The Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1877

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 371, 2 July 1877, Page 2

The Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1877

The pebble cast into the pool at Oamaru has thrown out rings that have reached to almost every part of this Provincial District. It was very natural that tlm interior should burn with anxiety for cu.;i..uinication with some seaport ; and it was quite as natural that Oamaru should have been chosen as the most eligible—everything considered. The agitation has at length reached Cromwell, who is sufficiently inflated with her own importance to imagine that she should be favored with a line which shall do scarcely anything else but connect her with Queenstown and invercargill. The scramble for sugar-plums which invariably occurs amongst our representatives during the session is being ushered in by the people, in this instance ; and we think this an augury of Parliamentary proceedings concerning railways, compared with which the Piako Swamp debate, at least, will have been tame. There will be cringing and crawling on the part of unprincipled members, who are devoid of a particle of Colonial spirit; there will be promises of support to a Government which, if it

obtains its desserts, will scarcely more than survive the opening of the session. Not that we anticipate that it has sufficient independence or political honesty in its composition to perceive that it has lost the confidence of the country ; on the contrary, ifc will die with difficulty. It is, however, to be hoped that the question of the Interior Railway will be treated in a manner that its importance demands. We want nothing more than fair play, and we presume that this is the feeling of the settlers in the vast area of country to the westward of Oamaru, who are. at present, living in comparative isolation. If it were possibe to give Cromwell the line for which she is asking, in addition to that which has become popular from the amount of land it will open up, and the great good it will confer upon a large population —that between Oamaru and Naseby —well and good. It is a positive advantage to all to get the country opened up by railways ; but, we suspect, for the present, only those lines that will be eminently useful will stand any chance of being constructed. Of course the Cromwellites have commenced agitating for a line from their township to Queenstown, because they fancy that the Oamaru-Naseby line will stand but a poor show next session ; but we may tell them that if a line having for its object the opening up of one of the finest tracts of country in the Colony, and bringing it into direct communication with the port of Oamaru, thereby enhancing the value of both public and private property, does not find favour with the Government, no other line will, unless very considerable political pressure is brought to bear by some who, seeing that they could not have all their own way, would perhaps rather sacrifice the best interests of a large number of Colonists than that anyone else should meet with success. Cromwell has made a very great blunder. Had she cast in her lot with Oamaru, success would have been pretty certain ; now, in all probability, all her energy will be wasted. Some day the interior may have railway communication with the Bluff; but that communication will be by means of a loop line, which population and every other consideration demand should commence at a point that would confer benefit upon the north-eastern portion of this Provincial District, and that is Oamaru. The Cromwellites would do ] well to reconsider what they have done.