CORRESPONDENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2107, 25 March 1920, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

(To the Editor.) Sir. —I read with interest your article, dated- 1880, on the prospects of the rising port of Fox ton, and the thought came over me, '‘What would the writer think of Paxton's forty years of progress?" Then Palmerston was hardly hoard of, and Foil ding- was just being cut up, into farming lands. Leases of parts of the town of Palmerston recently terminated which stated that “at the corn-fusion of the lease the land must fie put down in good. English grasses." So much for forty year?; in Palmerston, but what has Foxfon done? Patca, with a small stream running through if, has made use of its port, with the, result that its freezing works are growing larger year by year —till in time probably by the use of hydro-electitieity, this small town nmv well become a sound «* manufacturing centre. New Plymouth and Waifara have had to tight nature lo obtain a port, and they have fought successfully. Their efforts may not .-eem large now, but they have given a lead for their successors to follow. New Zealand is in its infancy—a bare eighty years old —and yet we have those among ns who will tell us that tin's and that can never be done. Wind do we know of progress when ninety per cent, of our iu■babitants have never even seen an aeroplane? In the words of the

song, i'i »xt on >«'ins content to sleep on mid “let the <4if;t< hi”' world keep turning." This town's history to dole might he likened to the story of Ike nnin with one talent. In 1880 i( whs the terminus of (he Foxlon-Wanganni rnilwny, mid on the natural route from Auckland to Wellington. Hut the city fathers slept. They could not hear —or perhaps they could not hear —the noise of progress, and when the Alanawaln Railway Company made tempt in”- offers to them they buried their talent in the ground. Palmerslon stepped in, and their position today is the result. It is easy to criticise these people who had their opportunity and missed it, hut are we doing any better than they ! A\ e still have our river—now used chiefly as a source of argument. Are we going to bury this talent also in the ground?. In five years' time, at the outside ten, we will have at our bade door a supply of hydro-electricity-—the cheapest source of. energy in the world. Christchurch. Jong before its power line was completed. was overwhelmed with demands for all the available power. Firms with Fngli-h capital wished to start manufacturing in New Zealand for New Zealand and :lhe, world. The recent change in the living wage in Kngland made this possible to them. Christchurch had regretfully to turn (hem down. This will happen again directly the Mangahao scheme nears completion. Nestle's, one of the two richest milk concerns in the world, has already placed a tentative foot in (he Marmwatu, and other linns must follow. Surely here is Fo.\ton’s opportunity. Should we ol our own initiative be able to make Foxton a port, whether in the present place or at the mouth of the river, ia,dories must come. Calmerslon is the ideal centre of our natural products, but big manufacturing concerns are naturally shy of the railway. Here is our opportunity to act like the man with two talents. The Palmerston railway is already overcrowded, and a few short years will see Stratford linked up with the Main Trunk, mid Die Alanawatn line will be loaded with more limn it can bear. W hat will be the result ? ' Should we improve our port, then ; the railway which the Statute hook's so happily call (lie. Foxtoii-New Plymouth line must come into existence, followed of necessity by direct eommnnieation with Wellington. These •are not dreams; this railway has been on our Statute books and pigeon laded in our Public Works Department tor rears. On the other hand, if we neglect our opportunities there will be a doable line to Palmerston, and another fifty years wail. We were at one time offered a freezing works, and we declined ii. In the Waii'iirapa there is a freezing works ten years old. It employed a! the start forty or fifty men in the busy times. Now, with its by-pro-ducts, etc., it employs four hundred men. and in live years’ time it will hdve its own woollen works and tanneries, and will probably employ another four hundred men. The Wairarapa people, alive to their opportunities, mid realising that the.\ will be forever forsaken by the Ga-

vernmenl, it it earning out their own hydro-electric scheme. Do you think that it' we had some of those men here that they would he content to have a navigable rivet’ wasted, or that they would allow public money to he 1 littered a was on petty schemes when a comprehensive scheme would assure the future of the district forever? All of us realise that we must spend money to make the port possible. The obvious solution is the mouth of the river with or without the canal. And yet we play round dredging what every Hood must: build up again. It is useless appealing to outsiders when the remedy is in our own hands. What would Taranaki’s roads have been like today if they had waited fur outside help? In conclusion, may ] say that if this village spent as much energy on loeal improvements as it does on petty personal quarrels it would he the capital of Xew Zealand in fen *' years. —I ani, etc*., ROBINSON CRUSOE.