The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1884.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXII, Issue 7386, 31 October 1884, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1884.

The East and. West Coast Railway Bill has run the gauntlet of both Houses, and is now out of purgatory. That it should have escaped with a whole skin was not to he expected; neither men nor measures can well do that after running the gauntlet. The Bill had to face heavy blows, and did receive one or two severe stripes. Nevertheless it is still to all intents and purposes the measure which was introduced by the Government into the Lower House. With one exception, its essential parts have come out of the ordeal intact, Tho 'exception is clause 6. The question asked is—is this excision likely to damn the whole scheme in .the eyes of English capitalists. On the whole we think not, and we say this advisedly, despite the words of warning used by the Premier at the final consideration of the Bill in the Lower House, When the Company has finished the construction of tho line, we trust that it will find something bettor to do with it than to hand it over to tho Government to bo worked by the Colony. For reasons which have repeatedly been urged in these columns, wo believe that the paying capabilities of a West Coast Railway have been greatly uuder-mted. Many of tho lino’s detractors have gone to work to intentionally make out tho strongest case against it that fact, combined with and distorted by imagination, could furnish, It was for years part of tho policy of a Government, and that Government one of the most powerful in point of tho support it oo|nnmnded which the Colony has known, to kill the lino. A Commission reported against it. Commissions appointed to enquire into linos obnoxious to a Ministry rarely report in thciir favour. The Balaams of these modem days do not bless where they

have hem called lo fitinw : purhaps l-c----caueu their inspiration i» not drawn from quite the same source an that of the Chaldean prophet. Newspapers in certain parts of the Colony have printed and re-printed every j eonwivahle argunu'nt against the i railway, ns well as some argu- j menta which, to the ordinary j mind, would not appear eonceivahte. It was stigmatiaed m< “ the most reckless ami infamouH job ever attempted to be earned in the House of lieprepentative«. M

Having outlived the ojn*n moulhi'd attacks of irreconcila’di* enemies, it had to survive the hostility of treacherous friends, Mr Rolleston, once a believer in the railway, worked, spoke, and voted against it at every stage. Mr Wakefield reserved hi* defection until the final and critical period in the lino's history, when treachery was most dangerous. Fortunately nothing that Mr Wakefield can now do, or say, or write, is likely to injure anybody or anything except himself. His barefocodness has overshot its mark. Sir George Grey hamxmed to have temporarily exhausted his power for mischief just before the appearance of the Bill in Parliament. That did not make Sir George Grey’s opposition less discreditable; but it made it leas important. The people of this district will not forget that so long as there remained a possibility that Canterbury constituencies might return Greyites, Sir George posed as the warm friend of the West Coast line. The general election chilled the warmth of that friendship; wo shall be surprised if the flame ever revives. It is not a little curious that the Upper House, whose treatment of the Bill was so dreaded, really did more good than harm to the measure. It is true the Lords struck out clause 5, but they also restored the much more necessary freedom of choice of route. There is plenty of time for the Colony to reconsider the rejection of the arrangement for the taking over and working of the railway when made by the Government. The line can bo made without any such proviso. But it is possible that the restriction of the route to Arthur’s Pass might have killed the whole scheme. , At any rate, as we pointed out in a former article, it was a device to bring about that result. There are those who state that the amount of available land contiguous to the Lewis Pass route is double proportionately to the amount to be secured in the Arthur’s Pass country. The distance to be traversed in the one case is so very little longer than the other —eleven miles is the excess —that,it will not weigh with the public much on the score of convenience. The choice is exactly one of those things which the constructors should be left to make; luckilv, this is to be done.