Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1239, 19 July 1872, Page 2

It is significant of ihe interest taken in the question of more closely connecting the West and East Coasts of this island by means of overland communication, that not only is one proposal being promoted by a numerously-signed petition, but that at the meeting at Leitnfield to which some brief reference is made else* where, as many as two hundred persons attended, including business men, graziers, and sheep farmers, and thai the Christchurch papers devote to the report of the. proceedings some four or five columns of their space. These circumstances are especially significant of the interest which is being taken in the development of the reefing district of the Inangahua, and of the considerable influence which the discoveries there will indubitably have, not only on the mining population, but among all classes of population throughout the Middle Island ; but the chief satisfaction to be derived from a perusal of the reports referred to is the satisfaction of seeing a fair spirit displayed cither as to the choice of a particular road or the probable influence of any such road upon one Province as compared with another, or upon one piece of country as compared with another. The spirit which seems to have ruled the Leithfield meeting was that of a desire to promote the enterprise of extending communication in ony or every direction, according to the increasing encouragement given by such discoreries as those at the Inangahua, but at- the same time there was a firm, and fair, and fall assertion of the undoubted

advantages which the Ahaura 'and Grey Valleys present as a line of communication between the East and West Coasts, whether that communication be established by the construction of either road or rail. The memorial adopted was a very lengthy and exhaustive statement of these advantages, and both it and the speeches of the Superintendent of Canterbury and of other gentlemen who were present at the meeting, we shall, as soon as convenient, transfer to our columns, believing that the whole subject is one which deserves steady agitation and attention as frequent as, somewhat to the exclusion of other subjects, we have already given to it. While referring to it thus once more, we may notice, en passant, that in the County Couucil of Westland, and on the motion of Mr Barff, a Select Committee has been appointed " to prepare a memorial for presentation to the Resident Minister, recommending that immediate steps be taken to provide more suitable and direct means of communication between Hokitika and Reefton." This is an object which, as we have before said, the residents of Westland generally may most reasonably favor, but, if we may be permitted to make a suggestion, it would be that the County Council, in any action it may take as a representative body, and not as an integral part of the population of Hokitika, should deal generally with the subject of roads requiring to be made or completed^ Doing so, the Council will not neglect to urge upon the attention of the Ministry the necessity for that muchmissed link of road between Marsden and Greymouth, the construction of which is not only essential for local wants, but which would also supply one of the alternative lines by which Reefton may be reached from Hokitika and from the central and southern portions of the County. . .