THE RAILWAY WORKSHOPS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1609, 17 April 1879, Page 4

THE RAILWAY WORKSHOPS.

[“ Timaru Herald.”]

The Otago members are making a great fuss about the railway workshops being established at Christchurch, and demanding that Dunedin shall be recognised as the centre of the railway system of the Middle Island; but we cannot help thinking that, even if there was any reason in their agitation, they are rather late in the day. The money has been voted, land has been purchased, contracts have been issued, and, if we mistake not, work has been actually begun, at Addington—a suburban quarter of Christchurch—and the workshops will be half built, before the remonstrance of the Otago members will have got through its ordinary course of red tape. We observe that Mr Conyers, when assailed by some of the members on this subject, smoothed their ruffled plumes with a little soft-soap, and assured them that, though the workshops now projected at Addington must necessarily be erected, yet the principal works would be at Dunedin, as a matter of course, &c., &c., &c. Popular engineers, we suppose, like poets, are allowed a good deal of license, for we fancy Mr Conyers talked rather widely, so to speak, when he made that assurance. The Addington workshops are to cost a hundred thousand pounds, and if they are merely an insignificant establishment, just for local requirements, we should be glad to know what the great central establishment at Dunedin is to cost! We fully understand that Mr Conyers felt bound to a certain extent, to say something pleasant, and to allay as well as he could, the irritation which he found the selection of Christchurch for the Middle Island railway depot, had caused in the South. We have the strongest grounds, however, for feeling convinced that Mr Conyers and the other engineers and officials have long since made up their mind that the railways of the Middle Island shall be worked from Christchurch, no matter what may be thought of the matter at Dunedin or anywhere else. They know best which place is the most suitable, and they have chosen Christchurch without the smallest hesitation. The reasons for that choice are exceedingly simple, and are quite overwhelming as against anything that can be urged in favour of Dunedin. The only reason, indeed, that wo are aware of that can be given in support of the claim of Dunedin to be the centre of the Middle Island railway system, is that it is represented in Parliament by the Minister for Public Works. We do not think that that consideration will be allowed to weigh by itself, against the numerous largo public considerations which point to Christchurch as the proper centre of the Middle Island railways.