MR PYKE ON ROYAL COMMISSIONS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 949, 25 June 1880, Page 3

MR PYKE ON ROYAL COMMISSIONS.

In the course of the debate in the House of Representatives ou’tho Address-iu-lleply

Mr Pyke spoke as follows : There have been a number of Commissions roaming about the country, on what duty Ido not know. I found a party of them inspecting my neighbourhood, and 1 received a telegram intimating that “ the Railway Commissioners would be in Clyde that night at.O p.ra.” I ..telegraphed back asking who composed the Commission, and what were their functions ; and I ask the honourable gentlemen opposite what,were their functions, for I really do not know yet whatthose functions are. The Minister for Public Works said the Railway Commission was appointed to inspect proposed new iines.VTheu what weresthey doing injmy neighbourhood ? The only line in my district is one that has been decided upon by the Legislature, What then do we want with rejected candidates coming in upon os in this manner ? lam sure this House will not allow itself to be overborne by the r jected of the people. Ido not think even the other branch of the Legislature would submit to that kind of thing. But what did they do,! In one day they travelled 73 miles in a close carriage to inspect the land. Expecting that they might have to starve there, they brought (six-bottles of porter and a lot of sandwiches with them. They went up to the terrace, four miles from Lake Vv’anaka, and camped under a rook there, which is now known as Pisgah ; and,from this rook they go zed, across the Clutha—their (Jordan —gazed at the promised,land on the other side—2o miles off. There they |left a monument of broken bottles, returned to Cromwell, flew through Clyde in the dark, and then knew all about it. Next morning early they woke up, and sent one of tbuir number to look at the kind of house I lived in. lie looked at it, I believe, through the hedge; and then they started away almost before the sun rose. Of the whole 70 miles of my County through which tho line passes, 1 venture to say they did not see six miles. Is their opinion worth anything ? Will they have the audacity to approve, or the still greater audacity to disapprove, of the line of railway there ? Their opinion is worthless, and cannot be received by this House except with great dissatisfaction.