Poetry Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING SATURDAY, MARCH 1,1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 639, 1 March 1879, Page 2

Poetry Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1879.

If ever there was a time at which the members of the County and Borough Councils should be as one, it is the present time. There is a tramway or a railway, call it which we like, which is to connect the town of Ormond with the x town of Gisborne. We have received [ a gift of iron rails which may be | looked upon as something to com- ' mence with j but some things more than iron rails are required before a tramway, or a railway, can be made subserve its purpose. There are such things as sleepers, which are . expensive ; there is the necessary ' ballasting to be done, demanding conveyances and the employment of much labor. There are the /carriages, and trucks, and locomotives )to be bought ready-made or made to \order. All of these requirements will call for the expenditure of some thousands of pounds. Now, it happens fortunately, that the County Council has a large balance at its bankers, and « very handsome annual revenue derived from rates and other sources. The Borough Council unfortunately has no bank balance ; or if it have, the amount is very insignificant. It is very likely, we think, the bank-book of the Borough will show an overdrawn account ; while its incomings in comparison with the Cook County Council are very insignificant ; but a tramway — let us, if it so please us, call it by this name — would be of no service to th6 County without it had a Gisborne terminus, and it would be equally of little service to the townspeople unless there was a terminus at Ormond, with intermediate termini between Hie two eiulu. Then, how are the payments by the two bodies to be adjusted ? That it the question. The Borough's share will be for about two miles and a half; the County's share about eight miles and a half. The County may manage its proportion ; but the Borough will be able to do little or nothing. It has got to do so much in other ways — providing a water supply, for instance, and doing something, be it never so little, in the way of drainage and side street formations, i If communication between iarprn. and country is to be less costjyfinore frequent and more eajjy^Chan has bitherto been the cjjsejwe must have 9 a tramway between Gisborne and Ormond to^b«gm with. If the health, teomfor^tncl cleanliness of the townsl ESppteare to be taken into considera-

tion, together with the means to check or subdue a conflagration, we must have watei*. Now, a water supply, and eleven or twelve miles of tramway means, in round numbers, an expenditure of some thirty or forty thousand pounds. This amount of money is not at command ; but if the revenue of the Country and Borough Councils were capat^lised, there should be no difficulty in raisI ing a sum so comparatively insignificent. All that is demanded is, that the two bodies should be unanimous in forwarding the interests of each other, by which each would be forwarding its own. If there be strife, or dissension, or jealousy between the two local governing bodies, then things will come to a dead lock ; and the progress of the town and country will both be retarded. The county is a big brother and the Borough is a little brother. It is therefbye right the big brother shmUift hdfc ifcy littfc brother, lest wheJ^growsbig, f^should turn round and offer reprisals. We have the satisfaction of knowing this much, that both the County and Borough Councils are composed of men of good common understanding! They are men who really have an interest in the place, not being mere flyaways, or birds of iP MB » J^*Ew*»fts& men °l sub ; Istande^W^ tne greater number of ihem. * Money matters having been adjusted, the question which is likely to arise is this — How shall the line run ? Through the Gladstone Road, starting from Read's Quay ; or along Childers street coming out near Read,s gate, and so P&wlto Makaraka, WaerViga-a-hikar^po Ormond ; or shall on the south side of the Tw^iheru stream 1 These are the questions which have to be discussed, and on which we can offer no opinion at present, being quite ig&orant as to what route the tramway ftnght to j-fIW-T^' 1 WH IlitVH iwnfigKE' under the notice of our town and country readers quite sufficient for them to consider earnestly what should be done for their joint interests ; and we offer our columns freely to all who may wish to ventilate their opinions. We not only open our columns, but we earnestly invite discussion ; and we do not know that we can say or do anything that could be fairer. /