The Western Star. (PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY.) WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8, 1880.

Western Star, Issue 378, 8 September 1880, Page 2

The Western Star. (PUBLISHED 81-WEEKLY.) WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8, 1880.

Thebe is a certain class of persons of which wo fin (I numerous repmspufa. fives in all the British colonics. It consists of those imltvirtuals who do not trust to their own plodding industry to earn a living for themselves, and who are not enterprising enough to confide in their luck and go in for large speculations, hut who nevertheless always make a living bv_ sponging on their friends, or borrowing of relatives more successful than themselves, or seek for success by substantiating some trumped, up claim on the Government for services rendered. These people are usually called “loafers/ They are not held in high repute ; judicious persona avoid them as much as possible, and if they eome into contact with them give them as wide ft berth as may be, and keep a. keen eye on their proceedings. But when loafing is done on a large scale, it becomes a much more reputable thing Just ns “ one murder makes a villain, millions a hero,” so loafing, when numbers join in it, is regarded by those interested in the swindles ns most coturn eudablv smart, as well ns pntriotic. The two most uotoriouslyloafing towns in New Zealand have long been Auckland and Bunedin. By the first the colony suffered moat in the early days, by the second of Tate years, and now. When Auckland was the capital o r New Zealand, unjust and unprofitable wars, costing millions of money, were earned on against the natives, in ovder that the trade of Auckland might be brisk from the number of soldior* stationed in the place, and the consequent demand for stores. A few millions have thus been added to onr colonial debt, and we are burdened with the interest upon it to the present day. Since the war has ceased, and Provincial Government has been also knocked on the head, the Auckland people have not thrived as much, and consequently are in a chronic state of growling and grumbling. The other great loafing township of the colonv has been Dnnedin. Whilst Provincial Gcve-nment lasted, black mail was copiously levied on the revenue from all the remote parts of the province befo’e it was allowed to quit the Dunedin Treasury. We in the Western District were placed on thefooting of the most highly swindled nations. Onr demands were so modest that even the Superintendent of the province conceded that they ought tobe granted. - One of these demands was for the construction of tb'' Or* pnki railway. But though this demand was conceded verbally and on paper* the work was not begun. Of Into an excellent chance presented its--self for going on with.it, and opening up the resources of the distr’ct. The cry of the unemployed had been i listened to. and it had been agreed that £ITK,OOO should he placed in the hands of the Government for giving work to those who wanted it. Among the works which the Railway Commission, a body whose impartiality has not been questioned, recommended wasthe Orepnki railway. No sooner, however, were steps beginning to be taken to place a certain number of the unemployed at work in constructing this line, than a wail of agony arose in Dunedin about the money being wasted on this “miserable abortion of the lino,” and not on the Great Central Railway of Otago, which started of course, as all properly constructed railways do, from Dunedin, run through nowhere in particular, and ended somewhere up in the mountains, to the north-west of the provincial district, it didn’t matter where. Of course, the name of Great Central Railway of Otago is a much grander one than that of Orepuki, but if we come to ask which of the two is the abortion, we fancy that it will be seen our Dunedin friends have put the boot on the wrong leg. Why, according to the statements of experts, like Mr Connell, among their own I townsmen, there is scarcely a bit of good land along the whole of this great central line; next to no population, no new resources to open up. The real attraction is that, if the railway is constructed there will be just so much more money spent in Dunedin, and spent, too, in depriving the towns of the South of the trade which naturally belongs to them. But this is obviously a most absurd purpose for which to ! construct a Government railway. A competing line makes no increase of national wealth, and a competing line costing over a million of money in a eoloay just on the verge of insolvency, is so gross an absurdity that only a madman, or someone much worse would recommend it. "\Ye have not space at present to expose the other recent swindle of the Dunedin men in altering the timetable on the Invercargill and Kingston railway line, so as to render that line double as expensive as it need be, and almost useless for its original purpose, though useful in putting money into the pockets of. a ring of Dunedin speculators, whofinitiated- the AYaimea Plains railway ostensibly as a self-sup-porting speculation, and then came upon the Government to buy it up, and thus make tb« colony pay for rendering their own. land more /valuable. Enojigh has been urged To put those who take any interest in public matters on their .guard respecting schemes initiated in DuuWdin.* The notion of tbe -Dun«din people that the colony exists for their town is a delusion. If the overgrown township were carted into the sea we could get on very well without, it.