Untitled

New Zealand Mail, Issue 445, 21 August 1880, Page 21

Mr. Wright, of the Railway Commission, is by no means fortunate in the haphazard statements he has made respecting the West Coast Railway. He has ventured upon assertions that we have no hesitation in affirming cannot be borne out as absolutely trustworthy. There is a very apparent bias in his remarks, and the illogical character of his argument is strikingly set forth by the Bishop of Wellington in the letter from his Lordship, which we publish elsewhere. The Bishop bases his assertions upon actual observation and inspection. Ministers of religion in the days when the Bishop of Wellington travelled the country had a keen eye for its capabilities, and for the character of the land, and we therefore must accept the Bishop’s opinion of the country as infinitely more to be depended upon than the opinion of Mr. Wright, who was denied, by _ the briefness of his visit as a Railway Commissioner, that close observation enjoyed by the Bishop. When the Commissioners’ report was published we did not hesitate to term it straightforward and to the point, and apparently singularly impartial. But wo must now admit that after hearing Mr. Wright’s speech last night week we are very much disposed to modify that opinion. Much of what he said disclosed bias ; he was certainly disengenuous, and, what was worse, he blundered in his facts. To term Otaki a mere oasis was a gross libel upon the district, and the assertion cannot, by any subtelty of reasoning, be substantiated. His gross inuendo of jobbery levelled at Sir W. Fox was also another grave blunder that a man in his position was worse than foolish to have fallen into. By his rash assertions Mr. Wright has thrown discredit upon the Railway Commissioners’ report, for if so much could have been unfairly said, how much might not have been as unfairly written % We shall back the Bishop of Wellington in his encounter with Mr. Wright, and we would recommend the latter to cry peccavi, and frankly admit that he was rather too hasty. And we would also urge upon the Wellington members to for once pull together, and keep the construction of the West Coast Railway in View until it is beyond hope — for the present.