BY-AND-BY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160796, 2 November 1920, Page 2

BY-AND-BY.

But Mr Coates indignantly denied , that he had renounced his good reso-. ■ Inlions. He was as determined as he ever had been to put astppto a practice which added enormously to the , : cost of the railways and seriously i delayed the systematic development of fho country. He could' not,, however, step into office and by a single stroke * of the pen revolutionise a system that had, been going'fm forbears. The .circumstances of every line bad to be con- ' sidered. But honourable members : might rest assured he would put his policv into operation at the earliest ■ possible moment, and he hoped he. would have their assistance in carrying it out. This explanation seemed e’ausible and reasonable enough, and r Coatee’ next Public Works Statement will be awaited with much curiosity and inetrest. Meanwhile the' recentres chiefly around the Minister’s • apparent preference for lines serving the Auckland'province. THE JQSIAH HOWARD BEQUEST. , There. is a fairly widespread' feeling ; in the House that the Government is not dealing quite fairly with the . Howard bequest. A committee reported >4 upon the petition of a large number of" Hawke’s Bay residents, urging that the l equest should not be employed in establishing a State farm outside their ‘ {irovince, indicating that the, prayer, of be petitioners was in keeping With what® was known of the testator’s wishes and intentions. But the Government, having been advised that it is under no legal obligation to give effect to the testator’s wishes, is insisting upon applying tho proceeds of the i estate towards. the post of the Agricultural to be established at Weraroa, some sixty miles along the , Main Trunk railway from Wellington. Probably from a purely utilitarian point of view the money will be better employed here than it would be in Hawke’s Bay, but it is felt by a number c? disinterested members of the House ; that 1 the late Mr Howard’s deliberate intention should be the first consideration. It seems to them that in a case of this kind file cold letter of the; law • should not be stretched to defeat the , sentiment of a dead man.