The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1870.

Dunstan Times, Issue 428, 1 July 1870, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1870.

Beneath the Buleof MenENTiRELY just the pen is mightier than theswoßD

Never since gold was first discovered on the banks of the Molyneux has the public suffered so much inconvenience from delays in the arrival and departure of the mails! There is, without doubt, some excuse for the mail contractors who, owing to the impassable state of the roads, find it almost impossible to travel ; but there is no excuse for the Government, who are really to blame for the whole, or for the greater part, of the inconveniences from which we suffer, and who, notwithstanding the enormous amount of revenue derived from the Goldfields, have neglected to make a practicable road to them. It is now eight years since the Dunstan became a Goldfield, yet communication remains almost precisely in the same primitive state. We certainly do possess what is designated three lines of road between this and Dunedin, but neither are available in winter, and teams using them have to plough their way through as much water and mud as if no road existed at all. It would have been far wiser to have properly constructed one line of road than to have partly formed three, when the interests of all parties would have been best served. Via Tuapeka and the valley of the Molyneux is the natural highway between Dunedin and the Northern Goldfields. This route is little affected by snow, as it keeps the low lying country throughout, and its course is through the most genial climate in the province. The engineering difficulties are few; considerable portions of the line only require forming and draining; and even where materials for metalling or ballasting are wanted, they can be obtained almost on the spot. Such facilities for road making nowhere else exist, and yet in the face of all this, for all practical purposes we have no road. The constant delay of the mails and the non-arrival of goods is a severe loss to the business peoph, leaving out altogether the high rates of carriage; and were it not for stocks on hand and supplies of flour obtainable from the Wakatip, something very nearly approaching to a famine would be the result.

Railways are now engaging the attention of our legislators, aud with the unpleasant fact before us that we possess next to no roads at all, it is attempted to delude us with promises

of a railway. Happily the General Government are not likely to sanction a loan for such a purpose. At what remote period such an institution as a railway is likely to reach the Dunstan it is impossible to conjecture, but we may with safety conclude that such will not be the case in the present generation. It is therefore advisable that we should prefer something more immediately advantageous, and which is only obtainable by means of a common road. Viewing the question ot railways in its most favorable light, the country is too sparsely populated to make them pay. The limited area of land available for cultivation is considerably opposed to the success of railways. We have nothing to send to the seaboard but .wool and gold, while the amount of tonage for transport into the interior must necessarily remain small. It may be true that population will increase ; but we fancy not to any very large extent The resouicesof the. interior and the portions of land available for settlement and occupation are, at the best, upon a limited scale, nor are any valuable industries likely to arise excepting in connexion with wool and gold. To these articles our exports must be mainly confined, and a very moderate amount of traffic will suffice to convey away these products and bring us what we cannot produce for ourselves. Before entertaining the idea of a railway we murt first possess a good common road, and unless this is secured to us the interests of the interior are more likely to retrograde than to improve. That the opening of roads largely tends to increase population we have several instances. Since the opening of the road between Alexandra and the 'ieviot, via the west bank of the Molyncux, the popu lation' has increased five fold, and there are now hotels, stores, farms, and gardens where no signs of human habitations hitherto existed. The banks of the Kawarau, from the .Roaring Meg to the Falls at Frankton, since the construction of the roadway from Cromwell, have supported a considerable mining population ; and on the plain between the Nevis and Arrow Bluffs quite a township is springing up; and this will be still further increased when the large water-races now in course of construction in this neighborhood are . com pleted. Tile same principle holds good on the Upper Clntha, and so on to the Cardrona. The Nevis is another example ; also the Bannockburn Fiat; and nowhere do we find that roadmaking has extended itself but population has increased. There is no other agent so poweiful in settling a new country. It is even more efficacious than immigration. We are really suffering so much loss from the want of roads that we are constrained again to protest against money being expended upon rail-ways until we possess servicable common roads, such re peated interuptions ot the traffic as we have lately experienced between the Northern Goldfields and Dunedin must not occur another winter, or the whole trade of the province will become disorganised.