The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1889. Eketahuna-Woodville Railway.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3260, 19 July 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1889. Eketahuna-Woodville Railway.

There are in Masterton people who hold that tho extension of the Otago Central line would be a. crime, but that tho completion of the link between Woodville and Eketahuna would be a virtue. Just in the same way the Auckland people declare that the unexpended balance of the Northern 'i'runlt line should in the interests pf the .colony be spent at their end; and the Wellington people, on precisely the samo ground, clamor that it should be expended in this province, Both Parliament and the country have agreed that for the time being railway construction should ceasp, but there are politicians who desire t.o cyado this decision. Sir Harry Atkinson, for example, favors tho construction of tho Otago Central, and with such an example before them, Messrs Smith, Newman, and Tanner, M.H.Rs, have a perfect right to put in a claim for the completion of the Woodville-Eketa-buna link, That jt should be made whenever railway construction is resumed is almost a matter of course, hut that it should bo financed into existence by a liugjjer-muggor process of land grants is altogether another thing. The expenditure of £145,000 iu constructing this link would he a good thing for the district, but would it at the present moment be a good thing for the colony. It is from the latter point of view that the House will be asked to decide the question, apd its answer is certain, The resumption of .our public works policy cannot be immediately undertaken, it is lor a season delayed. When [jie polony is in a position to resume it, the link has a prior claim fpj federation. In the meantime there is practically no chance of getting it completed.' It Is

said that it it were now made it would bo immensely reproductive, Tins is great nonsense, for past experience proves absolutely that similar extensions are not from a financial particularly remunerative, k the MasertpnEketahima extension, for example,, immensely profitable 1 We fear not, and yftfc it pays quite as well as the Ekotahuna-Woodyjllp link can be expected to pay whon it is construpted. T)io Government made a mistake - with J,))/)jr ey.es ppen—when they agreed to coustrujsj thjj Gorgelink for the benefit pf an opposition, lino, instead of spending the money on their own railway, h 4 this no doubt wasdone for political reasons. j?ut i

because the Government did wrong on a former occasion, it does not follow that they should now. be willing to work a point for the benefit of this district. They aro Binning somewhat in the matter of the Otago Central, and have only themselves to blamed claps from other districts arefoj"cecl upon.tjUe'mV Tjuo Woodville Jinlqriii' sooneTbj'nfej be. .ponstrupted, but when it is undertaken it will l).o started in .the interests of tho colony, not of aM # is in the' interests of the colony {tjiaj it should be completed,

Tubke farmers were fined L 5 each and costs, for' breaches of the Babbit Act at to-day's sitting of the R.M. Court. A five pound penalty is a heavy tax on the rescources of a small holder of kid, and as it can be increased up to a hundred pounds it will be as woll for farmers to face the situation. The Inspector is on the warpath, he is a man of considerable determination, and if lie has made up his mind to suppress rabbits in

this district it will be wise lor owners and occupiers of land not to wait for a Court summons.