THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1881. WEST COAST RAILWAYS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2184, 24 February 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1881. WEST COAST RAILWAYS.

As is natural, the Central Otago Railway, with its extension to the West Coast, is occupying the lion’s share of public attention in the South. The action of Canterbury has awakened the fears and hopes of our southern neighbors, and they are determined that, if writing and talking can do the business, it will he no fault of theirs if the lino through to tho Coast via tho Haast Pass is not made an accomplished fact. The Dunedin papers teem with articles on the subject, and tho manner in which Mr. Macandrew’s proposals, when Minister of Public Works in 1878, are twisted and turned, dwelt on and enforced, is a fine example of how a poor caso can bo worked up by earnest advocates. Mr. Macandrow, as is well known, on that occasion declared it as his opinion that no other lino would promote settlement and increase tho popnlative power of tho colony to the same extent as tho Otago Central line, and he ventured to predict that not many years would pass before tho line was taken through to Hokitika. But the public at large were well acquainted with Mr. Macandrow’s idiosyncracies, and would have been extremely surprised if ho had not declared that the centre of his own province was one of the richest spots on the globe, and if ho had not had visions illuminated by tho future glory of what seems to ordinary people to he more or less of a howling wilderness. But the views held by the Minister of Public Works in 1878 are an insecure basis ou which to found hopes of a railway enormously costly, and the Royal Commission’s views on tho subject may well bo said to have, by its superior weight, relegated Mr. Macandrew’s effusion to the waste paper basket. Nor will the late attempt to bolster up the project by a report emanating solely from gentlemen having local interests, succeed in rehabilitating it in public estimation. There is one way, indeed, which might make people generally think that there was something in the scheme, i and one only. Let the gentlemen advocating the lino act somewhat in the way in which the Canterbury gentlemen advocating their lino are acting. Let the former declare themselves ready to form a company prepared i to make the line and receive land in payment for the same. We feel confident i that tho country would not grudge to the company any number of the fertile acres which Mr, Macandrew has been so voluble about, and, if they indeed are all that they are painted, could the promoters l ask for more ? Moreover, they will have the benefit to be derived from opening ■ out the vast stores of silver, copper, marble, and lithographic stone, mentioned by the West Coast petition of 1878. If , the gentlemen down South are really convinced of the magnificent prospects of the undertaking why do they not have the courage of their convictions, as the Canterbury promoters may fairly ho said to have ? The practice of relying en Government aid for everything is becoming an exploded notion. Government have no money to spare, and have to struggle to tho utmost to make both ends meet. The promoters of the railway from the Hurunui to the West Const have recognised this fact, and are prepased to take land in payment. Let Mr, Macandrew and his followers do the same. There lies the fair land of pro-mise—-2,600,000 acres in Westland, and 1,500,000 in the Country of Vincent, as mentioned in the petition above alluded to. Tho country, we fool confident, is prepared to bo extremely liberal in its offer of land to pay for construction. As to the cost of running the line, when ready, there will, of course, be no doubt about it paying, and the Otago company should bo only too glad to fatten on tho dividends. Let us recommend to our Southern neighbours confidence and a thorough trust in Mr. Macandrew and his prophecies. Confidence begets confidence, and when a company is got together with the object of starting the undertaking on tho lines we have suggested, the public and Parliament may begin to think that there is something in it all THE DOCTORS’ QUARREL. The article in the “ Lyttelton Times ” of Thursday respecting a scurrilous effusion called the “ Hospital Coquette,” which has been circulated anonymously, is sufsufficiently venomous to satisfy the most exacting champion of tho “ Outs.” It practically does no more or less than suggest that the Hospital Staff were in some manner connected with the birth of tho production. Of tho said production it is, wo allow, not possible to speak in too harsh terms. It is untruthful, in had taste, and quite beneath contempt. In the interests of tho profession why should our contemporary endeavor to fix the stigma of complicity on the Hospital Staff? The “ Lyttelton Times ” professes to have the tenderest regard for the medical profession, and yet it has tho audacity to hint that a large portion of that profession in Christchurch are in some way connected with a most disreputable piece of scurrility. Surely the Gloucester street organ would have been more magnanimous, and true to its professions, had it at once declared that it could not for an instant believe that any medical man could lower himself to such an extent. However, wo trust the “Lyttelton Times” is now satisfied. At a meeting of the Hospital Staff, hold last evening, the following resolution was passed : —“ That, notwithstanding the manner in which tho Staff wore treated by the rest of tho profession at, and subsequently to, the late Hospital Enquiry, they collectively and individually repudiate any knowledge of, or connection in any way with, tho circular entitled tho “ Hospital Coquette; and, further, they trust that the public will not. think that they either collectively or individually would condescend to bo privy to, or that they in any way sympathise with,such » scurrilous production." That a number of members of what our contemporary is pleased to call a “noble profession,” should be forced to pass such a resolution is condemnation enough of the lino of action taken up by our contemporary. Ordinary people, unbiased by bitter partizanship, would have laid the scurrilous production at tho door of some obscure individual willing to gain a secret pleasure by stabbing in the dark. But there is no calculating on the length that bitter, party animosity may drive individuals or ,

journals. We wish the “ Lyttelton Times ” joy of its manoeuvre, so much admired by its youthful prodigy the “ Star,” that it “ lifts with pleasure ” the article holus-bolus into its valuable columns.