EDITORIALS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 767, 12 November 1886, Page 22

EDITORIALS.

Not oonly Wellington, but all New Zealand, has reason; tobe proud of the record which went *to : the Mother Country by this week£s 'English mail. The virtual completion 6f the Wellington and Manawatu Kail way means a great deal more than the mere connection of Wellington with the' Mania- 1 watu country by rail. That in itself would be an event of no small local importance, as tapping a splendid and fertile tract of country, and bringing it into direct and speedy communication with the best and safest harbour in the Colony, and as thus opening up a brilliant prospect of future prosperity, alike for the town and the country thus connected. But beyond this, the Wellington and Manawatu Railway is, as we have often pointed out, the first southern section of the M!ain Trunk Line of the North Island, This section of 84 miles unites the chief and most southern port and city of the North Island with the'Main Trunk Line which, in the Government scheme, very absurdly stopped short of this all-important poinr, or at any rate provided connection only by the difficult, circuitous and tedious route over the Rimutaka mountains. It gives unbroken railway communication from Wellington to New Plymouth, a distance of some 250 miles, and also—save for the short temporary break between Palmerston and Woodville, bridged in the meantime by coach—the same to Napier and the East Coast. It has the dual merit of being a main line as well as a local railway opening up excellent country for settlement. It has been constructed in a thoroughly sound and substantial manner, yet at the same time more cheaply in proportion than any other New Zealand railway. There are no 1-in-15 gradients, 5-chain curves or 40-lb iron rails. Ou the contrary, the railway with its generally level course, its few severe gradients, its easy curves, and its massive steel rails, is capable of carrying with perfect safety heavy express trains running at speeds of 50 miles an hour, so soon as it shall pay to carry that class of traffic, and to procure engines suitable for such work. And this excellent line has been obtained at a very moderate cost, thanks to the engineering skill of Mr Higginson, • and to the prudence of the Directors in being guided by his experience. It has been the grievous drawback alike of the construction and of the working of the New Zealand Government railways that the very able engineers have been hampered on all bands by political disturbing influences and interference. Erom this drawback the Wellington and Manawatu Company’s engineer has been free; hence the favourable result.

But there is another aspect from which the undertaking assumes special importance. It is a prominent step in the establishment of that rule of self-reliance which we hope to see more and more thoroughly adopted as the future policy of this Colony. It is a departure from the ordinary course of depending help lessly on the Government to construct necessary public works out of colonial loans. That this most essential and important line should not have been treated from the first as one of the principal main lines of the Colony is a fact which will puzzle future historians when the little petty private influences which were allowed to operate against it have long been consigned to deserved oblivion. There were some persons who endeavoured —happily, in vain—to move Heaven and earth against the work for the patriotic reason that it would not benefit their private property, but would open up better land. than they possessed. Probably they are very willing that this should be forgotten now. But when the efforts of some of the very gentlemen who were afterward among the promoters of the present Company had succeeded in inducing the Government, under Sir George Grey, to undertake the work, it had hardly been started when the Grey Ministry fell, and left behind such serious financial embarrassments that their successors were compelled to review the position, and to consider what railways should and could be gone on with. With great weakness this urgent public question was remitted by the Hall Government to an irresponsible Boyal Commission. The Chairman of the Company mentioned in his opening address on Wednesday that that Royal Commission reported against this railway, but he forebore

to add what he might with justice have aaid that the Commission was subsequently proved to have performed its duties in a scandalously lax, perfunctory and incompetent manner, and to have actually condemned this railway without ever going over the line of route or-inspecting the country traversed. Yet on that worthless ■report of an incapable Commission,! this great colonial.work was coolly set (aside, and, *so : far as Government were concerned, no more would! probably have been heard of it to; this: day. But .tat 'this stage -certain brave and j'public-spirited -citizens; intervened, . and, confident ; in ithe merits of - the enterprise,* courageously undertook the responsibility ifrom which the Government <had so -unworthily shrunk. It ; is matter of history how thirteen Wellington men came forward and undertook a liability of .£IO,OOO a-piece ; how the shares were taken up, the money raised, and the work begun and carried on to its present stage of approaching completion. It is equally matter of history how deep a debt of gratitude the country owes to those gentlemen who so gallantly led what then seemed a “ forlorn hope,” and whose names were read by Mr Nathan on Wednesday; but above all to Mr James Wallace, the present General Manager, who has been from the first the heart and soul of the undertaking, and but for whose indomitable energy and perseverance the enterprise would probably have died a natural death at an early period of its career.

There is yet one more point, which ought not to go unnoticed that is specially relevant to the question of self-reliance and colonial enterprise. When it is recollected that a sum of nearly three-quarters of a million has been needed for carrying out the work, it can be a matter for no surprise that the Directors were more than once severely straitened in their finances. We were told in last week’s speeches what valuable services were rendered by Mr J. E. Nathan and Sir Julius Yogel in placing the Company’s finances on a better footing. But there was something more which might have been said. At one very critical juncture, when the Directors were temporarily hampered for want of ready money, several Wellington gentlemen voluntarily gave their personal guarantee for £OO,OOO, and this large sum was advanced by the Wellington Trust and Loan Company at the cost of some little inconvenience to its own regular operations, the result being; that a threatened break-down was averted. The timely assistance thus afforded by a purely local institution deserves cordiai recognition. Again, at a later period, when a stoppage once more was imminent, another New Zealand institution, the Colonial Bank of New Zealand, came very handsomely to the rescue, and furnished the means by which the work has been carried on to its completion. These facts deserve to be placed upon record, as showing how well we, the colonists of New Zealand, can help ourselves and one another when we resolutely adopt a policy of selfreliance.