THE New Zealand Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1873.

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 2796, 14 January 1873, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1873.

The opening of the Dunedin and Port Chalmers railway was celebrated by a banquet, at which the Governor was present. In reply to the toast of his health, the Governor remarked: —

As to what fell from Judge Chapman respecting my conduct here, I can only say that my desire has been conscientiously to do my duty, and I wish to be romembersd as one who did his work. I can assure you that whatever destiny Providence may have in Btore for me in the future, I shall always look back with proud remembrance of this great colony of Now Zealand, where I have spent five of my best and happiest years, whore one of my children has been born, and witli whoso history, during a critical period, my namo must ever be associated. The principal events that have occurred during my administration are—first, the establishment of what I thoroughly believe is a permanent peace wiUi the Maoris—that noblo and formidable race —the most formidable that ever came into contaot with civilised men ; and secondly, the initiation of that large scheme of public works and immigration, now sanctioned by two Parliaments. I need scarely say that I have not the most remote idea of touching upon any controverted question in colonial politics —I .hope I know my constitutional duty too well for that—but I believe it is the opinion of every reasonable man of all parties that the proper course for the colony waß to combine tho prudence of the Englishman with thn energetic enterprise of the American. You then combine, in one word, the " all right" of Enuiand with the " go-ahead" of America. I believe this happy combination will be carried out in New Zealand ; at any rato I am suro it will be carried out in Otago, for here we have the prudence of the Englishman, the go-ahead-ism of the American, judiciously blended with the proverbial cauuiuess of tho Scotchman.

The compliment to Otago was neatly turned ; and it appears !o have been well deserved, if <ve may judge from the following remarks made by Superintendent Maeandrew, in response to the toast of' his health. He said :—

I may be allowed to congratulate you upon the great event in our history which has brought us together on the present occasion. I am oure that the old identities among us who can recollect the great difficulties that used to exist in tho way of locomotion belwm-n Dunediu and Port Chalm-i-e, must have found themselves to-day in a sort of fairy-land. I can recollect within the last twenty-two years when the journey which wo performed to-day, with what I may style so much luxury, in twentj-five minutes, used to take as ui'n.y hours to accomplish. I will be borne out in that by the owners of several ancient fuccs I see around me. Gentlemen, I recollect that on one occasion a, batch of immig.ants had to spend a day and a night on the beach in their blankets, and I believe tlio place has ever since rejoiced in the cognoinou of Blanket Buy. "i could not help renVcting upon that to-day, as we pussed through the celebrated bay. In those early clays, the Custom house used to bo at the Heads, and we had great, difficulty in getting it removed to Port Chalmers. In those days most of the ships that frequented this port were consigned to" myself, and as an evidence of tho difficulties w« had to encounter, I may tell you thai. I had to maintain a boat's crew for the sole purpose of taking me to Port Chalmers. Oue of tho verv first public efforts I made on my arrival here wag to get a road made to Port Chalmers. I went to the expense of making a survey • but it so happened that we had croakers then, as we have now. Fortunately, the croakers now have not been so successful in regard to the Port Chalmers railway as they were then in regard to the road. They succeeded in preventing the construction of the road, and we had to jog on as best we could for a few years, until we got the Pride of the Yarra. That little steamer was the precursor of the Port Chalmers railway, tho opening of which we celebrute to-day.

Mr. Macau drew then went ou to allude to " the croakers," who opposed the Government purchasing the line from the contractors. For his own part, he was quite willing to incur odium on that bead, aud would bs willing to buy it at once, feeling satisfied that iu a few years the public would endorse the wisdom of the act. He continued: —

I think one of the greatest of blunders waa committed when the proyince ilseif did not i make the railway. Had the province made this railway when it was in a position to do bo a few years ago, I am as certain as that I am standing here, that by moans of that railway we could haye made every other railway in Ofago. I am sure that the railway will realise £50,000 a-year. That sum capitalised means a million of money, which I believe

would hare made the back of our railways. Howefer, it was not our fault. The Colonial Government, in its wisdom, wauld neither allow us to borrow money to make our own railways, nor make railways for us; so we had to do the best we could for ourselves. Talking of those great public works, I beb'eve that the colony owes that scheme entirely to the Port Chalmers railway. I believe it was the action of the Provincial Government of Otago, in commencing this railway, that drove the General Government into that project.

We might as well claim the merit of originating the public works policy, by the initiation of the Auckland and Drury railway, which would have been completed years ago if the General Government had not interposed barriers to further borrowing. They would neither advance the money themselves, nor enable the province to obtain any advance to complete the work. The consequence is, a largely increased cost to the colony. It was Mr. Stafford's financial policy which caused the collapse of the railway works in Auckland ; and the province was not in a position to make independent terms with contractors as Otago did. In conclusion, we cannot do better than quote the following remarks from the speech of the Governor, in proposing the Chairman's health. He said : —

A ceremony such as wo have boon engaged in to-day—the inauguration of the first railway going out of this city—may well suggest glad thoughts for the future. There can bo no doubt that the founders of this colony— the real promoters of those public works — who in so short a time have raised New Zealand to so high a pitch of success and reputation—will hold an honorable place in the anuals of this country long after political piission and personal animosity have been forgotten. The tiuio will come when you who are gathered hers will have passed away, and a new generation will hare arisen, educated in the schools which the early settlers founded governed by the laws they have enacted, enjoying the advantages of public works anil public institutions which they have erected, established, and enriched by their commerce, trade, and agriculture. The day will come when the leading men of that future generation—meeting under this vory roof, or in some more magnificent building worthy of the great city which Dunedin will theu be—will commemorate the names of some of us here to-day as the founders of a civilised people. I should have liked to-day to address a few words of kindly sympathy to the artisans and workmen, by whose honest labour this work haß been accomplished. But perhaps my words may go forth to them, and I would say t.o them to-day that there are broad lands for settlement in. this country on which I hope they will soon make homes for themselves. Let them remember, moreover, that it is from their class the great chieftains of industry have principally sprung ; and under the expansive freedom of our colonial institutions Britain opens to all her sons a cheering prospect of wealth and fame, if genius be allied to virtue and industry. Only let us remember that what we want hero is not so much a new society ; but rather the old society in a new country, on the broad basis of British principles, British laws, and British institutions. It is a subject of thankfulnoss for us thai while the nations of the Old World have bscn plunged into bloody wars, or are still trembling in the throes of revolution, we hare been steadily pursuing the path of poaeeful progress. Our victories are not over men, but over nature. They are victories not for ourselves or our generation only ; they are for all time. They are victories not for Kngland only, but for all mankind.

The newspapers to Laud by the Wellington add little to our general stock of news. The telegraph has knocked the regular mail quite out of time. One has no pleasure now in looking over exchange files of well-edited uewspapets; and it is really a question of whether, to save trouble and painful reflection together, it would not be better to refrain from opening them at all. Still, one does occasionally find a suggestive paragraph, which has escaped the telegraphist. In the Independent of the 3l)th ultimo, we have an article in which the Government is censured for not accepting Messrs. Brogden and Son's tender for the Hutt A r al)ey and Masterton railway. There was only " a paltry difler- " euce of 5 per cent." between the tender and the estimate of tiie Engi-neer-in-Chief. But Mr. Kichardson Minister for Public Works, insisted that with "regard to a portion" of "the work on the line the contrac- " tors should hold themselves liable for "any damage that might be done by " river encroachment, notwithstanding " that the damage might arise from "insufficiency of design of the pro- " tective works." To this condition Mr. Henderson would not agree ; and the Independent not unnaturally remarks., that " it does not seem a very " reasonablo tiling that contractors " should, bo held liable for accidents " which are due to shortcomings in " design ;" but then, Mr. liichardson is a practical man, and ho knows something of the erratic course of the Hutt river, along the shingle bed of which, iu places, the railway must be made, and we think he was justified in imposing the condition in question. But the Independent proceeds—

Surely tho Government has confidence in its l£iigineer-in-Chief. If it has, then why inferciitially cast u doubt upon his designs by refusing to accpt. the responsibility of ihem ? The result of the discussions between the Gorernment and Messrs. Brogden was the advertising of the lino for public tender. It will be seen that the tenders will not be opened until tho middle of January, so that even if a snitablo offer is then accepted, nearly three months'delay will have occurred during tho best seajon of tho year for work, and especially for the construction of appliances for regulating the course of the Hutt river. And this delay lias been all occasioned by a really paltry difference in money, and an attempt to impose too hard terms upon Messrs. Brogden. The Wellington and Mastertou line is for many reasons peculiarly adapted to tho resources of this firm, aad we cannot but think it would have been wise for the Government to have met Mr. Henderson in u more liberal spirit. It should not be forgotten that Messrs. Brogden have already imported a large number of men to this protiuce, and have hundreds more on tho way, in the expectation that they would be able to employ them upon this ruilway. That they have not yet obtained the contract has placed the firm in a very embarrassing position with regiird to these immigrants, und they must inevitably suffer heavy loss iu consequence. Considering that the firm have expended £100 000 in the importation of labor into this colony, the Government should not deal with them in a narrow-minded shop-keeping way. It is all very well to be economical, but there is that false economy of being penny-wise and pound-foolish. We should not be surprised if it should turn out that the delay and haggling over the Hutt railway result in tbe loss of a much larger sum than that originally in dispute.

There may be a great deal of force in tbe complaint, that hardship has been entailed on Messrs, Brogden,

and possibly loss. It is nob the interest of the colony to subject them to either; but the delay may be useful in several respects. It will apply a fair test of the advantage of public tenders over the original arrangement with Messrs. Brogden. The work is a large one—" peculiarly adapted to " the resources of this firm"—aud it will therefore be an object of attraction to local capitalists. We shall see how the matter really stands when the tenders have been opened. Meanwhile, setting the contracting firm aside, and looking at the matter from a colonial point of view, we think the public have reason to feel satisfied with Mr. Richardson. He has, at all events, guarded the colony against an indefinite expenditure. It will be much better to know what the Wellington aud Masterton railway will cost;, than to undertake it, as the Independent suggests, without reference to " paltry considerations of

money."