‘ELECTOR OF WALLACE’S’ ASPERSIONS REFUTED.

Western Star, Issue 261, 7 September 1878, Page 6

‘ELECTOR OF WALLACE’S’ ASPERSIONS REFUTED.

TO THE EDITOR.

XU IUJCi XUiXUIV. SIE, —Of all the railway schemes that have been before the public for some time I do not know one which, in proportion to the expense of it, would do a greater amount of good than the Riverton and Orepuki line. It would push settlement and population westward —on towards that vast and fertile wilderness that intervenes between this and the West Coast. It would certainly develop several new industries at the Orepuki end of the line, and might reasonably bo expected to do the same at the Riverton end. My faith in all this is not shak en in the least by a hostile letter which appeared in the “ Southland Times” of August Isth. I would just like to make two or three observations on that letter and the writer. It was followed by a second one purporting to reply to some one who had answered his first one. He complains that he had been treated to a few delicacies in 'he way of abuse. Ido not know how that may have been, but I will guarantee that no one can complain of bis abuse being too delicate, for it is a 1 issue of falsehood and coarse insult from beginning to end. After a few savoury compliments in the beginning of his letter he trouts us in the middle to a few statistics. Having performed that part of his duty, ho returns in the end again to his abuse, and does it so heartily that he makes not only the member for Wallace but the miners and people of Orepuki nearly as black os falsehood and sin could make them. Leaving the compliments on one side, turn we to hisjstatistics. We are assured that the sum total of all the lands fit for the plough from the Pailii to Orepuki aud on the Waiau just amounts to “ four thousand acres.” How, sir, what between Paihi and Riverton, from the railway lino to sea beach and old Maori gardens of former years that accomplished surveyor Mr M'Kerrow was requested by the late Superintendent of Otago to report, and ho estimated the quantity of land of this description about Paihi and Orepuki at 7,000 acres. I am assured by those who know well that between that and the Waiau there are another 3000 acres. This tallies exactly with the report of the three commissioners appointed also to report on this very thing Their estimate was taking altogether 10,000 acres. 'I hen there are miles of fine open timbered land on the slopes of the western side of the Longwood Range and the Valley of the Taunoa and Waimeamea Rivers stretching towards Merrivale Statics, such soil as would gladden the hearts of thousands seeking homesteads. I now put it to the public whether they are to believe these accredited experts, or an intemperate He next refers to the matter of supplies, and a stranger would think after reading his letter that there

could not possibly be any difficulty about this | matter. But how stands the fact. Why, before now, the people of Orepuki hare had to pick their seed potatoes out of the ground and eat them. Although this has uot happened often, | yet it is no rare thing for the people there to bo in very great straits for supplies, all coirummica- j tion with Riverton being frequently cut off during j the winter season. He sneers at their number, | “ only about one hundred, chiefly miners. Wall, | one buid.'ed men with their wires and families , would need a good deal in the way of supplies, i He next states the distance at twenty or twenty- ! fire miles. By the late surrey line it will be a little ! orer half the last number, or about twenty miles 1 to the Waiau River; and that will be accom- I plished. Yes, and thence up the western bank of j the Waiau to the Limestone Gorge, ra-cross the ; Waiau and join the Otautau, Nightcap and ! Waiau line. Tin's is uot all. The time is not far | distant when a branch line will leave the Lower i Waiau and go on to Preservation Inlet. Very little engineering required. A low terrace runs along the seaboard towards Preservation Inlet—one of the finest harbours in New Zealand, well adapted for a fishery and a depot for a whaling fleet, the whaling grounds being within thirty miles, at the Solander. Next, the writer brings a heavy charge of inconsistency against the member for Wallace for sometimes stating the quantity of laud which would bo brpught into cultivation at 10,000 and sometimes at 30,000. 1 do not know where our representative got those figures, but I have not the slightest doubt that “ Electsr for Wallace” is guilty of gross injustice I in not giving us the particulars. Non, sir, I could myself easily reconcile these statements with one another and both with the facts of the case. It must be remembered that if the terminus of the railway were at the Waiau —which I am convinced it will be—the whole of the western bank of that river would be brought into connection with Riverton. Mr M'Kerrow estimated the level country stretching from the Western Alps to cho Waiau and thence to the sea at 346,000 acres. A great part of this is, however, covered with bush. But along the western bank"o£ the river there is a border of open land ready fox’ the plough. This open land he estimated at 56,000 acres. The water carriage of the Waiau would surely bring some land on the east bank also into connection with the market, and some of the western bush land might be cleared. For all?thia 100,000 acres is no very extravagant estimate. I suppose the 30,000-acre estimate bod left out such as he thought would be used pastorally. But our ‘ friend’ does not trust so much to what be says for misleading the public as to a discreet silence. One would think after reading his letter that nothing would ever come down the mils bub the produce of those “ four thousand acres ” of his and the “ tucker” for the unfortunate “ one hundred diggers.” He does'uet say that there is a coalfield at Orepuki superior to any in Southland (vide Captain Hutton’s report), or korosine shale several feet in thickness and traced for miles, or immense quantities of building stone in the district; not even that there is a very large supply of timber. He only says that the line goes through rotten and worthless trees. I suspect ha is an export at the art of planting rotten trees by a mere flourish of his pen. This brings me to the remarks on the ship-building trade in Wellington ; tha supply of timber being inadequate to the demand, iron will have to be taken to, &c. Now, Sir, let me toll the “ Elector of Wallace ” —who is apparently ashamed to place his name to his replies—that the Western District is able to supply the whole of New Zealand with timber for its railways, harbours, wharfs, and. jetties, by which means thousands of pounds would be saved to the colony and a stoppage put to importation from foreign markets. The fact of the existence of the materials enumerated is notorious. Without a railway they can never be developed, and vice versa. Then the timber that could be rafted down the Waiau is inexhaustible. Why, then, has all this vehemence and duplicity been displayed to damage the rep itation of a line which would be a great gain to him, and if to him it would surely be so to others as well. I will give you my opinion. The “Elector of Wallace” is an Eastern, and one of that school of Easterns who have a rooted aversion to this line, not because it will not, but because it will, develope a largo traffic between iiiverton and the West, and so render an improvement of Riverton Harbour an absolute necessTy. To speak of Riverton Harbour to these parties acts upon them like the flaunting of a red cloth before the eyes of an angry bull.—l am, &c., Theophiutb Daniel. Riverton, 30th August, 1878.