The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1885. The East and West Coast Railway

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 21, 30 July 1885, Page 2

The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1885. The East and West Coast Railway

The battle of the session will be fought over the question of the East and West Coast Railway of the Middle Island. The Press of each of the large provinces of Canterbury, Otago, Auckland, and Wellington have already expressed very decided views for and against. One side is of opinion that this railway will be a great boon, which will raise the colony to the summit of human prosperity, while the other openly denounces the whole project as a rank swindle, attempted to be perpetrated on the suffering colonists by a ring of impecunious political speculators. Feeling has run so high in the Press that the members representing constituencies within their local influence must bow their heads to the storm, and act or vote even against their convictions if they would desire to hold their seats at the next general election. In the present instance there can be no doubt that the Press in each province represents, by a large majority, the opinion of the electors. The people of Canterbury, Nelson, and Westland are suffering from a period of unusual depression. They look forward to the extravagant expenditure of public money which would follow during the creation of this railway, to relieve them from the pressure of financial difficulties which now compass them about. They do not care to count the cost, but are prepared to discount their future at any price, reckless of the sacrifices they may be called on to make when the day of reckoning comes. Any movements made by the writers of a section of the colonial Press, who desire to review or discuss the question from a purely colonial point of view, are looked upon with suspicion or disgust, while the basest and most selfish motives are ascribed to them. In the present state of excitement perhaps it is too much to expect that it should be otherwise. What cooler heads have to think of is the future. Now, although the provinces most interested have declared their willingness to accept all the new burdens of taxation which are likely to be entailed upon them, by having to pay a property or hind tax, in the faith that, after all, these will be light in comparison with the benefits derived, directly and indirectly, from the open* ing up of the country by this railway ; yet the other provinces have an undoubted right to consider how far they may be involved in the future, seeing that a colonial guarantee is required in which they naturally are participants. They will only be showing ordinary business prudence in accepting a risk in part for which they may in the end be made liable in the whole. It is within the bounds of possibility that the Utopian visions of mineral wealth to be discovered in the Southern Alps, through which the proposed line will pass, may never be realised. Then the people may awaken to the knowledge that they have undertaken to perform the impossible, and ask the colony as a whole to assist them. The colony would have no option. It would ' be bound in honor -as well as in fact j to do so. It is our earnest hope that members in debating the subject in the House will try and put the old provincial feeling aside for a time, and discuss the subject not as one calculated to relieve certain provinces from their financial difficulties, but as ' one which might, under bad management, affect the credit of the whole colony For ourselves we hope that the proposals, as now formulated, will be rejected by the House.