The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2220, 18 June 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1870.

The news received by the mail that negociations for the construction of a railway in the Province of Nelson will in all probability succeed, naturally creates feelings of dissatisfaction that the much moke important Province of Otago hrc been for six years foiled in ajike entetorise. There must be something fcnr way of going ah(}ut ibe to this disappointment. Even after a contract has been made most unreasonable delays occur, which cannot be accounted for on any sound business principles. As for the Clutha Railway, its formation is still as problematical as it was

when first the 'Scheme was started ; and although for the Port ChaimeiiS line jE«&>|ngned six months ago, we do not heat-that a single sod has been turned,’ or anything done towards commencing the work. When remarks have been made condemning this delay, and pointing to the expectations held forth by the Ministry, when they made the blind bargain with the contractors'that the railway would be finished and ‘in working order in eighteen months from date, it lias been replied invariably that it was necessary an accurate survey should bo mane prior to commencing the work. That excuse was .of course un-get-overable, for although it was competent for a Government to contract fojr a railway without knowing what sort of a line they would get for their money, it was rot to be. expected that a contractor would put a spade into the ground to j turn a sod without seeing the end from j the beginning. It must, however, now I be confessed, even by the contractors i themselves, that it is some sort of Na be made, Surely all Jjc,tuk’Vn, their route determined up On, ancl no wlcdgc of what to do, and how to do it,-»so far advanced as 'to enable them to make a ! beginning somewhere, if evcvjthey mean to begin. If wo go on at the present rate of progress, instead of eighteen months seeing us in possession of a line to the Port in working order, it

seems likely to be indefinitely postponed. and the year 1070 to find Otago surrounded with railway lines to every hamlet in the Colony excepting those within its own area. This comes of ** the pig in a poke ” bargain made by the Provincial Executive. They agreed to allow the contractor to make a railway after his own fashion, and in his own way. for a given sum of money just at the moment when publicity was given to the improvements in railway construction that are likely to cause so great a revolution in the cost of locomotion. With such immense latitude as to what to do and how to do it, as is allowed by the contract, .no one need wonder that the contractor has deferred as long as possible beginning his work. His object “Is to hihko ' vac greatest profit heViossibly dan out of his bargain, qoiftMfr ■to delay'commencing until the controversy of guage now agitating the scientific world is

settled. But thile this may suit his purpose, it will not suit that of the Province. Hay by day the necessity for improved means of transit force themselves upon attention. Countries everywhere are progressing where these are adopted. The impetus given to the colonisation of North America by the construction of railways across the desert is marvellous. They have made it accessible and habitable. They have brought the interior of that vast continent into communication with the nations of the world, and the cost of exchange of products between central North America and distant countries is loss than the carriage of goods between Dunedin ami the Ihmstan. While we hi Otago have been supinely looking on, prating about the advantages of settlers coming here, and maundering about homes for a few thousands of them and their children, they in America have been working and creating facilities for feeding millions. We have set a value upon land instead of valuing human beings to live on it. We have been quarrelling over sheep runs and farms, and shutting up the land from occupation, instead of forming ea?ty access to it, and Unis adding- kaKtc and ■otirowu prosperity‘by inducing men amrwiAien to come mitl it. \We have been dreaming upon,establishing new manufactures, and neglecting to use the means of developing those we possess. There is an .uneasy feeling among people that there is somo hidden inlluence at work repressing energy and hindering progress. Instead of advancing wc are retrograding. Wc hear of capital ready to be invested were there any sign of profitable return for it, but until better prospects dawn the capitalists prefer to wait or invest it elsewhere.