The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 1584, 1 April 1882, Page 17

The Otago Witness.

mm WHICH IS iNOOBPOBATBD !PHB 'BOOTHHBH

" HEBOUBY.'

SATURDAY, Ist APSIL, 1882.

While many visitors have been admiring the beauties of Lake Wakatipu and the "icy mountains" at its head, few have had the opportunity of admiring the* beauties of Lakes Manipori and Te Anau, because the means of communication with them, is, comparatively speaking, so diffi- . oult. Yet those who have visited them; speak in enthusiastic terms of the scenery, on the borders, of these extensive . sheets'of water, which are connected by a nayi^ gable stream. But not only would they' be a general place of resort for tourists if t they were more accessible, but we are informed on good authority that there are, large areas of good land between Lowther 'and the south-eastern shore of Te Anau,^ Iwhich ought ere long to be thrown hito ifche market for settlement. > Some part of tthis land forms part of the .University, (endowment, but, if we mistake i npt,.,ine.. jleases have not very long tp run. Ml sThat, is undoubtedly wanted is railway com? munication, and one of the moat, pro-. ;mising lines among those, projected and : icommenced . in Otago. is the Lumsden-^ Mararoa line, which, if it could be parried, on to Manipori at or near its junction; iwith the Te Anau, a distance of . some, 40, miles in all, would open up a large scope, jof good country for settlement. , Qut, !of something like 300,000 acres, qontigu-. ous to this line, we believe 2Q0,000 are 1 ; ;fairto good agricultural land, and some, .excellent deferred-payment blocks could, be laid off as , the leases, fall in. We, i certainly think- this ■ district- is ■ worthy of the attention of the Government* There are large forests of beech\(usually called birch) on the borders of the lakes which would afford splendid timberfpr fencing, sleepers, and other purposes, 1 as the best of it is very lasting in its charac-' ter ; and if there is not population at present it would very rapidly 1 follow oh tlte' completion of a railway.. Once, thS' line reached the borders of either of the lakes, water carriage for a hundred miles' or more would be available ; and there are/ we believe, several spots on the shores of the lakes where dairy farms might profitably be established. A towtiship would naturally spring up round the terminus of the railway-line, which would of course be on the borders of one of the lakeSj and we know of no place in 1 the far interior' where settlement might so rapidly be promoted, and at comparatively so small an outlay of public money. - As there are very few difficulties on the line of route which would be followed by the railway, it could probably be made for £150^000. The sum set down in the schedule to the Public Works Appropriation Act for 20 miles of it is only £50,000.

It is alraoat time that some consideration was given by the > Otago members to the question of what lines in this, 1*1:07 yincial Distriot should be put forward for inclusion in the new Loan Bill. . The Edeudale-Toi-Tois line is another which is well worthy of being pushed forward; and the Otago Central stands, of course, in the foreground as the most important of all. It might be well if ,a conference of, memberswereheldbeforeParliamentmeets to consider this important point. We may be quite certain when the time comes we, Bhall not get all we want, and it is therefore very desirable that we should be in 4 position to decide what we want most. There will again be, of course, a scramble^ and a demand for far larger expenditure than the Government will be justified in incurring. It is quite understood that this time the money to be borrowed will be specifically apportioned beforehand, and it is not likely that more than £1,000,000 will be spent in- any one year. Of this amount, the, most that Ofcago can expect will be about £250,000) and the point to be arrived at is that the greatest amount of benefit should be derived from the expenditure of the money. The difficulty in, deciding what works should be undertaken is the strong local jealousy which puts every projected line in the first category, in point of importance. But if members of the, Legia^ lature cannot agree on , this question ' out of session they will not easily agree when in session, and we think it, is at least desirable to make an attempt to reduce differences to a minimum and endeavour to arrive at some understanding.

In commenting on the failure of Sir Henry Pauses' mission to the United States, we took it for granted that the concession he was aaid to have obtained from Canada, after his failure at Washingr ton, was a fact. Ab we really could not sco the utility of the concession, we had to characterise the telegram as a piece of bounce adopted by Sir Henry to cover his failure with the United States Government. The Sydney Morning Herald, on receiving the telegram about the Canadian concession, was also very slowto believe it ; and having a better knowledge of the source of the telegram, and also probably of Sir Henry's diplomacy, than we could possibly have, our contemporary was sceptical enough to look up the Canadian tariff, when it came out with the rather startling statement that Canada has no duties in force oh imported wool, either fine or coarse ; and consequently Sir Henry Parkes could not have secured a remission of cor tain, duiiea on wool imported from Australia. Wo havo no doubt but that \ our contemporary is right, and that some j bundle has boon uiaifo iv tho transmission jol ii>'i teJ^tjiam. 'J'lio preaeM protective » duties were assented to in 1879, and in

tured woollen* goods were subject to a duty of 17i per cent. ; but "wool unmanufactured " was in the free list. The Act has been twice altered since 1879 ; but, up to March, 1881, wool Was still on the free list. Either, then, the telegram was a mistake, or else the Canadian Parliament now in session purposed placing a duty on unmanufactured wool, and Sir Henry Parkes induced the Government to forego that intention. The Sydney Morning Herald considers that " Canada never has had occasion to protect herself from competition in wool-growing, and. to tax ' Wool f of revenue purposes was too Utopian a£ idea ever to be' entertained by her statesmen " ; but'froma Protectionist point of "view it might be argued that A'merioa has deemed it necessary to protect" the wool-growing industry, and why not Canada 1 ' .Neither country produces enough wool for its own requirements, and we can quite understand that a country adopting a protective pokey, would be easily led to believe that the greater, part of the woollen 1 goods unnorted'from England, amounting in value Js Wards Canada to nearly £2,000,000, couldbe manufactured inthecountry if the i wool-grower were induced by Protection to increase the production of wool. The idea, however, of Sir Henry Parkes indu(fog' J the Canadian Government to abandon- sueh 1 a duty' if proposed to be levied is rather far-fetched ; and we can only suggest that Australian wines is theproduct on which concession has been obtained, as at present they would be subieWtd'ft'dutyof something like IB to 20 cents'. 1 per' gallon. But until furtherdetails'are available it is really useless tio itiifmise what may be the real meaning of' this 1 sensational announcement.