RAILWAY WORKSHOPS FOR THE SOUTH ISLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 376, 26 April 1879, Page 16

RAILWAY WORKSHOPS FOR THE SOUTH ISLAND.

(PER PRESS AGENCY.) Dunedin, Thursday.

In reply to a letter from Mr. Macandrew asking by whom the allegation was made that the chief workshops in the Middle Island were to be at Addington, Mr. Webb, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, writes as follows : —“Dunedin, April 22, 1879. —I am instructed by .;the committee to say as to railway workshops that common rumor appears to be supported by the fact that almost all important work ever since the opening of the through line is executed at Christchurch, very little herd?' Whether rumor is well founded or not, it will be very satisfactory if you will authorise the committee publicly to contradict it. The Honorable Mr. Reynolds informs the committee the resolution referred to was carried in the House on your motion.” To this Mr. Macandrew replies : “ It is scarcely to be credited that the Chamber of Commerce should so easily be gulled by common rumor. Were I publicly to contradict all that common rumor says it would be an endless matter. There is no intention whatever on the part of the Government to concentrate the workshops for the Middle Island cither at Addington or Dunedin. If a resolution on the subject was carried in the House of Representatives on my motion, I have no recollection of it, nor can I find any record of it. lam not aware that any important work for the Dunedin section which could have been executed in Dunedin, or indeed any work at all for the Dunedin section has been executed in Christchurch. I have caused, however, inquiry to be made on the subject so as to ascertain the facts of the case. Plans have been prepared for employing the Dunedin workshop Avith a view of meeting the increasing requirements of the line. The work is expected to be in hand shortly. The shops will no doubt continue to be enlarged from time to time as the necessity for so doing increases, without, I hope, eliciting paltry local jealousies elsewhere.”