COMMUNICATION WITH THE HOT LAKES DISTRICT.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1746, 24 September 1879, Page 3

COMMUNICATION WITH THE HOT LAKES DISTRICT.

(“Bay of Plenty Times.”) If there is one question more than another fraught with interest to this district it is the opening of direct communication between this and the Lake country by the construction of a line of railway. During the electoral campaign which is just closed, this matter occupied a prominent place in the addresses of the gentlemen that sought the suffrages of the electors, and we fully endorse the remarks that wore made by Captain Morris at the official declaration of the poll, that if our Waikato neighbours are allowed to got the start of us in running a lino from Hamilton to Rotorua, the effect will bo to irreparably damage the interests of Tauranga and the adjoining districts. It behoves us therefore not to allow this matter to hang lire, but to bring all the influence we can command to

bear upon the Government, whatever party may be in power, to induce them to proceed with a work that is so essential to the development of the resources of this part of the East Coast. We understand that at least one leading member of the present Cabinet has given a distinct pledge that this line would be embraced in the schedule of public works, and it will now be the dutv of our representative to insist on this pledge being redeemed with the utmost despatch. Both privately and in his speech in the Temperance Hall, Mr McDonald said it would be one of his first objects to secure this boon for Tauranga, and we have no reason to think he will fail to make good as far as lies in his power anything ho has stated. This is no question of merely local interest, but one affecting an immense stretch of the most fertile districts in the colony. If a railway was opened from this to Rotorua, it would lead to the speedy settlement of all the intervening blocks, as well as of the immense territories extending south and south-west, whereas if the Wai-kato-Botorua scheme be carried out, the settlement of those places will be indefinitely postponed, and the progress of the East Coast district brought to a standstill for years. Tauranga occupies a position on the natural highway to the Lake country, and it is desirable, if passenger traffic is to be encouraged, that communication with it should be rendered as convenient as possible. If, in order to reach the Lakes, people are obliged to make a circuitous journey by Waikato, it will of course seriously diminish the number of visitors, and hence it is a matter of interest to the whole country that every facility should be given for reaching the district by the shortest and most direct route. If the policy of progress then be our motto, instead of letting matters listlessly take their course, let us one and all lend a helping hand, and press forward the carrying out of a work that would contribute so largely to the advancement of this part of the colony. Whatever excuse there may have existed in the past for the neglect with which we were treated, we are now in possession of everything that gives us a right to demand that a portion of the public funds shall be expended in the construction of a railway. The Native title has been extinguished over a sufficient area to give the district a claim to bo included in the public works scheme, and the concession of what is only a matter of bare justice to the district cannot any longer be deferred.