THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1889.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9450, 22 August 1889, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1889.

We have been inundated with telegrams, reports of meetings, and correspondence on the Puhipuhi tramway. The country to the north of Auckland is torn into halves on the subject. Whangarei and the east are clamorous for the tramway, .urging that it is a necessary woik, and only a small instalment of justice to a long-neglected district. Dargaville and the "west, on the other hand, asseverate that the whole thing is a job, that the object proposed to be accomplished could be better and mora cheaply done by floating the timber to the Wairoa River. Mr. John Lundon, in his letter in yesterday's paper, contends that the timber can bo taken out with advantage in several other ways.

Between all these parties, it is somewhat difficult for one not .specially interested in the localities, and having only a general knowledge of the districts, to come to a decision. The North has not been fairly treated in the distribution of the millions spent to open up the country. While we have hundreds of miles of railway, in different parts of the colony, running through unoccupied country, the Northern settlements, although many of them have been in existence for many years, are still without adequate means of communication. The colony is even now about to plunge into a large expenditure. to extend the Otago Central into the wilds of Otago, while some of the recently-made Northern settlements are dying out because the settlers cannot get anything in or anything out. And in regard to the Puhipuhi tramway, the project is this : The Ministry were not very sure about being successful with the Otago Central Bill, and to make certain they have coupled it with the Puhipuhi tramway. The sums to be devoted to these two purposes are indeed very different. The Otago Central has had £520,000 spent on it already, and it is estimated that the extension authorised by the Bill now before Parliament will cost at least £200,000. For this amount, the Bill gives the railway the run of the trust funds. ' Against this, we in the North are to have £30,000 for the Puhipuhi tramway. The tramway has no claim on the trust funds, and the money derived from the sale of the timber in Puhipuhi is to go in repayment of the construction of the line.

The Puhipuhi forest was purchased by the Government some years since, and it was then determined by Sir Robert Stout that it should not be sold, but should be preserved for posterity, so that New Zealand should not lose all her errand kauri forests. Sir Robert and 'his colleagues, like, the character in the play, meant well, but they did not, know. Rangers were appointed to see that the forest, which is some thirty or forty miles long, was preserved from fire. But it did go on tire, in the summer before last, and before the rains came a third part of the bush had gone up in smoke. Then it was represented to the Government that they should construct a tramway to convoy the timber to Whangarei. That they have determined to do. It seems to us objectionable, to begin with, that the Government should go into the timber trade, and run in opposition to individuals who have already embarked their capital in that business. Of course, the Ministry, having the revenue of the colony at their back, can undersell their competitors, can succeed, perhaps, in ruining them. But they will lose heavily themselvesthat is to say, they will make the taxpayers lose. A Government has no more right to go into the timber trade than it has to go into the wholesale or retail drapery trade. However, nothing is too much for our Ministers, and they have determined to embark in business with a timber mill, on the easy terms that the entire risk is to lie with the country. They arc to have all the amusement, all the appointments to offices, all the prestige and patronage. But we estimate that before the colony comes out of this little speculation in timber it will have lost £200,000. Always keep in mind that the Puhipuhi tramway is yoked with the Otago Central. The Otago Central party, who know nothing at all about Puhipuhi, arc, as the Yankees say, to "go for it baldheaded," while in return those interested in the tramway are expected to shut their eyes and vote straight all through for the Otago Central. That is the immoral compact. We cannot think of any defence being made for the Otago Central Bill. The Government are to devote to the construction of the line the Savings' Bank and trust funds. They are to spend that money on a lino which there is scarcely an expectation will pay working expenses when completed. Ministers arc Virtually the trustees for the depositors in the Savings' Bank of the money lodged there. If they were private trustees, and put money they had in charge in such a venture, they would soon find themselves marked with the broad arrow., But, then, in this case all deficiencies have to be made up out of the taxes. On the broad but already overladen baik of the taxpayer all weights are to be laid, and Sir Harry Atkinson has no idea that patient beast of burden is being broken down. If there were any two men whom we should have thought would have been uncompromising opponents of such a scheme as that brought forward by the Premier (to construct a railway which will not pay, out of savings banks funds on which interest must be paid), these men were Mr. R. Thompson and Mr. R. Hobbs. But we believe the Premier has got these two honourable gentlemon by the Puhipuhi tramway. It is curious to observe that only last year Mr. R. Thompson denounced the Otago Central Bill, as "about the worst Bill that had ever been brought before the House." lie cited in his speech the opinion of Mr. JtfcKerrow*, the Surveyor-General, against the Bill, given before a committee of the House, while the same Mr. McKerrow, as Chief Railway Commissioner, now furnishes a convenient memorandum in support of the project. On the motion for the committal of the Bill, both Mr. Thompson and Mr. Hobbs voted in the minority (to throw out the Bill) of 17 against 47. In committee, Mr. R. Thompson moved that the word " railway" be struck out, and here both Messrs. Thompson and Hobbs voted in a minority of 8. We may mention, too, that Mr. Mitchelson steadily voted against the Bill, while now he is one of the introducers of the much more monstrous measure of the present session. The proposal to construct the Otago Central is, in the present financial position of the colony, so absurd, and the means by which it is proposed to do it (by using the trust funds in the hands of the Government) are so truly

nefarious, that if we were fully convinced that the tramway was the only and the best means to deal with the Puhipuhi forest, we should decline to have it when forced to take with it the Otago Central Bill. Those who are agitating for the tramway must not deceive themselves. They are struggling quite as effectually for the Otago Central. They cannot absolve themselves from the responsibility of that measure.