Wellington Independent THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3214, 1 June 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1871.

The Provincial Executive are the guardians of the provincial estate, and conservators of the public interest. They may not, so long as they hold office, relegate their duties or shift their responsibilities. The General Government, we are glad to learn, will assist them so far as they can, but of course they cannot do more for Wellington than for any other pro. \ince. They cannot take a colonial officer from his accustomed duties and engage him in doing the work of the province. Supposing they were to doso, it is not at all likely that it would be as well done. The successful settlement of the immigrants in the Manawatu under the supervision of Mr H alcombe is a case in point. Had that matter

fallen into the hands of an officer, however highly qualified for the proper duties he was engaged to perform, it is not difficult to see that he would not (nor could he be expected to) take the lively and personal interest in the mission, which the Provincial Treasurer then 60 conspicuously displayed. In laying off the lines of all the newrailways and fixing the sites for public works, the officers of the Colonial Government must so divide their time as not to delay too long on any particular survey. It is for the Provincial Government, however, carefully to watch their proceedings, and, in any case where they may have a doubt as to the propriety of any of their decisions, to take proper and timely measures to have it set at rest. It does not follow that, by so doing, they impugn either the ability or diligence of the colonial officer; they then only act as the friends of a i patient may do on a critical occa- i sion, when they call in another physician to consult with the family Esculapius. The province of Wellington, we need not repeat, is in a very critical condition. The only hope for it that we see is the vigorous treatment — the " heroic surgery" of the now Provincial Executive. But, while they recommend a bleeding by direct taxation on the one hand, it is for them to see that the patient loses no strength unnecessarily— that it is not at the same time bled and blistered. In other words, while the railways are being surveyed it is for them to see that no increase of cost is occasioned to the province by detours, which the knowledge or experience they can bring to bear may show to be altogether unnecessary. Mr Rochefort's line of railway, for instance, from Wellington to Featherston, in order to avoid the Rimutaka, is extended to a length of fifty-three miles. A line going through the Rimutaka by a tunnel (if practicable) would be only thirty-six miles long. We do not say that such a tunnel is possible ; but, before the province is involved in the expense of constructing and ever afterwards maintaining feeventeen miles of road which there is a bare possibility of avoiding, we think the Execu- ! tive are bound to exhaust all the j professional ability and experience they can command. .Nor is it only the money that would thus be saved, but the time of the travelling public. Every journey i on this line will take at least threequarters of an hour more than on one seventeen miles shorter, and the in creased fare, freight, and time, by limiting both the goods and passenger traffic may seriously affect the railway returns. The time allowed Mr Rochefort for his survey was, we think, not in proportion to the difficulties of the case. Perhaps no railway line in the colony presents so many specialities, or requires more painstaking and tentative preliminary examination. It is clearly, therefore, the bounden duty of the Provincial Executive to institute another survey, under a competent engineer, instructing him specially with regard to the Rimutaka hill -—to ascertain if it can be tunnelled through, and so to bring Featherston [ seventeen miles nearer to Wellington than it would be under the proposed line. With the money required for first cost and permanent maintenance of seventeen miles (not to speak of the time saved to the public, and the increased traffic) there is a large sum to begin with, as a set-off to the cost of the tunnel. If by a stationary engine, with gradients each way rising from the plain, the tunnel could be greatly shortened, another considerable reduction in the cost would be effected. But even if, to take the worst possible view of the case, it should be found, that the line now prospected is the best, the people of the [ province will have the satisfaction of knowing that every care has been taken, and every expedient exhausted, to avoid unnecessary expense in the first cost of construction and the future maintenance of this most important railway. Holding these views we have learned, with greut satisfaction, that the Provincial Executive have actually appointed a Provincial Engineer, and that a minute survey of this line is to be his first and chief care. We congratulate them on the choice they have made in the appointment of Mr C. O'Neill, whose reputation on the Thames and in i other parts of the colony, is the best i guarantee of his fitness for this important office. Mr O'Neill has been extensively employed in railway construction in Scotland, and one who has been successful, as he has been, in laying off j lines of railways through the Highlands of Scotland may face even the redoubtable Rimutaka with some hope of a similar success. We hope that, if his report differs from that of Mr Rochefort, the matter will be referred, like the site for (he Waitaki bridge, to the arbitrament of a Commission of well qualified engineers. The permanent saving would be so great that the hope of effecting it, in our opinion, fully justifies the expense of leaving no stone unturned.