THE Marlborough Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Tuesday, December 12, 1887. Ballway Sleepers

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 139, 13 December 1887, Page 2

THE Marlborough Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Tuesday, December 12, 1887. Ballway Sleepers

Tiie arbitrary decision of the Public Works Department by stopping all tho settlers in the Pelorus (Sound from cutting any more sleepers at n moments notice is about the most unfair and injudicious plank in the Government’s retrenchment platform, and must press with undue severity on a number of hardworking men, who have been endeavoring to found a home for their wives and families in one of tho most isolated parts of the Colony. Surely those in authority have not duly considered the position. Fancy what it means to those actually' dependent on this kind of labor for their subsistence, who have in some cases been weeks procuring the logs for splitting or sawing iuto sleepers, and then are suddenly informed it is no use proceeding with the work as tho Government do not require any more sleepers. How are there accounts which have been incurred during the time they were engaged at the work to be .liquidated, and how are their deferred payments to be provided for when treated in such an ungenerous and unbusinesslike way. This class of labor is not like pick and shovel work, where a man’s kit of tools means only two, but a boat has to be provided first, as the only means of conveyance about the Sound, and in three cases small saw-mibs with all their belongings have been provided and the splitters h«,,e to purchase a horse with harness to drag the sleepers to high water mark which all means expense, and then to be dismissed at a moment’s notice has justly enlisted the public sympathy. Now, why is this extreme m insure carried out in our district, when large orders for sleepers are still giveu in other parts of the Colony'? It seems that history repeats itself, and the AIPO- - Squatocracy is still the ruling power with the same old motto,

“take from him which hath little.” Ever since the Public Works policy was initiated nearly every other district in the Colony benefited by the expenditure of public money from loans at our expense, and now, by this last foolish stroko of those in power settlement is to be again retarded, while it is simply impossible to procure the same quality of sleepers as our mountain lmsh supplies in any other partof the Cuhmy; it’s strength, durabilities and solidity, with the diflicuity of ignition, ail combine to recommend t.’iis timber as our mainstay for riilway purposes in the future, and it is to be hoped the Government will again give our settlers tho clnr.ite to earn a living instead of swelling the ranks of the unemployed.