SOUTHEREN TELEGRAMS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XII, Issue 3236, 5 February 1879, Page 3

SOUTHEREN TELEGRAMS.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

Wellington, Tuesday

Today's Times says re railway, not only is there n 'vant nf reasonable, or any evidence thai Sir George Grey'a railway will pay, but the project, has the additional defect or recommendation that it has never received the sanction nf Parliament;;; in facl, has never been Ivurd of thereat all. It ia a new lino projected special)® by the honorable member for Thames for the convenience and advantage of bis constituents, and for restoring of their political confidence in him and in the present Government, which had suffered alarming collapse. Ono hundred and sixty or seventy thousand pounds is, perhaps, a larger sum than the men, and the women, and ihe little children in other parts of the colony would, if they wero consulted, like to pay to the Thames people for such an intangible or perishable article as faith in Sir George Grey and his colleagues. It seems, moreover, to be particularly bard upon the Canterbury children, who, according to the Premier, have already suffered oruel wrongs at the hands of the landed aristocracy of that place, who have now got a renewed tenure of their runs ; n consideration of a sufficient rental annually to the State. We bave been at some pains to show' that this railway from Grahamstown is not a work which has been authorised by the Eailway Construction Act of last session, and that no money has been voted for it in the Appropriation Act of the year. When the first sod was turned on the 21st December last, the land had not been surveyed, The land had not been obtained, nor was it known that it would be possible peacefully to get the consent of the natives of the district for the taking of the line through their territory. We showed that there was practically no available Crown land in the district to be traversed, and that there were no settlers, or very few. We showed that the line must be constructed along the banks of the finest tidal river in the colony—a river navigable for steamers of considerable size up to the point at Te Aroha, where the authorised line of railway from Hamilton touches the Thames river. In the existing state of the financial affairs in the colony, with the prospect of an inevitable defbit in the treasury, in consequence of the falling off of the receipts from land revenuo, ordinary administrative prudence would have imposed cajition, and induced the Government to look carefully ahead before embarking in expenditure upon a large work even already authorised by law, and for which money had been actually appropriated. An Appropriation Act is not money, and there are times whenever that invisible thing called credit—to borrow the Premier's expression-will fail to raise the wind. Yet setting aside not prudential consideration alone, but also the authority of law, it appears that this railway is now to be carried on. The circumstances are altogether so strange and exceptional that we have heard it,asserted that the fine speeches and the servile show at Grahamstown were only part of the Premier's system/and that the Government would not attempt to commit the colony to a large expenditure upon a' political job of this kind. We were ourselves not disinclined to accept that view; but in the Press Agency telegram, published in our issue yesterday, there was an announcement that the • tenderai.fbr.theufirst section of, the Thames and Waikato railway are out, It is chiefly reclamation work below high-water mark. Tenders are to be in by the 15th instant. As this work of Sir George Grey's has not been provided for in the Railways Construction Act it is, of course, subject to the conditions imposed by that Act. These require that before any sentraots are made plans and estimates of the whole work must be prepared, and laid before the Governor-in-Couneil for approval, and that no such approval shall be given except upon the certificate of the Chief Kngineer that the route proposed to betaken for the railway line was the best available. The colony may thus be subjected to an unlawful pecuniary charge of great magnitude for an authorised work i without having the advantage of any of the safeguards with which the representatives of the people in Parliament have thought it necessary to surround undertakings of which they formally approved. As the people of New Zealand are not yet sufficiently educated to prefer personal to Parliamentary Government, and are not of the olay than can be moulded into serfs, it is not, we think, improbable that this arbitrary assumption of power over the public purse, as well as some other recent autocratic acts that we wot of, may meet with resistance in Parliament when next the Houses meet. The Premier may then hear the closing sentences of his fine stump speech at the Tbames about giving favours to certain individuals over others echoed back to him by a strong and united opposition, tnus: "Such Government and such a system is rotten, and if attempted to be enforced cannot exist for a day. The clay is truly noble, and will be moulded into a noble shape. Those potters who try to act otherwise will find that the whole population of New Zealand will cry out ' away with you, we will be moulded by no such potters as you,'" (pee press agency.) Twenty-six persons applied for the secretaryship to the Sydney Exhibition Commissioners. W. Callis (late t-llaby and Callis, of Wellington), was chosen. At a meeting of the Sydney Exhibition Commissioners this evening, the Chairman stated that rooms in the Assembly buildings were placed at their disposal. A memorandum from the Colonial Secretary stated that the Cabinet approved of the expenditure of a sum not exceeding two thousand pounds by the Commissioners.' The business had been delayed owing to the programmes of the Sydney committee not having come to hand. The circulars will be distributed throughout the colony as soon as full particulars are to hand, and local committees will be appointed. The Press will be admitted to all meetings, and notice given, i Answers to would-be exhibitors are postponed pending the arrival of the programmes. The Chairman also said he hoped to be able to send a " Maori house" as an exhibit. The average price per foot of reclaimed land (exelusive of the section that was sold for £154; per foot) was £48. At the reclaimed land sale to-day there were 350 present, including gentlemen from Otago, Canterbury, Napier, Auckland, and. Sydney. The auctioneer explained that the Government would make all roads and footpaths. The land consisted of 43 sections. Allotments fronting Lambton Quay fetched £65 per foot; others from £40 to £58. The lowest was £31 per foot. One section with narrow frontage, but fair area, fetched £154 per foot, About five sections withdrawn ar bought by Government. The total pro-1 \

ceeds of the sale, in round numbers, was 698,000. The purchasers are all Welling ton business men, the principal ones being J. F. C. Wright, JLircaldie, and Stains, Johns! one, and Co.

Intelligence lias been received from Captain Campbell that the ship ' ' has brolron up, and wreckage is strewing the bench, Mr Boardman, acting for the underwriters concerned, has salved a large quantity of her cargo, namely, some 2,000 cases of kerosene,.2o organs, and bei 200 and 300 cases miscellaneous merchandise. Mr Boardman bought the hull of the ship on account of the "outh British office for £70, and has sal red about £700.

Owintr f o the. indisposition of Lady Normatiby it has been decided, on medical advice, that it would not be prudent for her ladyship to leave per ' Arawata' on the 11th. The final departure of His Excellency from Wellington has, therefore, been postponed until the 17th, when the vice-regal party will embark in the s.s. 'Bingarooma/ and go direct to Melbourne without stopping in the Middle Island, as originally intended, or going overland from Ohristchurch to Dunedin and the Bluff. The state of Lady Normanby's health will not permit her to hold a reception before leaving the colony, but the Governor will hold an undress farewell levee at Government House probably on the 15th. Nelson, Tuesday. ; The Nelson College opened yesterday with a larger «number of pupils than were ever on the roll before, including 40 new boys. The applications are so numerous that the Governor decided to build a new wing, comprising large class-room and several bedrooms.