The Fielding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1885. Wellington

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 23, 4 August 1885, Page 2

The Fielding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1885. Wellington

The opposition offerred by the Wellington journals to the project of the East and West Coast Middle Island Railway scheme, has again raised the threat to have the seat of Government removed to some other part of the colony. When this threat has been held in terrorem over that devoted city on previous occasions the Press there, and the people have generally humbly submitted to any humiliation iu order to avert what they all appeared to esteem as the greatest possible misfortune that could happen to them. Iu these columns we have always exclaimed against this want of spirit, and have proved conclusively enough for auy reasonable beings, that Wellington would be all the better if relieved from the burden of the purely imaginary benefits to be derived from the empty title of "The Empire City." We are pleased to see that our contemporary the Post has now come over to our views of the subject. On Friday last it said " This threat of the removal of the seat of Government was at one time a charm to conjure by. As soon as Wellington asked for anything, a reference to the seat of Government was quite sufficient to prevent the request being pressed. The charm of the formula has now, however, departed. It has no longer the power to silence the voice of Wellington in urging its own just claims or to coerce Wellington votes in favor of schemes which conscience pronounces detrimental to the interests of the colony. Even if the thing were possible, it is a great mistake to think that Wellington would be utterly crushed by losing the political position it holds. A severe temporary check would no doubt be felt, but Wellington's prosperity and prospects have a much sounder and wider basis to rest upon than the possession of the seat of Government. Admitting that this might be removed, no political combination can take away our harbor or interfere with the construction the Wellington-Manawatu Railway. The Seat of Government carries with it disadvantages as well as advantages. It makes Wellington the most expensive town in New Zealand to live in. Our harbor and our central position are worth more to us than many seats of Government. We regard the possession of railway communication with the fertile plains of the interior and the rich districts of the West Coast, as a matter of far more importance to Wellington than that it should retain the seat of Government. The Mana watu railway will be worth a great deal more to us than the presence of lis Excellency the Governor, his Ministers, and the whole machinery of Legislative and Executive Government. Wellington can now afford, in dealing with colonial questions, to "be just and fear not." Our contemporary might have concluded by saying how much Wellington is indebted for this state of things to the member for Wellington South, Mr Geobge Fisheb We have a strong opinion that Wellington pins too much faith on her harbor. . She is apt to lead an outside observer to think that this sheet of water is the beginning and end of ill things. If less of this feeling had existed in the old days, the whole of the province would ere this have been opened up with roads which would have acted as great feeders to the commerce and shipping trade of the port. Instead of the one road to the Wairarapa— the only arterial road in the province to this day — communication with the far richer country on this coast would have been opened

twenty years ago, and the produce of thousands of teeming acres would have found an exit to the markets of the world through that harbour which has practically been so much neglected by those most interested in extending its usefulness.