The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1877.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 97, 22 June 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1877.

The Trustees, appointed under the " Lakes Forsyth and Ellosmere Reclamation and Akaroa Railway Act," appear to be acting with great care and prudence, as well as with an earnest determination to carry into effect the trust reposed in them. They have determined to appoint an engineer, who will be provided with the necessary , assistants, for a survey of the lakes and of a fine for a railway to Akaroa, and also to prepare the report thereon, to be laid before the Governor and ultimately before Parliament, when application is made for power to carry out the contemplated work, to which the appointment of the Trust is but a preliminary step. It is with pleasure we note, that the report of the engineer is to be sent in on or before the month of June, next year, thus being iv time to be laid before Parliament which will probably ,meet in July. The permanent drainage of the lakes is a work of great importance, which, if successfully carried out, will be the means of utilising tens of thousands of acres of valuable land that now, during the greater part of the year, is covered with water, and comparatively valueless. But this work, great and important though it be, is but subsidiary to the still greater undertaking of constructing a railway to Akaroa. The lakes are to be drained, and the reclaimed land sold, in order that the money thus obtained may be used for making the railway. We have on more than one occasion pointed to the great advantages likely to arise were this line of railway completed and in full work ; advantages which would benefit not only the residents in Akaroa and the Peninsula, but also the dwellers on the plains. Akaroa., a spot upon which nature has lavished some of her choicest gifts, would then be more generally known as a sanatorium for invalids, and a delightful watering place during the summer months. A port easy of access, with a harbour commodious and safe, would be open to the inhabitants of the plains, who in return for their produce would have transmitted to them at a comparatively small expense the productions of other lands. It is because we are so convinced of the great importance oi this railway, that we are glad the trustees recognise the fact, tliat the drainage of the lakes being successfully completed, the work must not stop until the railway is made and in active operation.

We hear, that His Worship the Mayor of Akaroa, who has lately been on a visit to Ashbnrton, has selected two thousand acres of land in that district, to be reserved as an endowment for the Borough of Akaroa. The revenue to be derived at the present time from the endowment is the least part of its value ; it is to the future we must look for the full benefits to be derived from it. As population increases and the country becomes more settled, land will rise in value, and the revenue derived therefrom will as a natural consequence increase also. This is the way in which many of the corporate bodies in England become possessed of their large revenues. The property with which they were originally endowed was comparatively of small value at the time of the endowment, but as time wore on, its value so increased as to yield a large revenue. We trust, therefore, that the Borough Council will lose no time in endeavourfng to secure the land selected by the Mayor.