OCEAN BEACH RAILWAY PROMOTERS.

Evening Star, Issue 3843, 18 June 1875, Page 2

OCEAN BEACH RAILWAY PROMOTERS.

• To the Editor, Sib, —I notice that the Provincial Council has stultified itself by passing the second reading of this Ordinance on its re-introduc-tion* lam not surprised, as I expected it would be pushed through somehow. The protection of the public interests must now depend upon the General Assembly, and I await their action with every confidence, believing it will prevent a second edition of the Port Chalmers railway. Do the sapient members of the Council, who profess to he influenced only by public policy, believe that the promoters of the company intend to spend LIOO,OOO in the construction of a line °f railway to the Heads for the purpose of bringing the limited quantity of firewood, potatoes, and cabbages produced in the Peninsula to Dunedin ? If they do, I think their sanity should be inquired into. The intentions and interests of the few promoters of this line are too apparent to men of commen sense and ordinary intelligence to require to be pointed out. The chief objection to the construction ©f the line, by the promoters is that it would prove such an interference with the Government lines that the Government would “be compelled to purchase it at a large price. As for the Peninsula railway, it would remain as at present, a railway on paper only. I have noticed that some imaginative persons, disinterested (?) of course, nave pointed out that the. promoters will make a pier at the Heads with the view of accommodating vessels of the Great Eastern class—the suggestion is not worth considering. Even-admitting, for argument, that anyone ■ could be found insane enough to spend his money in the construction of a railway to the Peninsula, would it be in the interest of the State to encourage the construction of a railway that would on the showing of its advocates divert much of the trade from the Port Chalmers line, which cost the Colony L 220.000. In conclusion, I would point out that a branch line from Caversham to the Ocean Beach could be constructed for L 3,000, and that the traffic would return the Government' ten per cent, on the cost. What need, therefore, to grant a valuable concession to speculators. The cost of the Port Chalmers line should surely act as a warning to the Provincial Council, but of that I have little confidence,—l am, &a, 9 An Old Resident. * Dunedin, June 17.