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Lyttelton Times, Volume LXV, Issue 7824, 2 April 1886, Page 4

Like General Grant, the Railway League keeps on pegging away. This is right, for, long as the battle has been, it is so far from being over that it may perhaps be only about to begin in earnest. Major Atkinson is no longer half-hearted in his opposition. Mr Bolleston is as implacable as ever; he is determined not to_ turn his coat twice on this particular matter. This resolution is not to be wondered at; possibly it is to be commended. As for the Syndicate, that may relieve us of all further trouble in the matter, or it, may be but one more in the long series of golden dreams. Meanwhile the League has been holding a series of thoroughly successful little meetings, whose outcome has been to show that its speakers are entirely in touch with public opinion in Canterbury. The League’s Chairman and others have very sensibly laid themselves out to accumulate information on their subject, and to lay their facts and figures before the public in as pleasant and easy a fashion as possible. How difficult it is to make the ordinary agriculturalist really grasp that a country may be rich though it may not be a land of fertile plains or open rolling downs, only those who have tried to out-argue prejudice against Westland can know. Some day, perhaps, New Zealand will be brought to admit that and coal, and gold, and valleys all waiting to be cleared to form a paradise for the dairy farmer, can make a rich land, though not a land for the grower of wheat and oats. We sometimes wonder how many people realise what an immensely valuable possession an acre of good Westland timber would be when once brought within reach of a market. Those who know something of the history of in the few patches of. bush land with which Nature has endowed Canterbury, could give figures which might throw some light on this. We happen to know that eighteen years ago, long before Waimate was approachable by rail, bush land was let for cutting there, and the amount paid for timber reached <£l4 per acre. From .£lO to £l2 an acre have been S’”ed by sections in the Geraldine . It is known, too, that as many as fourteen years ago the timber on

—=======2ssSSaassSStif bush land at Oxford was sold‘ for jßß'los an acre. It is quite true that these places are now much nearer the Christchurch and other marketsthan is the Lake Brunner bush. Bat it is also true that fourteen and; eighteen years ago they were no nearer,, if so near, as Lake Brunner will be l when the iron horse steams through, the Otira Gorge. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the best timber in Westland is not only more plentiful,, but very much better than the best timber in Canterbury is or ever was. We have seen a surveyor’s estimate,, showing that at the present rate paid., for royalty the return from a certain Westland forest, covering 100,000’ acres, would average as much as £9' per acre, and in the light of the sums paid for bush land in former days in, Canterbury, we see no reason to call this exaggerated.