The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1910. SOUTHLAND VOTES.

Southland Times, Issue 14579, 21 November 1910, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1910. SOUTHLAND VOTES.

It is to be hoped that the members for this district are making a united and vigorous attempt to obtain reasonably just treatment from the Government in respect to Southland’s claims for a fair share of the public money available this year for railway construction. If it were the policy of the Government to concentrate all effort upon one or two principal lines with a view to reducing to the smallest possible sum the amount of money locked up unremuneratively in unopened lines we should not complain that Southland has been almost totally neglected in this year’s railway estimates. But concentration is no part of the Government’s railway policy. We recollect that when Sir Joseph Ward was not Prime Minister but Mr Seddon’s first lieutenant, he directed attention repeatedly to the heavy losses the colopy sustained through carrying on a large number of small railway works at the same time, thus scattering the forces of the Department and increasing the amount of money on which interest had to he paid, but which produced no revenue, being sunk in partially constructed lines not open for traffic. In those days Sir Joseph Ward urged strongly that it would pay the colony many 'times over to make a list of the lines to he constructed, in order of their importance, and to build them one at a time, concentrating upon each in turn the whole resources and energy of the Department. Had that policy been adopted there is no doubt that the railways of the colony would have cost less, and probably the mileage of open railways would have been considerably greater than it is to-day. The policy of concentration was not

adopted, however. Railway works are still taken in hand in all parts of the Dominion, the aim being to maintain a reasonable relation between the amount expended in each district ane its population, necessities, and contribution to the public revenue. On these grounds Southland unquestionably has a very strong claim, and it is a gross injustice to the residents of this district that the Public Works Statement should make no provision whatever for railways, apart from the Tokouui extension. Going hack a few years we find that in 1907, in addition to the Tokonui extension, the GoreWaikaka line, the Riversdale-Switzers branch, and the Orepuki-Waiau extension were all in hand, and the amount provided for these works in that year was £53,000. In 1908 the same works again appeared in the Public Works Statement, and provision was made for them to the extent of £78,000. Last year the final expense of the Gore-Waikaka railway was washed up, £20,000 was voted for Riversdale-Switzers line, and £15,000 for the Orepuki line. During the year these lines were completed, and as no new works have been undertaken the sum total of the expenditure upon railway works in Southland, apart from the Tokonui extension, will be a few thousand pounds to meet outstanding liabilities. In many parts of the district branch railways are needed. For years the settlers have been agitating for them, and have waited patiently in the expectation that as soon as the works in course of construction were completed their claims would be considered. Their expectations have been disappointed. Southland is passed over in the Statement. We do not know whether the Southland members are content to accept the treatment they have received without demur, but if they are their attitude, in respect to votes is very different from that of the majority of their colleagues. The people of this district will eagerly scan the Supplementary Estimates in the hope that tardy justice has been obtained for them by their representatives in Parliament.