THE PUBLIC WORKS ESTIMATES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 6092, 19 August 1881, Page 2

THE PUBLIC WORKS ESTIMATES.

[By Telegraph.]

(FKOir OUR OWN' CORRESPONDENT,)

Wellington, August IS-.h. Referring to the O.agi. Daily Times' article on Ibe Pu-jlic Works State intnt, «.■£ which » summary was telegraphed from Dunedin, the Post tc-night says : —

When it is recollected what woadora have been dono in tbe Sjuth, while hitherto we hava •nly been vouchsafed a first iustainient of s.nia 69 miles, p. nd ye; are now to have but a seventh ■ji the furlher mm now prop-iced to ba expanded in Canterbury and Ocago, where there already .ire SOO miles of working railways, the injnßtiea so Wellington becomes almost grotesque in its utter recklesEness. It is in reapect to railway construction that the unfairness ia most marked. Under this head Wellington gets only about ane-twelfth the sum accjrdsd to Canterbury aud Oiago. They, with their SOO milea of workiog railways, ato to have L 510.000 to construct nil re; Wellinßlnii, with but C 9 miles, hto have only 1.42,000, Upon what grounds such a syotcjrn vi dialriaution can be dofended we are unable to perceive. It is highly diverting under the circumstances to find Oiftgo Krumi.lii g at its share, se?i:ij; thar a ' considerable vote,' «b wa are mid, 'is askei for works and liabiluios on the m tiu Hue, aq;i o»i thy X)nntro"H-N<apara. l Jor; Chaluierd, Brighton, Oiitrani, aud Liiy,-. Mnce bnmuueL'; also a v^te to rat'et engagements oa tbo JS'^apar.-iiivingstone,''Pulmer-icons • WMhemo, Uatliu's Kivar, WaipahiHeriotbnrii, atd Edendalo-Toi-Toia brauches, an I tbe O;ns° Central line ; aluo for the cumpletion it tv.e brancb. to Otuiuau and Niehtcan c aitieiilu, aud the coutinuatiou of the Orepuki line.' It rcaliy seeitifl tv us that Otago might very wtll have taken, if it could get it, the unduly big niics of ihe cake which a paternal Government iffered for its acceptance, instead uf iompluiuiug tliat its share is not even m:re disproportioniite to that of other places. To assert that Otago is 'left out in the cold' by ilia present Eiiirnatea h ridiculous in the excrenia. That disagreeable situation has been carefully reserved fyr Wellington."