EAST, WEST, AND NORTH.

Inangahua Times, Volume XI, Issue 1701, 7 May 1886, Page 2

EAST, WEST, AND NORTH.

. ♦- (Welling ton Press.) Mr Allan Scott's telegram to Mr C. C. Bowen, announcing the Company for undertaking the construction of the East and West Coast and Nelson Railway, must be taken as an authorative confirmation of the earlier leport that satisfactory arrangements had at last been made for the settleim.nt of ! that difficult question. The names of the directors, as telegraphed, are not familiai- to us, with the exception of that of Sir Charles Cliff .id. But Sir Charles Chifford is a tower of strength. In the first place, his presence in the directory is a guarantee, for the others, for hn most decidedly would not associate hini3elf with any but men of j substance and good standing. Secondly, the fact of so shrewd a man of business, J with a large personal experience of New Zealand and its affairs, identifying himself with the enterprise, is in i^if a sufficient evidence not only of its ; boa fiaes, but al*o of iU sou illness as ' a financial venture. W* can no logger , have any doubt now n-? to tho willing- \ noss of capitalists to un leitake the j construction of the railway. But until ; the, actual terms iiivl condition* n the j contract are made known, we mast be j .4UoyKd-4o<-&>iwu<W it»nn op.«n qivstiosi j whether or not the bans deti.eil by : the Act of 1884 is to he st ic'ly a.iht.-e ! | to. If that basis i.-i to !>9 alieiwl, or ; course nothing further can be clone j without the consent of Pii;liument,un<l the conseutof Pailiaineutwi!! ass'ik-dly depeud entirely on th<\ ex'.ent of the j proposed alteration. We do not for a ' moment believe that Parliament would j make any o»>j;>ctiou to reasonable modification to tho original proposal ; because we have all along been of i opinion that there U none of th-tt feeling against the projoct itself, on the part of other districts, which its pro- ' inoters in Canterbury h.ive attributed j ti» them. Certainly there is no such ; feeling in Wellington ; and it is against Wellington that the most better reproaches have been directed. There are, no doubt, differences of opinion as to the wisdom, on grounJs of public policy, of handing over so large a proportion of the public estate in the Middle Island to private speculators ; hut the prevdi'ingsentiment, we are convinced, is that anything is better (hail keeping the Inlld locked lip ami unproductive, while the, i.ibnxluction of an immense amount of cipital, without any addition to pnbiic or . private burdens, cannot fail to benefit tho colony as a whole enormously. With the standing example of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway before our eyes, too, it would be strange indeed if the people in this Provincial district showed any opposition to a precisely similar enterprise on the other side of Cook Strait. As Mr Travers— an excellent authority on this question — pointed out last year, anything which benefits Nelson and Westlaud must also benefit Wellington j for the commercial interests of the three districts are. identical. Not only is the port of Wellington the distributing port for Nelson and Westland, but those districts, if populous, prosperous ami progressive, would l>e the natural market for the produce of the interior lands of Wellington. What the people hero did object to, and very properly, was the proposed construction of the railway on terms so onerous to the colony and otherwise so objectionable, that the advantages to be gained from it were more than i-ouiiti-rliahiiiced. It it is the case that a body of capitalists, strong enough to carry the work through to a successful termination, are willing to undertake it for the consideration of the land grants and mineral rights by way of | bonus, we are sure there is no part of the colony wbeie the news will l>e more welcome than it will be here. ( Having said that, we will now venture , to express a feeling we have that a , great deal of disappointment will l»e j expoi ionc< din Canterbury especially — f that is to sny, at Christchurch and , thereahontB — when the real effects of t the undertaking of the railway con- , tract CDmo to be understood. The i people- there, at a time of profound I depression, have been led l»y the pro* I iiiOltT* of the railway scheme, uiul siiil j

nore by political agitators who have t nade use of that movement for their r >wn ends, to expect immediate results •f the most startling character, in the hape of a rise in the speculative value •f property and the employment at tigh wages of all classes of labour. \ rime will show that those expectations . ne entirely vis-sionaiy. The solid esnlts of this great enterprise will take . to develop. j