LAWREENCE-ROXBURGH RAILWAY.

Evening Star, Issue 14036, 17 April 1909, Page 8

LAWREENCE-ROXBURGH RAILWAY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Sir Joseph Ward and his Ministry have had the high courage and patriotism to radically cut down the public expenditure and reorganise the public departments. Sir Joseph could have temporised and kept in smooth water, but instead of that he has earned the thanks of the large majority of the community and the bitter enmity of a powerful minority. In the course of his economies he had to stop the construction of the Lawrence-Roxburgh. Railway. For that he has been most bitterly assailed and insulted, and I presume the projected meetiug at the Town Hall will afford the personal opponents of Sir Joseph Ward an opportunity to make inflammatory speeches. 1 write to point out that instead of concentrating our attention upon the speedy completion of the CatJins line to Tautuku we are deliberately jeopardising the latter line. Now, from Lawrence to Alexandra the district is well loaded and is passable at all times, whilst Gatlins is impassable in winter. We have at present strong grounds for pushing on the CatHns Railway, but if we are to enter upon a campaign of abuse and coercion we deliberately throw away any advantages we have at present. It appears to me that those w'ho are politically opposed to Sir Joseph Ward will have to seriously consider the desirability of actively supporting his present policy. The public expenditure had grown to such dimensions that the only alternative to financial disaster was the pruning-knife vigorously used. The Opposition, if in power, would find this one of their main planks, and their reign would have been of the shortest. Sir Joseph has a large following, and ought to have a margin of safety, but he will come out of the ordeal very considerably weakened in some; directions and materially strengthened in others. Whilst matters of such magnitude are at stake, it -is surely undignified for our citizens to make a mountain out of a molehill, and not onlv is it undignified, but it is distinctly bad business. The finest' thing Sir Joseph Ward has ever done, or ever will do, is his voluntary attack upon excessive expenditure. His action was that of a statesman, careless of office, and only mindful of the common good.—l am, etc., Gatlins. April 17. TO THE EDITOR. Sir—Has the Prime Minister been misreported i His estimate of receipts from the railway when finished from Lawrence. to Roxburgh is £1,400. The mails alone would cost nearly that. The coaches' employ twenty-four horses each day, and most cost over £2,000 a year to. run. Then all the goods are carried by w>aggons, coaches only carrying passengers, mails, and small parcels. If the estimate had been £1,400 a month it would be well under the mark.—l am, etc., s Common Honesty. • Lawrence, April 16.