THE HON. MR. FOX ON SIR DAVID MONRO AND THE OPPONENTS OF RAILWAYS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1489, 13 May 1873, Page 2

THE HON. MR. FOX ON SIR DAVID MONRO AND THE OPPONENTS OF RAILWAYS.

Mr lox; the late Premier, while recency addressing his constituents at Rangitikei, thus 'delivered' his opinion of those who oppose railway construction :— ■ There are still persons of the fossil order who believe that railways r are premature in New Zealand Sir David Monro told his constituents the other day that railroads in New Zealand "were as much out of place as a steam plough would be in what the Scotch call' a kail yardi" He continues that early settlers I in- a new country might get . along with their wheeled parts, without sixpence being applied to it, and as their means increased, ditches would be. dug,, and tracks made, and in time a good macadamised road would be got. Unless there was much, business to be done, it was better to make only ordinary roads.'* "We must creep before we gang," and so forth. • /The particular advantage' of travelling on muddy roads ",that don't cost a sixpence" in preference to the iron rail of civilization reiquiresr.an,* intelligence of , a very peculiar order to appreciate. There are v minds with which sixpences- have much weight, 'what we may term "sixpenny understandings." There is a story of a Professor at one^ of: the Scotch Universities who one day found a.sixpehce\in the street. As he was picking it up, Daft Jemmy, the town idiot, came by. " Ay, Professor," said lie, uye might give me tftaf saxpence." " Boot ' mon," replied . the Professor, pocketing the .coin, ' f ye may find sixpences for yoursel." The Professor had a sixpenny understanding, and, ; Sir David's appreciation of the small coin must be quite asstrong as that of his countryman, r i£ the fear of spending, it induces .him to prefer muddy tracks to the morei costly inventions that civilized men use everywhere else. • .; j 1 ' .■ I have known Sir David Monro for 30 years and lived for some of that period in the same place with him; ' Nelson, a settlement for which the influence bf minds like his has earned the designation of " Sleepy Hbllovv," I never kn<jw a public improvement proposed at thlatlnne which he did not prbuiounce He is a great admirer, as you may gather from his oration at Waikouaiti, of th~(^ > "stick-in-the-mud policy," that 1 - policy which used to fifld favtlr in the eyes of the countrymen' -of 'ißip Van Winkle and his.' companion.; Dutchmen round there [ little tea table on Manhattan Island, | where they sweetened their beverage by primitively sucking by turns a lump of sugar suspended by a string. If he had travelled a few thousand miles 'in Europe [ and America the last 30 years, he might - have becode aware ] of the fac^tKat" railways are not only as he imagines I "sostly luxuries" suitable for old countries where there is ! a "large transport of goods and passengers," but that they -are in, new countries the means of developing vast resources' which could no**- 1 be: WaChed by the.."; old wheeled; cart, , the (.ditches and tracks that don't cost a sixpence,!' that •ftie^'ifi'faiJt create the "goods and passengere," whose ; transport, .contributes countless sixpences to the revenue which not only keep them in repair, but returns large profits to those, who cpnstruqt them.