THE NORTH, AND THE RAILWAYS CONSTRUCTION BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6150, 3 August 1881, Page 5

THE NORTH, AND THE RAILWAYS CONSTRUCTION BILL.

[BY TELEGSAPH. —OWX CORRESPONDENT.] I - . CiiRISTenuRCH, Tuesday. The Lyttelton Times says, this morning, in an article on the Railways Bill: —"But is Auckland-justified in exclaiming that she can have no hope under the Bill ? Auckland has not got a scheme of railways construction cut and dried, but that is a different thing from being without hope. To be without a plan is not to be without a hope. . If the meaning of the cry raised be: that Auckland has.no hope of being able to draw funds from the colonial exchequer for railway construction, then our Northern friends are only like the rest of the world in-, New Zealand. In the far North a certain compact which was very widely denounced at the time, and of which much is heard on every possible occasion nowadays from Northern organs, made the .Northern Pres3 friendly, to. the Hall Government. One of the chief boasts is that it has settled the .native difficulty, everywhere, Its organs are even now cele-; ibrating the now departure which Tawhiao !took the other "day at Alexandra. They tell us that the time has at length arrived which, had the honourable Combination of Hall and Rolleston not been'saved at a: critical period of its .existence by ; a dis-; honourable compact, would never have arrived—tho time when the Waikato country is to be thrown open. In short, if there is anything in these Ministerial boastings, it is that the whole of the native, lands of the North Island are to be at onee accessible. Ministers, moreover, are credited by their friends with the power of being able to make the natives agree peacefully to anything they choose. Here then are the grounds for hope, as well as the elements, of .a. plan, for, the North Island malcontents. We have, always been assured by our Northern friends that the extent and fertility of the native country south of Auckland is unsurpassed by anything in ; the world. The . advantages offered by. the present Government afford to those who believe in them an unfailing receipt for construction of railways on a grand scale. Lines through from the Auckland southern terminus to the Waitara in. one. direction, and to the Murimotu country in another, towards the East Coast, in : another, are : all great possibilities. The only thing wanting is money. But it need not be wanting long. If our Northern friends will but support the Railway Construction Bill, they will be able to construct as many lines as they choose. While they have such' a fine country, and such fine facilities, they ought to exert themselves like their more enterprising Southern neighbours, instead of railing at their fancied hardships. The Railways Bill may bo made a magnificent machine for opening up the native country, to the advantage of both races. As such it ought to be supported; not denounced by the Auckland members," :