THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1889.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9451, 23 August 1889, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1889.

The Otago Central Bill has been defeated by a large majority. The debate in the House last evening is full of suggestiveness, and indicates very clearly the weakness of our present system. The objections urged by many of the speakers, and by Mr. Smith, the member for Woodville, who moved the amendment, were less against the line itself, or the specially pernicious system which it initiated, than the fact that their own districts were left out in the cold, yet no scheme has yet been proposed so sure to open the door to further corruption and to exhaust the trust funds, which are the only source now at Ministers' disposal. Worse than all, we have the Premier giving as a reason for undertaking this work that if it be not done the Otago members will unite and form a party too strong to be resisted. Tho history ot the line is in itself interesting. The quality of the country yet to be opened was considered ample to warrant the construction of a line that would open up that country and put it into communication with a seaport. The question raised was this, what seaport should be the one selected for the purpose. A line ran from Dunedin to Oamnru, and a branch from it would have opened up all the back country at an outlay, at the furthest, of half a million.. This was objected to in the interests of Dunedin, which the people of that city desire to place in direct connection with the interior, and not by way of a branch that might take the traffic to Oamaru. On this rock the project has split. Estimates were, as usual, forthcoming to show clearly that a quarter of a million at furthest would accomplish the connection. The influences at work were strong enough to cause the line to be begun at the Dunedin end. Half a million was swallowed in carrying the lino to its present point, and the practical result is an admission on all sides that by no possibility can the line be made to pay, even if carried to the new point at which Ministers aim. At present, it ends at a place called Middlemarch, and the proposed extension would carry it to Eweburn, at a cost estimated at £200,000 ; but, most likely, as in the past, to cost very much more. The Railway Commissioners have not allowed it to remain in doubt, that while this extension may pay a moderate percentage over its expenses, they entertain no hope of obtaining any revenue from the part already made. The full interest on that halfmillion must continue to be borne by the people of the colony. Whether the extension be made or not, to get anything out of that beyond working expenses is not expected by the most sanguine, and when that is the case we are much more likely to find that even the working expenses will not be paid. The most curious of the arguments used was that of the Minister of Justice. He depicted a state of almost perfect bliss as the present condition of the country through which the line was to pass. With one exception, all other railways were at a standstill, and the colony had determined not to resume borrowing in the open market. To borrow from the. trust funds, or as the Premier now deliberately insists on calling them, the trading funds at the disposal of the Government, is doubtless pernicious. A faint glimmering of this seems to have dawned on Mr. Fergus at the end of his speech, for he appealed to the log-rolling instincts of legislators in the most glaring and daring manner. He reminded the Canterbury members and the Auckland members that they had received what he called " the greatest courtesy from the Otago members, and the Government in dealing with their claims. He asked them to extend the same courtesy to Otago members, and they might depend on help being given to them in return. A more barefaced and shameless invitation to "logrolling" on a great scale could not be imagined. It is not surprising that Mr. Ballance, as the leader of the Opposition, should have seen the point and seized upon it. Another of Mr. Fergus 1 arguments was that Otago had contributed from the land fund £900,000 to the colonial revenue in the last few years. The lion, gentleman carefully forgot, however, to say how much Otago had drawn for her own use from the land fund, which ought to have belonged in toto to the colony. Looked at in any light the proposal to set aside £15,000 a year from the colonial revenue as a special security upon which to take from the trust fund the cost of this line, for that is the proposal when put plainly, is discreditable in the highest degree to the Government. The invitation to log-roll so openly but unsuccessfully made to obtain support, is, if possible, even more discreditable, and will lower the Government in public estimation to a degree that they themselves appear incapable of comprehending.