Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 198, 23 October 1866, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1866.

The opening of a portion of the Great Southern Railway, in Canterbury Province, on the 15th inst., reminds us of what our neighbors are doing in reference to the adoption of means to opeu up the country. We suppose it will be Nelson's fortune to engage in similar operations sometime or another, and thafc another generation will not pass away ere communication by railway or tramway will have been established with the South Western Gold-fields. The experience which has been gained in the colonies during the last ten years in the most approved modes of constructing lines of various kinds, should strip railway enterprise of the terrors by wliich, on account of its assumed expensiveness, ifc has been hitherto surrounded. The most reliable engineering authorities have stated thafc the two hundred and odd miles of railway which cost the Victorians seven or eight millions of mouey, could have been accomplished for half the sum, or that the sum which has been expended on works so solid, would have taken branch lines to every gold-field in the country. Light bridges of iron instead of heavy ones of stone, siDgle instead of double lines, and the avoidance of all heavy earthworks wherever ifc is possible, will enable the colonists to construct comparatively inexpensive lines that will be useful for all practical purposes, last; till the country is settled, its resources developed, and wealth available for more durable and expensive works. This is the American system, wliich has enabled the energetic and dashing people of the new world to push railways wherever there is population and open up the country from one end to the other. We write in ignorance of what the Nelson Provincial Government are doing to give effect to the legislation which has recently taken place, in reference to the Nelson, Cobden, and Westporfc Railway, bufc take for granted that they are doing all that they can bo expected to do in the matter. As we understand the question, it stands thus. .- By a vote of the Provincial Council in May last, the Superintendent was requested to bring the subject under the attention of the Government of the colony, aud obtain its sanction to the alienation of the land necessary for a railway, the land to be given, not to exceed 10,000 acres for each mile of railway constructed. The council also resolved that iv the event of the Government of the colony sanctioning the alienation of land for railway purposes, the Superintendent be requested to take such steps as he shall think best calculated to briug the scheme under the notice of capitalists, who may be likely to view ifc favorably, and pledged itself to cover by vote auy expense the Government may incur in endeavoring to carry the resolutions into effect. The Nelson, Cobden, and Westporfc Railway Laud Act, passed the legislature October Ist, and the Superintendent is now empowered to carry out the resolutions of the Provincial Council. The difficulty of the position is seen in the fact that the Provincial Government do not propose to construct a' railway with their own money, but offer land as au equivalent, to any contractors who may consider the speculation of constructing a railway on the terms offered a remunerative one. On this subject public opinion is divided, some persons contending that the land offered will not be deemed a sufficient inducement, and others, that a quantity of land so vast musfc contain resources ample to indemnify speculators for the outlay in question. During the discussion in the Provincial Council on the subject, those members who had paid most attention to the land aud railway questions, thought the land would be deemed an ample equivalent for a railway. This is a question that can be settled only by experiment, and by taking to the market of the world the article we have to dispose of. A great deal will depend however on the manner in which the question is put to

capitalists, and, the amount of vigor and perseverance brought to bear upon it. That the Superintendent will ,do all thafc he conceives it his duty to do in the matter, we have not the slightest doubt, but that he is at all sanguine of success, we have his own words to the contrary, at the prorogation df the Council in May last. Now just in proportion to the difficulty and apparent hopelessness of the success of the undertaking is the necessity that it should be prosecuted with the utmost resolution. Fortune favors the bold, and it is nofc the timid and wavering who are selected on the forlorn hope. There is a party, as we have intimated, who don't believe in the practicability of the thing, who are averse to change. A railway to the West Coast would revolutionise the ideas of a great many persons who perceive a dignity in slow movements, aud have* a religious dislike to progress. It rests to a great extent with the lovers of progress, whether the railway scheme turn out to be a success or a failure. It is competent for the people in public meeting assembled, if they care afc all about the railway, to ventilate the subject, discuss its' pros and cons and show their representatives that they are in earnest in the matter. If the mass of the electors are satisfied thafc things shall go on as they have for the last quarter of a century, they will only have themselves to blame for their apathy.