The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 239, 1 November 1878, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1.

So we have at last succeeded with the Peninsula Railway so far as obtaining the sanction of Parliament to its construction. We say the Peninsula Railway, because the term Akaroa Railway may perchance mislead others, as it has apparently misled Sir Dillon Bell. Sir Dillon, in his speech in the Legislative Council, appears to have a marvellous mistrust of everything belonging to Akaroa. lie believed in a line to Little River, but to Littlo River only—pure and simple as he calls it. There i.s no doubt a great deal of purity and simplicity in Little River, and so we are inclined to think there must be in Sir Dillon Bell, if he supposes that a line of railway ending there is likely to be profitable, or would satisfy the growing wants of the community. Why, the great object to be attained is not only to afford facilities for the transmission of the Little River timber, but to open up the splendid harbor of Akaroa. A railway to Barry's Bay will do this, and will by-and-by, and by the time it is completed, be eminently needed as a relief to the shipping, which will be crowded up in Lyttelton. Sir Dillon complains, or implies that the people of Akaroa have misled the Legislature as to the cost of the construction of the line, and he endeavored to be most sublimely patronising in his remarks, as well as parental in his reproof; but one is tempted to ask Sir Dillon Bell how he obtained such perfectly reliable data, to justify his strictures ? or in what school he obtained his training to qualify him for the role of a heavy father? Because a few musty old identities may have heard of a railway contract in the early days of their lives and in some sleepy hollow, where it was not the fashion to challenge figures, and when large profits were contractors'privileges— as perhaps was the case in the early days of Otago and later in the case of the Lyttleton tunnel—is that a reason why the more go-ahead policy of the Peninsula should be doubted, and the spirit of progress which is extending itself thus far should be called in question ? " The people of Akaroa have misled the Legislature upon the cost of the line," says Sir Dillon, and on no data. What has been the training of Sir Dillon Bell which justifies him in calling in question the calculations of Mr Hardy Johnston ? Are the eminent services and the experience, practical and theoretical, of this gentleman to be ignored and set aside at the simple instigation of Sir Dillon Bell ? Are Mr Johnston's figures, are the proofs of cheap construction arising from scientific appliances which he gives us to be deemed valueless because Sir Dillon does not choose to believe them? We think not, and we think, moreover, that Sir Dillon Pell mu;*t have strangely misspent his time if he has neglected his opportunities of when, what, and how to observe things which are daily passing around hiui in the colony. Did this blind opposition arise from conviction, or from bile? It would almost seem as if the latter had something to do with it ; nevertheless while rejoiced at the present small signs of progress for Littio River, if it is to be confined to that locality, still we will be charitable enough to hope for as

much and more for Sir Dillon Bell's pet Shag Valley. And we would entreat Sir Dillon Bell to remember that the abolition of provinces has made us one people, and that it will be as well if he would endeavour to enlarge his views.