The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1882. THE RAILWAY.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 618, 16 June 1882, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1882. THE RAILWAY.

Our bi, r brother, the Lyttelton Times, in a recent issue, enunciate? very high and mighty views regarding our railway. Commencing with a well-merited compliment to the pluck and persistency of our Peninsula settlers, th" writer remarks that the line diiiers from nearly all other county side railways, because it has been constructed out of funds " contributed wholly or in greater part by the district itself." After reviewing the speeches made at the opening, the editorial cone udes as follows :—~

" Mr Coop might have added that they would have to think themselves, ami not tho Government or anyone else, for any further steps which may hereafter be marie in tlio same direction. A dozen years ago even, it was not regarded as utterly chimerical that Akaroa should become the principal port of this Province. Tlio accommodation a {Forded by Lyttelton was then vvry insufficient ; indeed, what is now v first class harbor was then hardly moro than a good roadstead. But the Lyttelton harbor works have practically shelved Atairoa as far ms the immediate ftituro is concerned. L'he day may, and don hi lews, will come, when that magnificent port will !>o utilised as nature has intended. Bet if this is to he done during Hie present generation, it will depend outirely on the etfrntd and enterprise of tho people of Akaroa and the people of

the Peninßula generally. Canterbury i« too well served by Lyttelton to entitle it to ask the Colony for aid towards further lmr!>or accommodation. Nor is it likely that the Province Rβ a whole will be inclined, for the next twenty years at leant, lo nuke any sacrifices for the pnrpoHe of placing itself indirect communication with Akiima. The development of Mrtnka Peninsula will bo left in the hands of its own inhabitants. Fortunately these last will, in another ten years, probably out-number the population of the Canterbury which undertook the making of the Moorhouse tunnel." Now, it appears to us that the Times lias drawn most itbsurd and unfair inierences. It specially commends the pluck of those who have constructed the line, so far, from their own resources, and says that as they have done all the work in the past, they will have to do all the work in the future. This sterns to vis very liard lines indeed. We had always thought hitherto that those who helped themselves would he given some aid in consequence, but it appears that "the more you may" system is the one that, according to the Times, is for the future to prevail in Canterbury. There is nothing said about the line being profitabl- or unprofitable ; all that is said is, " we won't help you a bit," or, in plainer language, the vested interests of Christchurch, Lyttelton. Sumner, "and other places in our immediate vicinity will not be such fools as to bring themselves into competition with such an exceedingly dangerous rival as Akaroa ! Tho writer seems to treat Banks Peninsula as having nothing to do with Canterbury at all, mentioning it as a foreign country. " Fortunately," he says, " in another tea years there will be more people on Banks Peninsula than there were in the Canterbury that undertook the making of the Moorhouse tunnel." We should like to know what was the Canterbury that undertook the making of the Moorhouse tunnel. We always hitherto understood there was one peculiarly fertile spot in it, called Banks Peninsula, where the land was first sold and the people first settled, and that it was in a great measure out of the pluck and energy of those Peninsula settlers, and out of their purses, that the boasted tunnel was made. All this, however, is now forgotten, and the success achieved with our help made an argument against us. However, if we are true to ourselves we need not despair. Even supposing we have, as the Times says, to trust entirely to our own resources, we must recollect that the great basin of Lake Ellesmere is yet unsold, and that funds accruing from that source can fairly be used to extend the railway. Let the problem of keeping down the lake be once successfully solved, and we shall have no " ten or twenty years " to -wait for a railway to Akaroa. Even supposing the harbor is little utilised for trade, once let the tunnel be completed, and railway communication established with the capital, and the weary thousands of Christchurch and the Plains -will flock for rest and health to the loveliest spot in Canterbury. The idea has been mooted by some Christchurch gentlemen that it would be easy to get the railway constructed by means of a company, and we believe such a scheme, propeily placed before the public, would be a success ; but that is a matter for private enterprise, and, whether undertaken or not, we should watch carefully, and sec that, excluded as we have been from the benefits of the public works expenditure, and denied even special grants for our difficult roads, we do not lose an atom of the large sum which some time or other must be realised from our vast Lake Ellesmere estate.