MR HERDMAN & THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 368, 28 May 1903, Page 5

MR HERDMAN & THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I wish to say a word or two in reference to your article of 7th inst, on the above. By what reasoning did you arrive at the conclusion that Mr HerJraan condemned the Otago Central Railway for the purpose of grasping the money for the Xorth Island ? Mr Herdman entered Parliament pledged to a retrenchment policy. Is it not possible that it was an honest endeavor to carry out that pledge that induced him to propound the scheme he did, and not the mercenary motives you imply ? How does Mr Herdman’s attitude in this matter disclose a “spirit of narrow-minded parochialism ” ?

Again, in what way could Mr Herdman, by his remarks, " gain the good graces of electors politically opposed to him" If he was securing the good graces of the Hawea settlers it must have been because they were to receive some benefit from his scheme; and in that case what you wrote, about the ridiculousness and absurdity of the idea, is simply trash. On the other hand if you were alluding to the electors already served with the railway you are laboring under a misapprehension. We are almost as anxious to have railway communication with Alexandra anil Clyde as these towns are to have it with Dunedin, and what is more Mr Herdman knows it, and would never seek our support by stopping the Otago Central. It has been said that a politician enters his career with a political conscience, but that in a short while he loses it. Can you wonder when the press is ever ready to impute personal and base motives to their words and actions without the slightest reason. I am not finding fault with your criticisms of Mr Herdman's scheme— I believe the railway should be pushed on with all haste to" Clyde—but simply with the motives you lay to his charge, which, somehow, I doubt you really believe. It may be, that, indignant at the thought of stopping the railway, in the heat of the moment you wrote what you will since wish retracted.—l am, &c, Fair Play. Rough Ridge, May 18th.