CORRESPONDENCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 505, 2 October 1912, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

Letters for publication, and articles for insertion, must be accompanied (not necessarily for publication), by the name of the writer, and, provided they are not offensive in any way, will be -xiblished as space permits. The Editor does tot identify himself with the opinions expressed iy correspondents, and accepts no responsibility or them.]

The Editor. Sir, —Kindly allow me to make a few remarks in your valuable paper on the much-debated King Country railway question. It appears to me that if the settlers residing in the different districts which comprise the King Country keep on wrangling as they appear to be doing at present about the merits or demerits of the different lines suggested, it will be a long time indeed before either party will see a railway in the backblocks of the King Country. We are sometimes complaining that the railways of the Dominion have in the past been constructed not in the interests of the settlers or the country as a whole, but for the towns and cities and other commercial interests. I believe to a certain extent that a great number of our railway lines are not serving the best interests of the masses of the people, but as country people, are we not sometimes to blame for that state of affairs. I consider, sir that we are. We are all very anxious to have the line running, if not through the front of our sections, at least somewhere in the vicinity of them. Now there are four different branch lines advocated in the King Country, and those settlers adjoining each one consider their own the most important. Therefore we are all, as it were acting "dog in the manger," and as we cannot get our own particular line, we feel it incumbent on us to block others from getting theirs. In effect that is what we are j doing. How can we expect that any Government will do anything for us while we are divided amongst ourselves. Most of youi readers, sir, are well aware that nearly all Governments the world over are only trotting behind instead of in front, of public opinion. The question, therefore, arises: How are the settlers of the King Country to bring pressure to bear on any Government to secure the much needed railway lines that we all know are indispensable if the country here is to progress at all? It is not by being split up into units, and squabbling amongst ourselves. I would suggest, sir, that the different districts form themselves into a league to be known as the King Country Railway League. Thus we might be able to do some good for this part of the backblocks. We certainly will get nothing if i t is to be every locality trying to get a branch line for themselves. Let us all unite and try to get justice done to the country here as a whole. We are now as it were, in the positions of a disorganised army. Let us for the present leave the question of route an open one, but demand an enquiry from the Government into the merits or demerits of the different routes in question. I feel certain if a commission of practical'men were set up to go into the King Country, and thoroughly inspect it before deciding, that you would have a railway line serving the interests of the country as a whole. —I am, etc., P. O'DWYER. Chairman Mokau-Waitewhena Railway League. Paemako, September 24th, 1912.