New Zealand Tablet Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1877. RAILWAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 216, 15 June 1877, Page 10

New Zealand Tablet Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1877. RAILWAYS.

The people of Otago seem just now to be labouring under a species of Railway mania. This is somewhat surprising, considering the apathy into which they appeared to have fallen for some time past. The Southern line is unfinished — in fact, nothing has yet been done to fill up a gap of twenty miles between Balclutha and Clinton, except what is implied in a survey. To be sure the money required for the work was once voted by Parliament, but, owing to a flimsy pretext, it was not spent, and the vote has been allowed to lapse. Some say this was done purposely, and with the view of taking political revenge on Dunedin for not quietly allowing itself and the province of which it is the capital to be plundered by Centralism. We are not in a position to say whether this is so or not, but certainly there are strong probabilities in its favour.

At all events, it is quite certain that, be the motives ol the Ministry and their partisans inimical to the interests and rights of Dunedin, or otherwise, the people of this city and neighbouring districts are themselves not altogether free from blame for the delay that has occurred in the completion of the Dunedin-Invercargill line. And the same must be said as to the Dunedin-Moeraki line. It would seem as if there had been an understanding, generally, between Abolitionists and certain parties in Canterbury and Southland, to so manage railway construction as to isolate Dunedin from the country districts naturally dependent on this city, whilst these districts should be put into communication with Christchurch and Invercargill. On the part of the present Ministry this has been denied ; and we have no doubt this denial is true so far as some of its members are concerned. But then it must be remembered that the Ministry has been lately reconstructed; that we have a new Minister of Works, a new Minister of Lands, and a new Native Minister. But all this

does not acquit the Abolition party and its chief leaders of the charge of conspiring to punish Dunedin because it did tamely submit to be fleeced for their exclusive benefit. The apathy, however, which appeared to exist in Dunedin and its immediate neighbourhood, and was tbe result of disgust at the conduct of leading colonial politicians, and of a conviction of the utter uselessness of appealing to the present Parliament for justice to this part of the colony, has now given way under the stimulus of the railway agitation of Oamara and Naseby. Public men who a few weeks ago were, to all appearance, utterly indifferent to the course of events, are now up and stirring, and a counter project to tlxe Naseby-Oamaru scheme has been started by the Taieri County Council. Even the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, vrhich it is so hard to move, has at last moved in the question. All this is hopeful ; but it should be remembered that it is only perseverance that crowns a good work. But there is one thing that strikes us, viz., that it would be wise to finish the works in hand, and set them to earn something before embarking in new, expensive, and doubtful works. No man, we think, can be so sanguine as to expect that at present a line of railway from Oamaru to Naseby would pay working expenses and interest on the cost of construction. There is not sufficient population in the districts around about. Settlement on a large scale must precede the construction of a railway, or at least proximate preparation must be made to secure settlement, so that actual settlement and the construction of the railway may proceed pari passu. And the same may be said of all the other projects for railway extension into the interior of Otago which are now before the public. It is gratifying, however, to see that so much and such general interest is taken in the subject, and we only hope that this interest may not end in a collapse. Great good cannot but result from a good humoured and intelligent agitation of the question ; and the several surveys, albeit they are only flying ones, will have, at least, the good effect of a more careful exploration of remote and little known localities. Meantime, the great object ought to be to hurry to completion the railway works now in progress, for reasons so obvious that it would be a waste of time to enumerate them ; and, at the same time, to afford the greatest facilities for settlement on Crown lands. The recent sales of such lands prove the anxiety of the people for settlement, and the high prices paid make it clear that there are larger numbers of keen competitors than had been thought. Would it not be wise to allow people to select land wherever it would suit them to do so ]