The Dunstan Times FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1881.

Dunstan Times, Issue 984, 25 February 1881, Page 2

The Dunstan Times

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1881.

Benea’ltherulr of men ENTIRELY just f/i PEN is MIGHTIER than tin SWORD

It is satisfactory to know that the propo al to re open the quest ion of the Oiago-Ceufral Railway hy th« appointment of an independent Commission his met with unqualified approval, With scarcely an excep- * ion the Press has sp >ken in its favor, and that with no Uncertain voice. That it should he sneered at and deprecated hy the Tim ru Herald is not surprising. The Canterbury papers, like the members oi the “ Lightning Commission,” have their own little axes to grind. Such fir instance as the Canterbury 1 nteri r line, and the projected scheme for running a railway over mountains and through rock-bound gorges from Amherley to the West Coast. Our contimporary, the Morning Herald, in its issue of the 21st instant, has an adrnir.ble article in reply to an attack on the line and the Commissioners which appeared in the Timaru paper; and we have no in teution of reiterating the statements and arguments adduced therein. But there is one matter which requires that a little further light should be thrown upon it. The Timaru Herald asserts that none of the members of the Royal Commission “ were in the remotest degree interested, either personally or politically, in the question of the 1 Hugo Central Railway.” T is we flatly contradict. Mr John Reid, as our Dunedin contemporary points tint, was both “ personally and politically inteiested” in getting the interior tapped by a line from Oamaru, which, so far as if. has been already built, passes through Inspropotty. Mr Wnidlfr was both “personally and politically i .teresced ” in getting a railway—the Canterbury Interior lino—constructed through Ins properly and that of Mr John Hall, notwithstanding Mr Oliver's evasive denial of the fact Mr Cuutis was “personally and

politically interested ” in the Nelson and West* Coalst line, Mr M'Cosh CLA.HKK, in sonib Auckland lines, and “Col," Pearce in the WellingtonWest ( oast line. And moreo\er it is a most palpable find openly.avowed fact that the Otago-C'entr.d lilie was sacrificed, in order that the funds required for its construction might bo expended on works in other parts of the colony. A fter this it is very amusing to find the Timaru Herald snee'ing at the Counties* Commissioners 011 the ground that they are “ local men," that “ two of them are auctioneers,” —an unpardonable offence tru'y - that one is, and another was a '* member of the House of Representatives ” We think Mr Wright is also an offender of the last named class, and Mr Johx RkiD tried very hard to be, for the express reason as he explained on the hustings, of defend! g the Report of the Commission. Then we are told that two of the Counties’ Commissioners are •' largely interested in land speculations” We do not know how far this is trlle.But we do know that nebher they fior any one else can do anything in that way,- in the country through which the Otago-Central passes, inasmuch as almost every acre is jealously withheld from sale by the Government*

The gentlemen who Constitute the new Commission am too well known, and their refutation is too firmly established for them to suffer injury from the aspersions of the Timaru calumniator The selection made by tile Counties has been fully endorsed by tile better informed portion of the public Press j and we are well content to have the matter in the hands of those gentlemen and abide by the result be it what it may. li Facts are chiels that winna ding,” and whether the facts be with us or against us, we are quite ready to accept the consequences—which is more,- seemingly than the opponents of the Otago-Central iiailway are.