THE 'EVENING STAR' VERSUS MARTIN'S BAY.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 260, 25 October 1865, Page 3

THE 'EVENING STAR' VERSUS MARTIN'S BAY.

The Wakatip district finds favor with the Dunedin * Evening Star.' We had occasion to notice the other day an article that appeared in that journal CDndemning the opening of a road to Martin's Bay. Just twelve days after another rhapsody, or rather, a re hash of the first one, appears. The opening paragraph is the same—the gratuitous advice tendered us at the conclusion almost word for word. We have not room to print the two articles side by side for the amusement of our readers, but as they lay before us, they present a ridiculous example to what height folly and ignorance can sometimes reach. We have no inclination to collate extract bv extract showing how our contemporary contradicts himself in his numerous assertions, but we have an argument or two to adduce. The writer of the article assert* that : ** No Government would be justified in in doing more than ascertaining the character t,f the territory under its control, except when further action is required by the pressure of advancing sattlement, or by extra ordinary circumstances. * * It was the possible connection of the important goldfieUs of the Wakatip district, with an accessible port within a moderate distance, that invested the discovery with the greatest interest; and we are ready to admit that the inhabitants of the Lake district would derive great benefits from the establishment of a commercial pot on the West Coast. But it is not for the Government to interfere with the ordinary course of commercial enterprise. Had the po'pulation of the Wakatip increased to an exteut that would create an important {sic) market, it is very possible that before now commerce would have tested the real value of Coast route."

Yes, of course it would, but for the future we shall be able to acconnt for want of roads and the policy that dictates their absence. A community must henceforth be entirely self-supporting. Of course the government of Dunedin fulfils all its functions in seeing the country opened up by voluntary exertions, next by forbidding settlement on the soil, and finally by raising heavy taxes, and spending the revenue so ob aiued in Dunedin. The very reason population did n«»t increase in the Wakatip was taxation, misgovernraent, and want of raids. We tell our contemporary that little capital in the shape of a iu>h will ever enter Otago again by way of Dunedin is a bye-word among all classes of miners, and its policy is thoroughly and widely reognised with much bitterness of expression. We thought a population sending down at one time immense yields of gold, would have been spared taunts, and have had something done for it Our contemporary insists on judging our position by our g Id escort-not a single reference to our agricultural resources, our farmers with their hundreds of tons of produce rotting in the ground—not a word about quartz-reefs or copper-lodes. A commercial port on the West Coast, with a short road to the Lake, would of course be no advantage to these interests, according to this argument, but would gladden their hi art • We are now opening up that Dutc by private labor, though individually we have previously contributed more 'than the Government have done, to the making of numerous roads, building of bridges, and maintaining hospitals, schools, &c, ad libitum. We reap justly our deserts. Again : 44 Supposing a road to Martin's Bay were constructed. Cui bono t Unless gold were found at hand, (which is so far improbable) the miner would be much better off with regard to reaching the known goldfields on the coasts of Canterbury or Nelson, where he started from, than if left standing in Martin s Bay." Our contemporary is wrong in presuming payable gold does not exist at Martin's Bay. It does, and yet further south still at Milford Haven. At a very little distance north - Cascade Point—very remunerative yields have been obtained. Our contemporary is again grossly wrong in his last assertion. Jackson's Bay is easily reached either by land or water from Martin's Bay, and so is Bruce Bay from Jacksou's Bay. The serious aud only drawback that has baffled so far every pioneer is the obtaining supplies of provisions and the ordinary necessaries of life. Had the wr.ter deplored that the miner standing at Marin's Bay would not have had occasion to pass through Dunedin, then one could have understood the drift of these two illogical and stupid articles. We now come to the cream of the article :

" We are surprise-! that with so much available territory of ascertained richness in their immediate neighborhood, the people of the Wakatip should betray such an anxiety for increasing the facilities for reducing still further their already lessened population. It would be much better if they would abandon indulging in dreams, and set themselves earnestly at work to develope their own immediate resources. And the Government would act wisely in taking this view of the Of all the absurd opinions entertained of m§ of the Wakatip, this is the most ridiculous. But first let us notice that this road is declared, after all, as not impracticable, but as offering facilities. The value of two columns of abuse and suppositious reasoning is thus in

one word destroyed and the objects made patent. We were therefore quite right in making our opening remarks. We do not want to get rid of our miners, but we know they like changing about; we know many of thera are heartily sick of three years work in a river bed like the Shotover; we know that many of them would invest in sluicing, quartz-reefing, tunnelling. &c, had they means; we know the Lake district will byand bye have many and great attractions for numbers now on the West Coast; we know if we suffer now we shall be rewarded hereafter; we know we s idly want more miners with capital amongst us ; w>» know that is being obtained at the West Coast; and we know that if we can open the Martin's Bay route it will soon flow in upon us. These are the reasons that guide the inhabitants of the Wakatip in wishing that road opened. They utterly despair of inducing miners to retu< n via Dunedin, and they will watch with regret to see them laden with "golden piles" returning to Victoria when attraetioi s and resources are so great invite them close at hand. To perform an expensive sea journey to Dunedin, and another expensive land journey inland from thence, is more than can be expected from them, when the money so expended could be profitably invested in several ways at once in Victoria. Will our contemporary, if he deliberates upon this, sneer at our efforts to open Martin s Bay ? In conclusion, we would like to put one or two questions, which the * Evening Star' will of course answer:—ln the costly attempt to open up a route to the West Coast via the Wanaka, was the Government justified either " by the pressure of advancing settlement, or by extraordinary circumstances ?" If so, in what do they differ from those urged in favor of the Martin's Bay route ? Was the Wanaka route attempted for the purpose of creating " commercial enterprise ?" Was it to allow the population to reach the West Coast easily or not ? Why is it wrong in the Wakatip to advocate a connexion with the West Coast and admirable when advocated by the Dunstan ? Is a route of 48 miles by land, or one of 150 miles most desirable to open? How should we suck our eggs ?