The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1883.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIX, Issue 6873, 10 March 1883, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1883.

A debt is ft debt, a thing that, unless the Bankruptcy Court oomta in the way, must bo paid. The conscience of mankind, from the earliest ages, has recognised the principle, and the laws of mankind hare enforced it# The Can* terbury District is the creditor of the Colony by a sum of nearly a million and & half sterling. That wa» the anu which the official accounts declared in 1881 to be wanting to complete Canter* bury’s fair abate of the colonial loana ; loans for which Canterbury pays her fall share of Interest, and it the railway figures be taken into account, more than her full abate. As thing* are at present, there does not seem the slightest possibility of ever altering this state of matters. The public accountant* from time to time send the BUI to be copied, but the Colony never takes any notice and never will. In this connection a bold Idea ba# lately seised the Committee of the West Coast Railway League. It is to ask Parliament for a spools! loan of a million and a half, for the West Coast BaUway, whereby the debt of the Colony to Canterbury may be wiped out. The prindpal argument against the projected Hue has been always the lack of means. The money avaUable out of loan, the Premier told us the other day, is all allocated elsewhere. Ho did not go on to ask where, under the circumstances, the funds for the popular projoct were * to come from. SUU less did he chuckle in public over the fix he had put the deputation Into by his unexpected tenderness for the public creditor. But . his friends! in the Bast Coast project have never ceased asking where the money is to come from for the West Coast railway. A most-unexpected' I answer is at last forthcoming. The Idea of flecking the funds in the oolonW I debt to Canterbury is almost Napoleonic,

Oaolsrbarp, at toll tivoats, will not qvtArrcl villi il o« kbftl iioooaot, I*Mi |e«r lh« Iregltlatur® «it«Uisb«4 A preoa-dcot tiff oiefol lo rgmembeir »ov. A wkile niillott «u Ml Apart for AnokiAod, pArtly lo «<|uaU«« ib« loan exfgsutlitire, to jmy off the Ooloblal d«U 400 to Aaoklaod lo foot, And parti/ to bialco proTbUra lor a rmilvA/ vofk ol gpeclhl magniitidlo and IfSportAßOe. Tbo limy through the Waikato l» aultlier nor determined. The country through wbioh it hae to go i« oomparatively unknown and quite unexplored, uoiew a land may be eonaidered implored which atrangete enter in limited muaher* on aufferanco, to be watched with jcalonsj. All ia unknown tragus formisae oa trust But the Legislature made no difficulty. The Southern members joined with the Northern in recognising that Auckland had a claim to be put on a footing ol equality with tbe rest of the Oolony. They felt that the local sentiment is an authority to be trusted to a certain extent in this matter. The special Loan Act to Auckland was passed without difficulty, on the understanding that the money cannot beymxpended until the obvioua special difficulties of the situation shall bare been removed. The object of the understanding was not to delay tbe expenditure upon the Waikato railway, but to preventfthe money raised for the railway through the King Country from being diverted into other channels of expenditure. Canterbury is in the same position now as Auckland was then; it baa a debt, but with this difference, that the debt will abeorb the whole of the special loan. Canterbury ia also in tbe same position as Auckland, inasmuch as she has a specific ‘work of special magnitude and importance waiting to be constructed lor tbe public benefit. In one most important respect she ia in a superior position; there ie no Native difficulty to wait lor. What hae been granted to the North by the action of Southern members of the Legislature ought to be granted to tbe South by the aid of the Northern.

The question in many minds will be as to the expenditure of tbe money. Some hold that the money already allocated by Parliament commits the Colony to the East Coast line at an eventual expenditure of £1,200,000. This is what the Premier calls the Pioton-Hnrunui extension of the Southern Trunk system. Another view somewhat prevalent is that the interior line by the Acheron and Tophouse must be the extension of the Southern Trunk. A third thinks that whatever line is made there ought to bo a line connecting Canterbury and the West Coast A fourth would like to see this object and the extension of the Southern Trunk northwards combined, by the construction of a deflected line from Horunui to Eeetton, supplemented by a branch from the Main West Coast Trunk (Nelson to Hokitika) to Pioton by Tophouse and the valley of the Wairau. The last has this advantage. Without costing anything more than the East Coast or interior lines, it will give connection with tbe West Coast besides. The Colony is committed to a line from Nelson to Hokitika, vi& Beef ton, to cost £1,200,000 eventually. Another million or so expended upon the Hurnnui to Beef ton line, and on the Tophouse to Blenheim line, will complete the railway communication of the island. Whereas, if the million and two hundred thousand, and goodness knows how much more, is expended on (he interior Main Trunk, nearly a million more will be required to connect the two coasts. And, if the money he spent on the East Coast line, more than a million additional will be required to connect the coasts, and the West Coast with Blenheim. The financial advantages are then with the combined plan ol carrying the main trunk by Eeefton. To these advantages the report of the Bailway Commission has brought a moat important aid. It has simply swept the East Coast and interior lines out of the field entirely. According to that report, no trunk line must be made by way of yxtenaion, but the line by Beefton. That being the case, the combined plan by Beefton has the chief claim to the special loan to be raised. Under the circumstances, another examination by another Commission is a waste of time and energy. To disperse attention over a number of alternative West Coast lines, and dispel energy in contending about their rival merits will be fatal, in the face of re* loutless Government opposition, to the chances of getting any line at all. The wisest course is to concentrate all effort on the Main Trunk Hue, in deflecting it by Beefton, and in getting a special loan for constructing it with all possible speed.