The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1886.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXV, Issue 7792, 24 February 1886, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1886.

That seeing is "believing is a saying as old as the hills, and nearly as stable. At all events it is so in the case of those who visit the West Coast. Some who go there with a certain amount of scepticism as to the future of Westland and the prospects of the East and West Coast Railway line, come back thorough converts. Others who go full of faith in both matters come baek with their creed set on a higher pinnacle than ever. For the sake of illustrating our case, we may take the Premier of the Colony and the Minister of Mines as the representatives of the one class, while Mr J. D. Lance, the member f®r Cheviot, is a fair example of the other. His Excellency the Governor, from the official position he occupies, can scarcely be expected to make open profession of his faith. Nor has he done so, except to express by implication his admiration of the scenery. But who shall say, with the memory of Switzerland and other national playgrounds of Europe in their minds, that this will not hereafter prove one of the most lasting mines of wealth on the Westland side of the Southern Alps ? In short, it may be taken as perhaps the most hopeful among many, hopeful signs for the ultimate success of the Railway League, that everyone comes back from Westland convinced, in one way or another, that the line is a legitimate Colonial work, and that there are sources of wealth beyond the ranges that need but to be tapped by a railway to make them flow in streams that will enrich both sides of this Island, and, naturally, all New Zealand as well. At present, such knowledge is of a purely local character. To spread that knowledge far and wide, beyond the bounds of the three allied Provincial Districts, must now nerve the League to most strenuous efforts. It is impossible to take the political unbeliever on the actual trip to send him flying through the Otira Gorge with Mr Cassidy’s long serpentine lash cutting circles, and making the echoes ring around him. He eannot be shown the very clover and the grass that grows in the hillside clearings, nor the giant rimus, whose mighty plumes wave over the flat lands. With the bodily eye it is beyond the power of the League to make him see the boundless riches in timber, and gold and coal, and land that lie waiting for some one to enter in and possess them, from Otira Gorge to Westport Bar. They cannot convince him in this way. But with the eye of knowledge and the ear of reasonableness they can deal, and deal convincingly. It is plain from what Messrs Kempthorne and Hallenstein have done in Dunedin that fair-minded men are open to conviction. The first blow, so well struck by Miss Smithson on Monday night in Christchurch, must be followed up by many a lusty stroke dealt further afield. There is plenty to do before this new battle of the League is won. Let the League be up and doing. Such is the general lesson to be learnt from the events of the past few days. Turning for our own instruction to Mr Lance’s account of his journey, supplied to our representative, and which we published yesterday, one or two points come up for notice. In the first place, the member for Cheviot is to be congratulated for his robust assistance of the scheme among the Laodiceans of the West Coast, His plain speaking—and none can speak more plainly than Mr Lance when he means to do so—must have had a very warming effect on the cold water and lukewarmness of the people of Westport. Such visits as those of Mr Lance are of the utmost value to people here. They show us our enemies and their hostile ideas. It is very good in all respects to know yourself; it is better still in warfare, actual or political, to know thoroughly the strength of your enemies, and the weakness of your friends. Some weak spots in the Western ranks have been displayed. Nothing is easier than for the League with its organisation, to take such

steps that they shall not he shown again. Furthermore, we have now the direct testimony of one who is entitled to be called* an expert, that the agricultural and pastoral value of the West Coast land is very much higher than many people could honestly believe. For the future this point must he brought out more strongly than before. It is plain enough already to most people here that even if Westland could grow nothing but its magnificent timber, and concealed in the bowels of its great mountains nothing more than coal and gold, a railway is certain to be payable on tnose accounts alone. We now know that in addition there is every prospect that an agricultural population will succeed there as well, at all events, if not better, from contingent circumstances, than they would elsewhere in New Zealand. That is something worth insisting on, for it has been denied many hundreds of times, with all the force of the conviction. Such assertions must now vanish into smoke.