NOT EVEN PLAUSIBLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11826, 2 December 1901, Page 4

NOT EVEN PLAUSIBLE.

We are still without any satisfactory explanation of the discharges of railway construction workmen. But we have now reason to suppose that the Main Trunk is not being singled out for stoppage. It seems to be only sharing in a fate that has fallen upon every part of the North Island. but has apparently spared the Land of Goshen, which lies south of Cook Strait. Work 011 HelensvilleNorthward and the Paeroa-Waihi has been similarly stricken with paralysis by the waving of the rod wielded by the present Southern Administration. Why 1 Every con-struction-man cannot have suddenly been discovered to be too drunken to work for this most moral Govern-

merit. Every in an cannot have been working as a navvy for so long that it was Mr. Hall-Jones' duty to turn him adrift. These pretences are not even plausible. We leave outreaders to supply the terms most suitable for such excuses. The one unalterable fact is that work on all Auckland provincial railway construction has practically stopped short. If the Government is trying to get teetotal navvies and men who have never lifted pick and shovel let Mr. Hall-Jones inform us so that we may all assist in the search. The Wellington Ministerial organ, which, following the cue of Ministers, sneers at "hysterical Auckland"' lays the pleasing unction to its soul thatwork at the Wellington end of the line is to be pushed ahead with redoubled energy. But we see no sign of any such intention.