THE DUNEDIN PROTEST.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14973, 20 April 1909, Page 6

THE DUNEDIN PROTEST.

If the Dunedin peoplo can show the Prime Minister that he has been misled in regard to the prospects of the Lawrence-Roxburgh railway ho will be compelled, of course, to reconsider his determination to discontinue work on the lino. The Government’s scheme of retrenchment does not include the abandonment of public undertakings which promise to return a fair rate of interest on the money expended. But our brief report of tho proceedings at the meeting of protest held in the southern city lust night does not suggest that any of tho speakers went very deeply into tho financial aspects of,, the question. They seem to have relied mainly upon the “investigations” that were made five or six years ago, and to have scouted the idea that these investigations could have been incomplete. “It; is absurd,” they declared, “ to say the line will not pay.” If this is so it should not be difficult to convince Sir Joseph Ward of his mistake. But the Gore Borough Council is not so sanguine as tho good people of Dunedin are, and at its meeting last night it adopted a resolution congratulating the Government on its action in stopping work on the lino. Perhaps the Council is not quite disinterested in tho matter, seeing that the alternative to tho Lawrence-Roxburgh railway is a line running up the Clutha A alley that would be of more value to its own district, but wo need not assume just yet that the old battle of routes is to bo revived. We notice that the “ Otago Daily Times” in condemning the “ineptitude” of the Primo Minister in making the disappointing results obtained from the Otago Central railway an excuse for discontinuing work on the Lawrenco- ; Roxburgh line, maintains that by a parity of reasoning he might stop all railway construction in the Auckland district becauso tho KawafeawaGrahamtown line and the Kaihu-Dar-gavillo line do not pay a penny of interest on tho cost of their construction. If Sir Joseph Ward did make tho excuse that is attributed to him it certainly was not a vorv logical ono. But our contemporary is both illogical and unfair in suggesting a comparison between the Kawakawa-Grahamtown railway and the Otago Contral railway. The former line is being constructed in three widely-separated sections, and tho completed portions can bo used only for the insignificant local traffic. Until the two ends are connected no adequate returns can bo expected from the line. Tho Kaihu-Dargavillo railway was built to servo the timber industry, and with tho disappearance of the bush its returns aro naturally declining. But the position of these lines has no f bearing upon tho future of tho Lawrence-Roxburgh line. If the people of Dunedin can satisfy Sir Joseph Ward that this railway is i'equirod they will not liavo to wait very long for tho resumption of work on th'e line. The Minister can have no dosiro to quarrel with them unnecessarily over a matter of this kind.