The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 11. 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2239, 11 July 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 11. 1870.

Although principal attention ought to be directed towards the sayings and doings of the Central Parliament, it will not do altogether to forget what passed in our own Provincial Legislature. There is a tendency to this forgetfulness when supplies are voted for twelve months and everything seems snug and comfortable within the different bureaus. Put if the Government feel inclined to doze over the resolutions passed during the session, and to postpone those inquiries that ■were left loi them to make, it is for ns to remind them of matters that not only the Provincial Council, but the Province expects to be investigated. From time to time we have endeavored to direct the attention of the Provincial Executive to the non-fulfilment of contract by Dr. Hector in not furnishing a geological report of Otago. We need not at present dilate upon the extiemo value of sunh a report, if correct. At the presentftnoraent, when the question of railway construction is so prominently before the country, it might be the means of saving tens of thousands of pounds, besides affording such information as would open up valuable industries. Wherever railways are made in an undeveloped country, the future requires equal consideration with the present. A railway taken through a district where agriculture only could be followed, would not be nearly so powerful a means of adding to material wealth as one which not only aided agriculture, but opened a way to mineral deposits. So invaluable an aid to .mining industry is a railway, that very soon after the discovery of copper at the Hurra Hurra, in South Australia, a line of railway was found necessary to connect that inland copper mine with the Port. In that Colony the mineral discovery preceded the construction of the line. There had been no geological survey, properly so called. The proprietors of the mine were not even scientific men. One of the principal shareholders, in foot, was a grocer from Sheffield. It is by no means certain either that the railway line was constructed in the most favorable direction. There was a special object in view, and that was accomplished. Time will shew whether or not it would have been better to have altered its course—whether, in fact, more objects than the main one of connecting the copper mines with the seabord might not have been effected. In this Province the process might very profitably be reversed. We have been so long considering about constructing the Clutha line, that many persons have discovered already the necessity for a new survey. But they are guided merely by their individual interests, and however deserving of consideration, that alone is not what must be considered. No doubt industries already established ought to be conserved. Those who have invested capital in them have paid taxes, and encountered and overcome risks. Their mines or corn fields or mills are in operation. Their employments arc facts—not mere surmises of what may be. But while their interests are consulted, if by a scientific examination of the country it can be shewn how new industries can be fostered by cheapening transit and facilitating labor, the way is opened for capital, and reaping the greatest possible advantage from new modes of communication with the interior. But apart from theso prospective benefits, it is only right that Otago should have what was bargained for. In the short interim Session, memorable for the debates on the Otago Hundreds llegulation Act. it waft resolved that a geological survey of the Province was desirable. The Provincial Treasurer in bis Budget Speech during the Sato Session, did not think that the Province ought to be put to tho expense, but that the survey ought to be made by the General Government. His reasons were, that “ Tho General “ Government have the services of our “ former geologist, and, said he, I “ think they should send back Ur. “ Hector, at the expense of the “ Colony, to complete the work which “ he commenced some years ago.' On this work the Treasurer remarked the Province had spent £13,000, and “got “ no report.” We are not aware that anv step has been taken since the Session to secure that report, No question appears to have been asked by any Otago member respecting it—no notice of any motion has appeared in the Notice Paper. Dr. Hector, away from Otago, is snugly made comfortable, most probably for life, under the shadow of tho General Government. We should he sorry to disturb his repose, but when so large a sum has been expended without his having attempted to give a quid pro quo, we think it high time a few questions were asked by our Otago members as to the grounds on which the General Govern-

ment justifies itself in not insisting upon one of its officers fulfilling a contract so highly paid for.