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New Zealand Mail, Issue 421, 6 March 1880, Page 24

The meeting last Monday at the Theatre Royal, to consider the momentous question of the construction of the West Coast railway, resulted in one of the moat emphatic expressions of public opinion that we have ever had the pleasure of placing on record. For once the citizens of Wellington acted with thorough and hearty unanimity, and sinking all minor differences, assembled on a common platform, bent upon promoting an undertaking so pregnant with good for both city and district. The question at issue, brief in itself, was most ably advocated and explained by the various speakers, and the arguments advanced in its favor were cogent and irrefutable. Mr. Travers, the mover of the first resolution, gave a singularly succinct and yet exhaustive analysis of the whole matter, and we are sure that those who listened to him, and marked his illustrations by the aid of a specially prepared diagram, must have been convinced not only of the necessity of the great work that has been so long mooted, but also that its bearings were as much colonial as local. The West Coast railway, at which successive Governments have so unaccountably stumbled, is de facto the complement of the Public Works scheme. Without it, that scheme will be incomplete, for by its construction the more inaccessible portions of the country—but only inaccessible through native prejudice and hostility—will be thrown fairly open to the enterprise of white colonists. It was very clearly demonstrated by several of the speakers, notably Messrs. Travers and Hunter, that, if only on that account, the

work was one that came within the scope of general public policy, and which the Government were in duty bound to strain every point to compass. We very heartily endorse the views of the meeting, and if those views, so decidedly and reasonably expressed, do not overcome Ministerial vis inertice , we shall be constrained to believe that Ministers are either the victims of gross misconception, or have, out of mere prejudice, deliberately set their faces against conceding a well-grounded and reasonable public demand. Let the rest of the colony clamor as it may, out of sheer selfish jealousy: Wellington is more than justified in taking up the position it has with regard to the West Coast Railway, and city and district will be false to themselves, and liable to the imputation of poltroonry, if they budge an inch, from that position. In season and out of season, the construction of the railway must be advocated until it becomes an accomplished fact. The issues involved are far too momentous to be further ignored, for the railway system of the district, that is, the perfected railway system, so long promised, is to be regarded as the source, par excellence, of the permanent and stable prosperity of the city. Without it the rest is almost nothing, for the fact, which has been so often made the vehicle of taunts and threats, of the city being the seat of Government, sinks into utter insignificance beside it. Once the railway system is completed, Wellington must rapidly develop into an immense commercial entrepot, independent for its existence and further advancement of mere official aid. Now that a fair beginning has been resolutely made, we shall look forward with confidence to an early and ample fulfilment of all that is desired relative to the subject matter in hand, and we adjure the Ministry not to trifle with the position, but to submit with good grace to that which is becoming inevitable. The West Coast railway must be constructed, even if others, but less important cognate works in other parts of the colony have to give way to it.