CENTRALISATION AND OBSTRUCTION.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 5295, 28 February 1884, Page 3

CENTRALISATION AND OBSTRUCTION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — If England were to place herself in our unlucky position by purchasing; up her railways, her national debt would be increased to two thousand millions. We may, however, feel quite assured she does not intend to convert her railway system into a white elephant. The healthy emolution which has for so many years.existed between the various companies as to which shall cater the best for the public by anticipating every avenue of trade and commerce, gives her entire satisfaction. It would rather startle some of our cold-blooded officials to see how, in the Home country, men of like position, 1 when they are found damming up the avenues of trade, are cast aside as fossils ; and how rapidly they are replaced by men of different calibre ! It has been said, and to a certain extent it ia true, that for some years the low price of wool has militated against our prosperity ; but, on the other hand, we should recollect that during the same period our sheep have increased by millions, so that what we have lost in price we have about gained in quantity. There are numerous people who believe that the movement of prosperity must commence in the large-town centres of population, just as if the millions' worth of produce we export annually in the shape of corn, and wool, and tellow, frozen meat, Scoj, were dug up in their back gardens. In New Zealand, pastoral and agricultural affairs are supreme and will be so for at least a generation to come ; and any government which cannot find money for the construction of main roads to our outlying districts, and for the further developement of our interior waste lands, must inevitable stand in the way of our progress and prosperity. Barring their govermental obstruction, which we have now always to take into account, the main spring of commercial activity, which means the lively circulation of money and credit, depends on the produce of the land, and also upon the convenient aids which might be to hand for exporting the surplus of that produce. Last year on this coast line large herds of sheep and cattle were made beautifully fat, but as there was no convenient outlet for them they remained, and beecame poor again on the hands of their owners. The same thing is obtaining this this year. If the construction of the Heads Railway had not been prevented by the effete Railway Department, it is quite certain that many months ago elaborate freezing machinery would have been erected at the Heads, and that already by this time we should have shipped away from Wanganui many thousand carcases of frozen mutton. Need I say what this would mean for the immediate future of Wanganui ? Depend upon it, the same style of administration permeates all the actions of the Government in all the outlying districts of the colony. If their centralising and obstructive officials were shipped away to the Bosphorus they would be immensely appreciated there ; but if such semi-civilised acts were perpetrated in any An£[lo-Saxon community outside of New Zealand, it is certain we should soon hear of it. — I am, &c, Prooress.