THE REASON WHY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14982, 30 April 1909, Page 6

THE REASON WHY.

If tho people of Otago want to know, as the Dunedin “Star” says they do, why the Government has thought fit to pounce upon tho Lawrence-Roxhurgh line and stop tho work of construction, they should road the reports appearing in their own newspapers of the remarks addressed by the Prime Minister to tho deputation that waited upon him on Wednesday. It seems to us that Sir Joseph Ward could hardly have stated bis reason for refusing to go on with tho work moro plainly. Ho told the.

deputation that a careful estimate had shown that the revenue from the railway could not exceed £2OOO a year, and that as this would provide no more than 10s or 12s per cent upon the cost of construction, he could not see his way to commit the country to such an unprofitable investment. Of course, the deputation disputed his figures, but it produced no proof of the accuracy of its own, and public opinion is likely to incline towards tho official estimate. If, however, the people of Otago still have faith in the prospects of tho line, there is a simple way' in which they can display their confidence. The Government is quite ready to give them facilities for building the line themselves, and if they bolieve in their own estimate of the revenue they should not hesitate to run tho risk. Railways have been constructed under an arrangement of this kind at Waikaka and at AVaihi, and there has been no conflict of interests between the promoters and the State. We notice, by the way, that the “ Otago Daily Times ” is taking the Prime Minister to task for using the bad results obtained from the Otago Central line as an argument for discontinuing work on the Lawrenco-Roxburgh line. “ There is,” it says, “ absolutely no connection between the one thing and the other.” But we remember that when the Dunedin people were agitating for the extension of the Otago Central line they never wearied of telling us that it was necessary to lay the rails only a little further to obtain tho most gratifying results. They are telling us the samo thing now in regard to the LawrenceRoxburgh line. But the Government is wiser now than it was two or three years ago, or, perhaps, the money market is less favourable. The Otago Central was moved on from section to section, always approaching. tho paying point, until the Government at last put its foot down and said that for the present it, should proceed no further. Tho line had cost £1,280,000 in hard cash, and now it is returning 6s per cent upon the outlay. The connection which outsiders see between tbis undertaking and the Lawrence-Roxburgh line is that the peoplo who were urging the Government to carry the rails a little nearer tho Hawea Flat are the very peoplo who are now urging it to lay them as far as Roxburgh. The connection may not bo so close as it ap.pears to be at this distance, but it is certainly close enough to justify Sir Joseph in reminding the friends of the Lawrence-Roxburgh railway of tho failure of their former prophecies.