The Tuapeka Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1869. " Measures, not Men."

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 62, 17 April 1869, Page 2

The Tuapeka Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1869.

" Measures, not Men."

Among the many important questions which will occupy the attention of tho Provincial Council during the ensuing Session, the proposed construction of the Clutha Railway demands a share of public notice. Mr. WV Carr Young^s correspondence with the Provincial Government, and a statement of the reasons urged by Home capitalists against countenancing such a scheme, will no doubt prove interesting, and, we trust, beneficial. It is to be feared, however, that an attempt will be made to, carry on the proposed works in spite of the adverse judgment of the long-headed speculators of the Stock Exchange ; an.d this attempt, it is rumoured, will be made bya bogus Joint Stock Company, whose liabilities will be guaranteed by the Government of Otago. The cost of the proposed railway could hardly be less than £500,000, and, the chances are, would be considerably above that sum ; yet a Government which pleads poverty when a just and necessary demand is made for agricultural land, — a demand involving, by the highest estimate, an outlay of barely £70,000,— is willing to incur this enormous debt, for the sake of a small minority of the inhabitants of the Province. The people of the Clutha district have certainly no reason to be dissatisfied with Mr. Macandrew, who is so anxious to further their interests that he altogether forgets the more pressing and important claims of the inhabitants of the Goldfields and Oamaru. The jealousy of a few Dunedin merchants has done much to retard the advancement of the latter place, although, unlike the Clutha, there is a jpossibility, though hardly a probability, that a line of railway to it might pay a reason- ' able dividend. As for the Goldfields, their interests seem never I taken' into consideration, although a considerable portion of the revenue derived from them would no doubt be made use of in furthering what has been called a bare-faced attempt to use public funds for the benefit of private interests. We shall no doubt hear from the supporters of the scheme many eloquent and able expositions of the benefits obtained from a railway system ; ■of the advantages to be derived from opening up the country ; from increased facilities for sending commodities to a remunerative market ; of the greater demand for labour, and the consequent rise of wages : all excellent arguments in theirway, and of undoubted importance. But if railways are advantageous to a State, so also-is a carriage and pair to an individual ; yet we should look upon any person procuring the latter luxury at a time when he was unable to pay for the feed of the horses as 1 a man well" qualified for free lodgings in a lunatic asylum. The illustration is 'homely, but exactly describes the position, .the 'Government having either forgotten or ignored the proverb which warns men to learn to walk before they attempt to fly. The condition of the neighbouring province of Southland is another warning it would be well not to disregard ; for, by its rash attempt" to go a-head in the railway' line, it has been reduced to a state bf almost hopeless insolvency. While we thus, however, enter a protest -against a project as unlikely to pay as any of the schemes propounded in • Jerrold's well-known farce,- we are willing to admit the necessity of increased and improved means of transit— not to the" Clutha alone, but also to every district in 'the Province. If there be any, truth in the accounts published by Home, journals ;of the success of Mr. Thompson's road engines, we ,be-

lieve a tithe of the outlay demanded 7 for the opening up of One of the 4east important districts of the Proevince would satisfy the wants of the whole population, and leave the '> government with £450,000 of tIM half million it seems so anxious to expend, for other and more pressing^ demands upon the Treasury. Afall events, we trust none of the representatives of the Goldfields or northern districts of the Province will ba so : careless of the interests of theirs constituents as to permit the Clutha scheme to be proceeded jriawU£,tJipy;y|rd^ 4 is degdecUy adverse, it is to be "hoped we*siiair hear no more "61 Mr. Macandrew's pet scheme^'- -* • »-j«w«. : i>«i.js.». > .. ilt » .- r i