THE Marlborough Express. WEDNESDAY. SEPT. 25, 1872. MARLBOROUGH versus NELSON RAILWAYS.

Marlborough Express, Volume VII, Issue 433, 25 September 1872, Page 2

THE Marlborough Express.

WEDNESDAY. SEPT. 25, 1872. MARLBOROUGH versus NELSON RAILWAYS.

'* Oirit iue the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all other liberties —Milton

•Thitke has been a pretty warm debate going on recently between two of the Nelson journals. the Examiner and the Evening Mail, on the respective merits of the two Superintendents, His Honor Mr Seymour and His Honor Mr Curtis, with reference to the Kailway works in the several The Mail says

“The Picton and Blenheim Railway is fairly commenced. This, we consider, is entirely owing to the laudable energy and persistence displayed by Mr Seymour. Towards the Foxhill line nothing has been done beyond the preliminary survey. This we attribute to some extent to the comparative inertness of Mr Curtis.” Having admitted the plea of the Examiner that Mr Curtis went once to Wellington and obtained a promise, the Mail thus continues —

“ If one special visit was necessary to extract the promise, two or three more were requisite to ensure its fulfilment. Why were these not made ? To our knowledge, Mr Seymour performed the pilgrimage across the Straits three distinct times before he obtained what he wanted. He was not content with a promise, which he estimated at its right value, hut he had set his heart on heariug the sound of the pickaxe in the Waitohi Valley before the meeting of the Assembly, and perseverance and determination carried the right. [Bravo !] We are told that it is unfair to Mr Curtis to give ‘Mr Seymour’s presumed greater energy and earnestness credit for the priority which the Marlborough line received,’ as that railway * obtained precedence over others because it had already been surveyed, aud contracts for its construction could at once be entered into, while for the Nelson and Foxh 11 line a survey had to be made.’ This is simply a misstatement of facts. It is true that a survey had at one time been made, but it proved to be altogether useless, and the work had to be gone over again de novo, so that the two lines started fairly together. Mr Seymour, however, saw the adva tage of the survey being commenced without the slightest delay, and, not content with obtaining a mere promise from the Ministry, he pressed his demand with such importunity that he compelled them to send the surveyors over to Picton with him, and thus contrived that the line in which he was interested should be the first to be submitted for tender. Such being the real facts of the case we are unable to see that it is unfair to Mr Curtis to give Mr Seymour’s—not presumed, but actual—greater energy and earnestness credit for the commencement of the works in Marlborough. Suppose the action taken by the two Superintendents to have been reversed, what would ho the respective results ? Is any one sufficiently credulous to believe that if Mr Seymour had, like Mr Curtis, rested on his oars after extracting an unwilling promise from Ministers the works on the Picton line would have been entered upon? On the other hand—judging by the fruits of Mr Seymour’s perseverance—it is probable that if a like pertinacity had been displayed by Mr Curtis, nothing would have been done in Nelson beyond the preliminary survey ? We repeat- the Examiner, acting as Mr Curtis’s champion, was scarcely judicious in challenging us to give our reasons for alleging that if the Superintendent of Nelson had thrown himself into the work he had in hand with the same energy that characterised the action taken by the Superintendent of Marlborough, the Foxhiil line would now be in a far more advanced stage than it is at present the case.”

We cordially agree with the remarks of our contemporary as to Mr Seymour’s perseverance, and had he known that gentleman as we of Marlborough do, he might have said even more ] for not only has Mr Seymour shown great energy in this matter of late, but for the last ten years he has used that energy to the desired end at great personal cost and labour. His heart was in the race, and he has won it.