The Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1877.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 401, 11 August 1877, Page 2

The Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1877.

Tbat exceedingly Utopian scheme, the Oamaru-Xaseby railway, about which would-be monopolists shook their sides with innnodti-ate mirth in public, whilst in private they feared that the project had co much to recommend it, that it would in all probability meet with favour at the hands of the Government, may be viewed as having reached the inaugural stage so successfully as to fully gratify its most sanguine promoters. It was not difficult to sec from the first, that, schoolboy like, the advocates for the StrathTaieri route attempted to bespatter our favourite idea-not with mud, but with snow ; hills they turned into impassable mountains, streams into rivers, with here and there the necessity for a terrific tunnel or a gigantic bridge. These extraordinary obstacles, the creation of the fertile imaginations of men whose business a\ocations have rendered them keen where their interests appear to be jeopardised, have all melted before the invalidations of practical men, and the Government, it is now pretty certain, will at all events, decide in favour of the- construction of our line. There was not the least necessity for the Dunedinites to make such a splutter, and to bring to bear such numerous weapons of heavy calibre to shatter little Oamaru's pat scheme. Surely, their wontjd dignity and astuteness had deserted them, or they would not have descended to misrepresentation and unfair opposition of a line as totally foreign to that by t'.iein as it was possible to be. T.ie ficfc is, when they mooted their Stiufch-Taieri scheme they had not the s ig'itest idea that their request would be granted, but they did it in the hope that they would stultify the efforts of the Oam iruJSasebv Railway Committee. Contrary to their expectation it is highly probable that the Strath-Taieri line will be constructed, but it is more than probable that Oamaru will obtain what she wants. The matter is at present in abeyanca, pending the settlement of Government, questions of paramount importance. When this business 1 as been disposed of the Government will introduce their "Branch liaiiways Bill," the provisions of which will doubtless meet our case. If not, however, Mr. De Lautour will then bring forward his " Otago Interior and South Canterbury Railway Bill." It lias now evidently been realised by the agitators uf the Stratii-Taieri route that it would not be politic to work discordantly with the influential advocates of the OamaruiNaseby line, and we suspect that the effervescence that ensued at the outset will terminate in delightful harmony, and the accomplishment of the designs of both p-.^-iies.