THE EXTENSION OE THE TELEGRAPH.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 731, 1 November 1869, Page 3

THE EXTENSION OE THE TELEGRAPH.

(Evening Post.)

Notwithstanding the natural difficulties standing in the way, and the opposition of the more fanatical Maoris, the extension of the electric telegraph is slowly bat surely going on. From Napier, towards Auckland, its outposts have been pushed as far into the "debateable land" as was consistent with safety, and the authorities are ever ready to seize a favorable opportunity for a forward movement. A few days more and Wanganui will be connected with Wellington by the wire; the Hauhaus who so bitterly opposed the erection of the line over their land have " caved in," and finding it vain to struggle against the stream are now sailing with it. And it is not; unreasonable to hope th* t before long Taranaki, which has been in a manner isolated from the advancement of its sister Provinces.-will soon be placed in communication with us and the Middle Island, and either by way of Waikato or Napier with Auckland. The extension of the telegraph, independent of its immediate advantages, is an undertaking full of hopeful augury for the future. Those tall poles rising on the lonely fern ridges are like the flags planted by mariners on desert islands—they are assertions of our sovereignty over the wastes, and pledges of our promise to reclaim them. Along the track they have marked out, progress and improvement will gradually follow, giving our race a dominance which will banish for ever the dread of native insubordination which now oppresses like a perpetual night-mare.