THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1888.D

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9049, 9 May 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1888.D

u Look out for the engine V Such is the legend that stares the wayfarer in the face as he journeys by Kopu, the future principal port at the Thames; and the grim irony of it is seen in the fact for some seven long years this startling warning has been given to "look out for the engine," but over those rails, rusting on timbers that are decaying away, no engine has yet passed. A more discreditable exhibition of wasteful negligence and maladministration cannot be cited perhaps in the chequered history of New Zealand railway enterprise; and though the Thames people are credited with being indefatigable lobbyists, and sturdy political beggars, this mocking warning, " Look out for the engine," is a monument to their political impotence. As we have said, the rails have been laid on a permanent way completed between the Thames townships and Kopu years ago; while the formation has been made as far further as Paeroa, some twenty miles from the Thames, and where will ultimately be the junction, tapping the goldtields of Karangahake, Owharoa, Waitekauri, and Waihi. From that to Te Aroha, ten miles fuither away, the track i 3 as level as a

meadow, and during these many years, while public works olsewhere have been constructed that will, not, for years to come, bring any adequate return, this money sunk in construction has been here lying perdii, and a work that would not only open up connection along the line of goldfields, but bring them into connection with the producing districts of Waikato and elsewhere, has been politically shelved. All these facts wore impressed on the Minister of Public Works during his recent visit to the Thames ; he recognised the neglect that had been shown, and promised that on reaching Wellington he would at once have tenders called, and the work proceeded with ; but while other works have been tendered for, it is still a case of " look out for the engine " which during these weary years has been floating like a phantasm before the expectant minds of the people at the Thames.

As was shown to Mr. Mitchelson, not only will the line open up those fields already enumerated, and to which so much interest attaches in the present

state of public expectancy in relation to the Coromandel Peninsula, but the Hikutaia and Puriri fields when de-

veloped, will necessarily be connected with the same. We know that Mr. Parkes has arrived in the colony, and intends constructing smelting works at Kopu, and to derive all the advan-

tage that may be had from such enterprise, it is of the first importance that all these arteries should be brought into communication with Kopu—a position for which nature has done so much to make it a great

centre for industrial activity. To that point should come the ores requiring smelting from the Te Aroha district, a point at which coal can be landed cheaply, as well as such ores brought from the South Island and from Australia as are suitable for forming fluxes or solvents for our own refractory ores. But this by no means exhausts the list of advantages likely to arise from the completion of this arterial line of communication. Between the Thames

people and the Waikato, all over and within the watershed of the Waihou, are settled some sixteen thousand people, a number which will greatly increase with the development of the goldfields, a large producing and a large consuming population being thus brought into contact. Smelting works there constructed would utilise Waikato coal, giving thus a largely - increased freightage to the Government railways, while the roturn trains would, from the forests that cloth the hills of the Coromandel

peninsula, bring back the timber which Waikato requires. Nor should we ignore the fact, that not only would such expansion of facilities conduce to Large numbers of the mining community building up homes for themselves, and

ultimately settling in the fertile

districts which would be brought within easy reach of the scene of their operations; nor the further fact that as rheumatic complaints are unfortunately incident to mining pursuits, the bringing of Te Aroha with its healing waters, within reach of the

mining population at the Thames, would necessarily develop a very considerable intercourse between this centre of population and its natural sanatorium. Indeed, it would bo impossible to overrate the many advantages that would arise from the speedy completion of this strangely-neglected public work, for the construction of which every provision has been made for years, and which seems to have been disregarded apparently only from some lack of favour in influential quarters. Looking at it in the broadest light, the work seems to be one intimately bound up with the development of a goldfield, to which our whole community is looking with the deepest interest, as that which is likely to prove the most potential factor in removing the existing depression, and we earnestly hope that our representatives will see to it, that no further delay is tolerated in the completion of a public work of so vital interest to the general welfare.

two and a-half millions of the first edition has been taken up ; and the fact that so many readers as that betokens are now devouring the fiery counsel of the ex-Minister of War,- and brooding over the necessity of the war of revenge which he maintains, is ominous of coining trouble. Whether that officer is merely a braggart and a charlatan, as some maintain, or a good soldier and able leader, as many of his fellowcountrymen believe, it is unquestionable that he is now one ot the most prominent men in Europe, and that he is looked to from every side as likely to become one of the most influential factors in. the changes that seem to be coming over France and its international relations. To his famous black charger, and his luck in being immortalised in a popular coffee-house chanson— the refrain of which, Lest Boulanger qxiil nous faut," has been ringing through all the cafes and the streets of France—he has doubtless owed much for his position as the popular hero. But as a Minister ot War he was a success, not only for the vigour of his administration in general, but for his determination to give the utmost efficiency to the army, and to place the defences of France in an impregnable position. In doing this he won his way to the hearts of the soldiers, and throughout all the military cantonments of France it appears he is universally spoken of as ' the soldier's friend." In France, and in its present circumstances, the possession of the confidence and _ the affection of the common soldier is a point d'appui of no ordinary import, whatever may happen to be the ambitions of the man who owns it, and even were Boulanger actuated by nothing but a spirit of the purest patriotism, it is not unreasonable to expect that such a position and such a popularity as his would excite the jealousy, if not the fears, of his opponents. But it is, unfortunately, apparent that his ambitions are not in the direction that makes for the pe<ace of his country; and the fact that the necessity of a war of revenge is the principal burthen of his work, which has attained so remarkable popularity, is very ominous. The populace of France are as a whole peace-loving. They have suffered too severely in their domestic lives by the conscription, and in their fortunes by the horrors of war, to be otherwise; but there appears to be inherent in the French nature an instinct of Imperialism, which is stimulated by the rival Monarchical factions that are severally aspiring to a return to power ; so that the existence of a military commander possessing _ the enthusiastic confidence of the military party cannot be otherwise than a source of danger. The return of M. Boulanger to the Chamber of Deputies with such a pronounced majority as that given him by the department of Nord at the late election seems to have rehabilitated him in the power of which for a time he was deprived : and though a vote of confidence passed in the Government of M. Floquet by a large majority immediately on the entrance of the military leader into Parliament was meant to discount the appearance of his popularity, there can be little doubt that his *eturn to the arena of political conflict, iccompanied by such fervour of enthusiasm throughout military circles, and imong the populace, is pregnant with ?rave issues in the immediate future of France. __