THE FOXTON AND SANSON RAILWAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume I, Issue 90, 11 July 1879, Page 2

THE FOXTON AND SANSON RAILWAY.

TO THE BDITOB OF THE MANAWATC HERALD. Si», —T take this opportunity, as one of the Directors of the above Railway Company, of publicly thanking Mr Rockstrow for his persistent efforts, in spite of all the rebuffs he states he has received, to assist the objects of the Company. As the public hare every right. to be aoquai uted with the good and bad actions of their leading (?) men, (and it is given to f<jw to be so thoroughly misunderstood as Mr Rockstrow evidently has been), it is but fair that the various steps taken by him in the in. terests of the Company and of the Riding for which ho is one of the representatives, should be widely known. When Mr Sanson, a year or two back, brought the railway scheme before the public, Mr Rockstrow, believing in the contrariness of human nature, lent hi 3 aid by taking every opportunity of ridiculing the idea; and it was not till about the time that his election to the Council drew nigh that he declared his support to the project, aud has since been helping it, by becoming a provisional director, and at every meeting he attended bringing up every reason either to do something anew, or in insisting, on the reconsideration of what had already been determined upon. He supported the appointment of the Secretary, and afterwards doubted the advisability of it, but refrained from obstructing his co-directors by suggesting any alteration. For fear of being thought wearisome, he left the whole details of the troublesome work of seeiug to the lodgment of the necessary plans and documents to the Chairman and Secretary, and merely confined himself to daily watching their arrival at the County Office, and initialling and dating each document, so that when the time arrived, the Company should not be misled into unconsciously concluding that thi3 had been done correctly. We can all imagine how painful it mast have been to him to have to assist the Company at the last Counsil meeting, by point ing out, to its strongest opponents that nearly every paper, from the dates he had carefully marked thereon, had arrived a few days too lato to be in strict accordance with the District Kail ways Act, especially as by such a course he suffered a pecuniary loss, as one of the Company, by entailing upon them tbe expense of commencing the whole of the work again, and also entailing a loss of time, which he, as a director, can more fully appreciate than any outsider. I understand that he has, further, obtained that forbearance over self, as to desire to point out the naked truth in all its ugliness to the ratepayers, and entered into a calculation as to the rates that will be required from Foxton, but from the fear of unfairly representing, in the interests of the Company, what might not be correct, he has stated his belief that a rate of 2s 6i in the £ will be required, Of course, with his interest in the line, he would not have given this statement circulation had he not believed it to be true, but I suppose his absence from many of the meetings of the Directors has caused him to overlook the fact that the whole interest on the oapital )f the Company is only £1600, and that Foxton's proportion boon fixed at J6150— a sum representing sixpence in the pound on the present valuation; and thai be should not bd led to offer any undue influence to the voters, he thought it wisest not to mention that any rate cannot be levied till after the Railway has bsen working twelve months. It is not often that one is able to point to a living realisation of Sertorius' estimate of an honest man, which is, " The man who has any dignity of character should conquer witb honor, and not use any base means, even to save his life," and it is just possible that the electors of Awahou may in time be able to appreciate at their true worth the actions of one of their representatives in the County Counoil. I am, &c, Ebnest S. Thynne. Foxton, July 9, 1879.