OLD RAILWAY PROMISES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 179, 31 July 1907, Page 4

OLD RAILWAY PROMISES.

i The Premier's remark that "old promises " in regard to railway construction " w.ere coming to light every day, and that the Government could not allow them" to over-ride the exigencies of the present time," cannot be held to embrace the covenant tacitly made between the State and its Flaxbourne tenants two years ago. Nor was Sir Joseph Ward, we believe, thinking of such patently urgent works as the little extension to the Ward township when he so spiritedly replied to the Nelson and North Canterbury railway deputations on Monday last. The Culverden-Waiau and Westport-Reefton projects are not in the category that includes the SeddonWard. extensions In the case of our little railway,' the Public Works gangs and plant are actually at work on the section; whereas to begin at Culverden or Westport would mean the transportation of men arid material from some other line. In view of the reception that > the Waiau and Nelson deputations have received at the hands of the ; i?reniier, there appears at first .blush; little need for a .party of Marlbomugh politicians to go across to Wellington. The advocacy of the Member for the district; the equally effective, ii less ostentatious, 'comments to <be found' in the report of the Commissioner of Crown Lands upon the non-residing Flaxbourne settlers, and more especially the bearing which the, Government's failure to push on with the railway to Ward has upon the dilemma of unfortunate leaseholders; and, thirdly, the public opinion of the whole Wairau electoral community, rendered articulate in the columns of The Express—these are surely mean's as effective as any other towards the obtaining of our just rights in the matter of railway extension. However,a visi^; to Wellington can do no harm, so long as the extension of the railway to Ward and the construction of a new wharf at Picton are, the only needs emphasised. The present Government can see as well as-the President of the Marlborough Land and Railway League what an advantage $o the whole Dominion the completion of\ the Picton-Bluff line would be; and in this connection it is gratifying to note that "several Members of Parliament, in the course of the debate on the .Loan Bill, have declared their preference for a policy of constructing the main lines before new and. smaller projects are taken up. W§ shall not be surprised if the vote for the North Island Trunk Line be increased this;year. There appears to be a general opinion that many of the smaller lines will require to accept decreased grants until the chief railway work of the country is out of the way. In the meantime, however, it is not out of place to remind our readers that a very few thousand pounds will also see the Cheviot-Waipara railway at the '? hang-up '' stage, it being the design of the Department to build a terminal station and sheds at Domet, four miles^ south or the Cheviot township. Following up this hypothesis, it is only to be argued that the bulk of whatever vote appears upon the Estimates1 ; for the South Island Trunk Line will be for expenditure upon the section from Seddon to Ward. The total vote last year was £45,000, and by far the greater part went to the southern'end. This year the northern rail-head should secure the share withheld in the past. Placing the vote, for the sake of argument, at £40,000—and there can be x -l no excuse f°r a greater decrease —the northern end shotild secure fully three-fourths of the expenditure. If Cheviot settlers are to be given the facility of railway communication with one of the best wool, meat, and grain markets in the Dominion, why should not their fellow settlers of the high rentals at Flaxbourne be treated in somewJhat the same manner ? According; to the returns furnished by the Public Works Department, the cost of the four or five miles of unopened line southward of Seddon, up to 31st March last, has been £21,806. This portion covers some of the most costly work on the Seddon-Ward route; and if four thousand pounds per mile will serve to carry the railway onwards from Blind River, no less than seven or eight miles should be added to the five already constructed between the present time and the presenting of the Loan Bill for 1908-9. Time will tell. ...