seem able to administer to their wants and to give them the instruction they desire. This being so, they care not whether Messrs. Black and Montgomery come from Otago, from Auckland, or from the moon. They have quickly realised the practical value of what they can teach them and they are desirous to learn. It is pleasing to note the promptitude with which the Minister has responded to this anxiety, and authorised the necessary steps for complying with their desires. Professor Black's visit to the Thames will probably prove of great practical value to the district and to the colony. He seems to be the right kind of Professor, and we wish that there were a few more of his sort about. Professor Black's success should make the Auckland papers and Professors feel rather small." EXCURSION TRAINS. "The manner in which the Welling-ton-Manawatu Railway Company has developed traffic on their short section of line since it was opened should be a revelation and a lesson to the Government railway authorities. Before the line to Paramata was opened, a good many people ridiculed the idea o£ the railway there finding profitable traffic. They asked where it was to come from, for the line ended nowhere, and one train a week would carry all the people who wanted to go to or "come from Porirua. The result has shown this conclusion to be a most erroneous one, and the line has already developed a very profitable amount of traffic. It has done this by consulting as far as possible the convenience of the public, which is about the last thing ever thought of by those responsible for the management of the Government lines of the colony. What the Paramata line has done shows what the Wairarapa line might do if managed on the same principle. Why should not Wellington people during the summer months have an opportunity of leaving town after their week's work, spending Sunday in one or other of the Wairarapa townships, and being back in Wellington in time for their ordinary business duties on Monday morning? If the railway were managed by any private company or firm anxious to make it pay, we are quite sure there would be a cheap excursion train every Saturday night or early on Sunday morning through to Masterton, returning early on Monday morning so as to get into town by half-past eight or. nine o'clock. Such a train would, undoubtedly, pay well, arid the receipts of the line would be still further increased if the excursion tickets were made available by the ordinary train on Saturday afternoon, and if country residents were enabled to come into town by the early Monday train and return by the ordinary afternoon one. At present it is impossible for any townspeople to visit the Wairarapa, | except on holidaj-s. without trenching! on their business hours to the extent; of at'least half a day—a loss which a great many who would like to go there I 1 cannot afford." NEED FOR POPULATION. "There appears to exist an impression that immigration is an unpopular! subject with the general public, and! that the only safe development of statesmanship is the discovery of some nostrum which will make all who are I now in the colony rich, prosperous, and j happy, while jealousy excluding all the outside world from possible participation in these blessings. We need hardly say that no discovery of thisj kind is likely to be made. Half a! million people can never successfully | monopolise a country that could, and should, sustain three or four millions. It is not protection, but population, which the country wants, and never was there a case in which the proverb of 'the more the merrier' could be: more truthfully applied. The present; population is bowed down with the j weight of the concern it is running.! It has laden itself with burthens be-1 neath which it can scarcely stagger, i and yet the suggestion that outside \ help should be obtained is regarded I as a kind of treason. It is held to be dangerous to say that what is too heary for half a million people to carry. would be a trifle to a million and a' half. The very idea of resuming immigration is considered horrifying. Now we venture to think that, notwithstanding all the errors which were committed in regard to Government immigration in the past, no portion of. the money borrowed by the provinces or the colony was ever better spent ! than that which was expended in bringing immigrants to these shores.' "We would strongly urge the Government to take courage and make a bold move, and bid higher for the popula-. tion which is wanted to run our • show." I A TELEGRAPHIC FEAT. j "A marvellously quick telegraphic feat was performed in wiring the re- i suit of the Melbourne Cup to New' Zealand. As soon as the first horse: passed the winning post his name wasj flashed to La Perouse, the Australian | terminus of the cable, letter by letter, of course. As each letter was received it was cabled to Wakapuaka, and there j the operation was repeated to Wei-' lington, the result being that before! the last letter has left the Flemington: Course, the first was known in Wel-i lington. In other words, the result j was known in Wellington 35 seconds; after the race was won and almost be- : • fore the gallop at which t.'ie leaders' in the struggle rushed past the post; had been reduced to a canter.' I