OTAGO RAILWAYS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2578, 12 August 1909, Page 2

OTAGO RAILWAYS.

If the Otago people thought they were appealing to the Hon. Roderick ADKenzio as a brother Scot, and in this way' hoped to soften his heart on the Otago Central Railway, they fell in grievously. Air AUKeuzie told them what any honest politician would have told them years ago: that this railway was a wild-cat scheme, and one that did not deserve the expenditure of another penny of public money. One of the deputationists alleged that the return from the railway was twice as large nowi that it had reached Clyde as compared with when it was only halfway there. Seeing that the present return is 6s per cent, towards an interest charge of £3 15s per cent., it doesn’t say very much for the prospects of the line even if it goes on to Wan aka, Hokitika, or anywhere else. Air M'Kenzie’s blunt condemnation of the Otago Central, and his refusal to entertain the idea of wasting any more money upon it, comes as a refreshing contrast to the soft soap employed by his predecessor and the Premier whenever the Otago people put forward their insatiable requests for votes for the line, •tr Hall-Jones cotfld never say “No,” and was never known to wound the feelings of a deputation in his life, no matter how unreasonable the demands might be. The Premier was equally soothing, and only just before the last election lie told tli’o Dunedin people that the stoppage of tho railway at Clyde was only temporary, leading them to that it would be continued at no distant date. Were the money available, there can bo little doubt that it would still bo squandered on the Otago Central in the good old way. As there is a shortage, the wildest of several wild cats has to be strangled first, so that there will be something to spare for tho others.—Christchurch “News.”