The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 179, 30 July 1874, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1874.

The statement made by the Minister for Public Works the other evening is, as far as Nelaon is concerned, eminently unsatisfactory. The people of this province, and their representatives, had been led distinctly to believe that proposals would be made by the Government for extending the Foxhill line of railway into the interior in the direction of Greymouth, and we have been kept quiet of late by the prosecution of a survey of the country, carried out, as it was supposed, with a view to the construction of the railway, but we now learn that for the next year at least, we are not to derive the slightest advantage from the expenditure on public works beyond that which may accrue from the completion of the contracts now in hand upon the Nelson and Foxhill line. There is not even any mention of continuing the line to the Port, and the full extent of railway communication that we shall possess at the end of the year 1875 will be a line commencing a mile from the wharf and terminating a mile and a half from Foxhill. A very valuable work indeed, and calculated to confer inestimable benefits upon the province ! In addition to this we are told that £10,000 will be asked for to enable the Government "to have full and complete surveys made of the line through from Foxhill to Brunnerton, and thence to Greymouth, aud from Greymouth to Hokitika, as well as for such other portions of the connecting links as the staff* at our command will enable us to do."

This looks very like throwing a sop to Cerberus, and further shows that Ministers have formed a very low estimate of the amount of sop our watchdog requires to prevent hia barking when he sees his master's property in clanger. But the Cerberus of Nelson has always been a harmless good tempered sort of animal that could be kept quiet at any time by a kindly pat on the head and a soothing word or two, with now aod then a dry bone to amuse him. It is high time that we displayed a little more wakefulness and disposition to look after our interests. To a Nelson man nothing can be more disgusting, more disheartening than the evidence of the neglect of this province as exhibited in the summarised statement of the railways now authorised. Here it is : — Otago, 332 miles of railroad, appropriation £2,065,000; Canterbury, 251 miles, appropriation £1,160,000; Auckland, 166 miles, appropriation £934,500 ; Wellington, 133 miles, appropriation £954,000; Nelson, 38 miles, appropriation £222,000. And then we are twitted with being a non-progressive province. Wellington reaps the advantages of nearly three times the expenditure of public funds that are allotted to Nelson ; Auckland more than four times the amount ; Canterbury over five times ; and Otago between nine and ten times as much as can be spared for Nelson, which is supposed to keep pace with the sister provinces, while she is handicapped so heavily. "To him that hath shall be given." Truly our colonial Government acts up to the very letter of this scriptural injunction.

We confess that we are entirely at a loss to know what to suggest as a remedy for this highly unsatisfactory state of things. Ministers appear to have everything their own way. The Estimates have been pushed through with unprecendented haste, and without even the semblance of a debate upon the financial statement. Our representatives can but enter an earnest protest against the injustice that is being done to Nelson by the utter neglect of her interests that is displayed by those in authority, and there," so far as we can see, all action must cease until the next session of the Assembly, when we shall, perhaps, be told that another £10,000 is to be expended on surveys. The word " surveys " begins to stink in our nostrils. It is the stone that is thrown to the starving man who craves for bread. Mr Wrigg has surveyed this particular line, and Mr Rochfort has surveyed it, and now somebody else is to survey it— and then ?