Mataura Ensign GORE FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1883. THE WAIMEA PLAINS RAILWAY.

Mataura Ensign, Volume V, Issue 248, 20 April 1883, Page 2

Mataura Ensign GORE FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1883. THE WAIMEA PLAINS RAILWAY.

Whether this line should ever have been constructed by a private company is a question we have not space to discuss to-day. The time was ripe for its construction : that all will be prepared to, admit, especially those who hold to the doctrine that the iron horse should precede and not follow settlement. Certainly the railway has done a vast amount of good to Gore and the country between that centre and Lumsden ; but there has always in a measure been a balancing lever, and lately the settlers have experienced this in a very marked degree. There are a lot of eccentricities about the line, and one of the most glaring and burdensome just now is the goods tariff,, which is so high as to prove almost prohibitive. Will it be believed that settlers residing within some miles of Lumsden find it pheaper to send their grain along the Elbow line to Inveroargill and thence by tlie main trunk line to Dunedin than to despatch it by the Waimea train to Gore en route to its destination? It is hard to believe that such is the case, but the stern logic of facts and figures leaves no loophole for doubt. This iB not as it should le. The settlers in the district through which the line runs are very heavily handicapped by the excessive rates imposed since the Ilth December last — the beginning of tho harvest system — and are not in a position to Oompete witb cereal growers in districts through which Government lines run. There are other anomalies in connection with the line, but the principal one has been mentioned, and the next thing Ib to remove it. ,To our mind there is only one satisfactory solution of the difficulty. A private company with a few miles of railway in the midst of an immense and increasing network of Government lines can scarcely be expected to answer.'" There will" be anomalies, existing perhaps only by comparison, but existing all tho same. Their removal in the special case under notice can only be effected by the Government's taking over the line. They ought to have constructed it in the first place, because ithe richness and extent of the land, the 'probable settlement of the country, ;and the formation by the expenditure !of a few thousand pounds of an excellent trunk line from Dunedin to the I large importing goldfield centres in the jLake district warranted its construction by the Government ; but a private ; company undertook the work, and has carried on the trafiic. Now the Government should la_:e it over. Ihey have lines to the right of it aud lines to the left of it, and it would link in capitally with these. An uniform tariff would be established . and the settlers would be satisfied because they wguld be treated the same as their brethren in other parts. They are entitled to some consideration at Government's

hands, and by purchasing the line the Qoyejrnmeiit would not only be .consult- .. ing their interests but adding v^ry ina-' terially to the dotriploteness of the railway ; system and' the value of; the, Colony's possessions. And 'ifcyisi/ almost certain^ that this line would have been taken over by the Government long ere now had it not been for the antagonism shown towards it by the r Inyer. cargill members, who are in the habir of looking unfavorably upon any public work that is not to immediately benefit their own town. We understand a meeting is to be held at Riversdale on Tuesday evening to consider the tariff question. We hope ' that when their own interests are so much at stake there will be a represen-j tative meeting of the settlers on the Waimea Plains, and that unanimity will characterise the proceedings. There should be a good deal of influence brought to bear on the company and on the Government. If the Agricultural Company is wise ifc will lend its aid in the interest of the numerous settlers on its lands. The collective voice of those will form no mean volume, but all available influence must be brought to bear to put an end to the existing state of things. The Agricultural; Company and the Waimea Railway Company, though distinct institutions, depend much for success one upon the other, and we hope to hear the former freely criticising the actions of the latter.