At Last!

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 57, 23 October 1886, Page 2

At Last!

After upwards of forty years settlement, communication by land between Wellington and the West Coast, has been opened. At a time like the present when the many profitable advantages offered to oar settlers are opening themselves brightly before us, we do not feel disposed to make any comments on the apathy and indifference or the several successive and continuous Ministries, as well as the people themselves, displayed in "bygone years to the great and needful work which has at last been completed by private enterprise. We are rather inclined to congratulate the Welling-ton-Manawatu Railway Company on the indomitable persistence and energy they hare displayed since the proposal to make this railway was first mooted. They have been singularly modest in what they have d»ne. , Expensive gatherings, with the flourishes of trumpets, over much eating and drinking of ceremonial lunches hare been conspicuous by their absence. Their only thought has been to work. The Company has been singularly fortunate in their choice of servants. Mr James Wallace, the Manager, has been the right man in the right place, faithful, and indefatigable. The Engineer, Mr Hiaoiwsoif, has made the cheapest and the most easy running line in the Colony. Yet very little has ever been heard of these gentlemen by the public. They have done their work quietly, unostentatiously, and thoroughly ; seeking praise from no man but their employers. They appear to have been loyally supported by the Chairman and the other Directors of the Company in the work intrusted to their charge and superintendence. This happy combination of confidence on the one hand and fidelity on the other has brought to a happy conclusion what will always remain as a monument to commemorate the names of those Wellington men who began and finished the work. We havo every confidence that their most sanguine anticipations of the direct and indirect profits and benefits to be derived by the shareholders, by the citizens of Wellington, and by the settlers on this coast, will be more than realised.