The Evening Star TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1902.

Evening Star, Issue 11661, 21 January 1902, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1902.

It was' a good idea of the moving spirits of the recently-constituted Catlin Biter Cafclin River* Railway League Railway. to organise a party of members of the Legislature and leading Dunedin citizens to visit Catlin River and see for themselves what this City and the Colony generally are losing through the neglect of opening up the district by railway and road communications. The projected railway has been dragging slowly along for nearly a quarter of a century, and ra yet very far from reaching a point of practical utility, so as to enable the settlers to clear the timber at a profit and have ready access to the markets for their supplies and their produce. The settlement was, it may be said, established on false pretences of the speedy construction of the railway and roads connected therewith, and the hearts of the settlers have become sick with hope deferred. At the meeting in the Tahakopa schoolhouse on Friday evening Mr Thomas Mackenze put the matter very forcibly, declaring that the whole history of the Catlin River settlement was one of gross incapacity, and a grave reflection of the Administrations, responsible. Money should be provided, by special borrowing, if necessary, to "send the line right smack into the dis "trict," or the settlers should be given '<:\ understand that they were not going to get that communication, and the forest should be left intact until the Government were able to open up the country. We agree with the honorable gentleman that this would be far better than voting trumpery sums annually for the work and expending only a proportion of them. Tn the session of 1900 £12,000 was appropriated, only half of which was expended, and of the same amount voted in 1901 only £3,000, it is stated, has up to the present time been actually spent. As Mr R. Chisholm pertinently remarked, it did not j matter what the Government ]rut on the Estimates, or what they were going to ! put on. What was wanted was the pushing ou of the line, and for this purpose the League had been formed. The memi hers of the House and others who were present at Tahakopa seem to have entirely realised the position, and to have had their eyes opened to the desirability of taking energetic action to induce the Government to proceed vigorously with the work. Hopes were expressed that the citizens of Dunedin would wake Tip to the value of the Catlin River district, and that the influence of public opinion throughout Otago would be brought to bear in favor of the speedy carrying of the railway to completion. The present most unsatisfactory conditions were pointed out and dwelt upon by several of those who addressed the gathering. Mr T. Mackenzie referred to the wanton waste of a valuable colonial asset through the destruction of timber, which the settlers had no other means of clearing off the land. Forest?, he said, the growth of 500 years, were being cut down and burnt. The standing timber even now left in the district would, he declared, pay the whole cost of the construction of the line many times over. The Government, said Mr J. J. Ramsay, should be brought to realise the value of the magnificent district they had that day seen, and which bad so deeply impressed himself and all the visitors. The opinion generally expressed was that if the objects of the League were cordially supported by the Otago representatives in Parliament those objects would be secured. Mr Arnold spoke very practically to this effect, emphasising the fact of the success of North Island members in obtaining large railway appropriations and the expenditure thereof, owing to their continued action in bringing pressure to bear on the Government. It was thus, he said, that last year the amount expended on the North Island Trunk Railway exceeded the- appropriation by £40,000. Mr Sidey, the newly-elected of Caversham, shaped very well in what, we believe, was his first public utterance as an M.H.R., showing considerable knowledge of his subject and facility of expression. It would, he maintained, be to the advantage, not only of the district, but of Dunedin and the Colony, that the Catlin River country should be opened up by railway communication as soon as possible. Apart from the timber, there was a great future before the settlers in the dairying industry, the exceptional fertility of the soil being manifest in the rich growth of grass wherever the timber hod been cleared.

Well designed and admirably carried out, the visit of representative citizens to the Catlin River district will, we feel assured, not be without practical results. The resolution adopted and the proceedings generally of the meeting at Tahakopa cannot but convince the Government that the people of Otago are in earnest in advocating the prosecution of the line without unnecessary delay; and we may hope that the Minister of Public Works, in his Estimates for the ensuing year, will make provision for taking up and bringing the work to completion. It has hung fire quite long enough. The whole expenditure required is not very large, whilst the advantages of tapping virgin forest lands are conspicuously manifest.