The Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1906.

Evening Star, Issue 12927, 25 September 1906, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1906.

Thk reception given yesterday br Sir Joseph Ward to the rcpreTl ><> serrtathrc deputation from H.rbor Board Ofcago was not altogether Emomnents. satisfactory. We do not

~„ . . knmr '"■ nether Mr Ross is still siting on the stops of Parliament House, waiting for « a fair promise/' but the people of Dunedin certainly expected something more than the "modicum of justice" acknowledged by Mr Fergus at the close of the interview. At the same time there is no occasion to adopt an an<rrv attitude. The Premier, as it seems to us, advanced a number of highly questionable contentions, and his version of the historical circumstances lends itself readily to criticism; bnt he was ftot unsympathetic, and, after all, he promised to do something. It is a rather dubious K something" as yet, but wo are not without hope that it may be enlarged by means of tactful and persuasive persistence on tho part of the Harbor Board and their friends. The Minister of Railways is to visit Dunedin in the early part of the recess, and in tho meantime the movement must be continued on reasonable lines, and an endeavor must be made to convince Mr Hall-Jones that Ministerial assistance should not be confined to the restoration of access to the foreshore. Nothing is to be gained by exaggeration, and wo cannot pretend to be surprised or aggrieved by tho Premier's frank refusal to grant at the demands submitted to him yesterday. We said some weeks ago tbat neither Government nor Parliament would dream of paying retrospective compensation running to hundreds of thousands of pounds. Not that there is any special force in Sir Joseph Ward's conjecture that the Government "would "have similar requests from every other "part of the Colony," because a similar state of matters does not exist in any other part of the Colony; but interprovincial jealousy would assuredly make its appearance in Parliament, if* not in the Cabinet, and it would be pointed out that the Harbor Board and the local community were suffering mainly in consequence of their own apathy and incompetence. There would havo been no need for the indignation and insistence manifested during the present year if the City Council and the Harbor Board had done their duty in previous years, or if our remonstrances had been vigorously supported when it was decided to close Stuart street. When Sir Joseph Ward made his memorable statement to the effect that there could be no new railway station unless Stuart street were closed we did not hesitate to declare that it would be better to sacrifice the much-needed station than to acquiesce in the cutting off of access to the wharves and foreshore. Ours was a voice crying in the wilderness. Of course only a portion of the present mischief was caused by the closing of Stuart street, but the remainder is more or less due to the indifference of the Harbor Board at an earlier date. Dunedin doe 3 well to be indignant, but in onr indignation let these things be remembered, and be it confessed with something like shame that the Premier had a right to remind the deputation that the alertness of yesterday followed upon the virtual quiescence of quarter of a century. Sir Joseph Ward promised two things: First, that any land resumed in future would be paid for under the Public Works Act—that is, at present value; secondly, that in some way or other means of access to the foreshore should be provided. The value of this "modicum" depends altogether upon the nature of the means of access. Sir Joseph did not explain his intentions very clearly. He referred rather vaguely to overbridges and subways. When Mr Hall-Jones comes to Dunedin he must be given to understand that if the Harbor Board finances are to be materially aided —and that is tho vital necessity—level crossings must be provided at Jetty street and other points indicated by tho direction of the traffic; or, failing this solution of the difficulty, the entire system might be altered by the construction of an overhead railway from Caversham to Black Jack Point, thus leaving the whole foreshore open. It is worth considering whether the latter plan, somewhat heroic as it is, would not bo tho best in tho long run. As has been said, we cannot blame Sir Joseph Ward for refusing to promise large monetary contributions or to assume definite responsibility in respect to the finances of the Harbor Board. On the other hand, we aro by no means convinced by his arguments in opposition to the request for the restoration of a portion of the resumed land. Ho contends that the operations of the Railway Department in Dunedin do not occupy an abnormal area, but the comparisons instituted in his reply to the deputation are not at all conclusive, and many facts known to us point in the opposite direction. We shall return to this aspect of the matter, observing in the meantime that we see no cause to depart from our previously-expressed opinion that more than one valuable strip of land might be restored to the Harbor Board without causing serious inconvenience to the Railway Department. Moreover, while admitting that the financial requests of the deputation, regarded in their entirety, were practically hopeless, we do not say llrat the Government are entitled to escape altogether as regards monetary contribution, and Mr Fergus's suggestion of a Royal Commission " to decide as to how far the "Colony was indebted to the people of "Otago" might be adopted with advantage. For the rest, it may be well to wait for the return of the deputation, and hear what Mr Fergus and his colleagues have to say on the subject as a whole. One thing is certain: an attitude of vigilance and energy, combined with conciliatory reasonableness, must still be maintained.