RAILWAYS AND DOCKS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 83, 16 September 1870, Page 3

RAILWAYS AND DOCKS.

The Oamaru dock erewhile in statu quo is now likely fco have a fair commencement. According;tothe 'Oamaru Times,' 200 tons of Portland cement have been, ordered for the projected works ; but while giving his consent to this introductory liability, Mr. Macau drew, the Superintendent, 'takes occasion'to suggest the suitability of the Moeraki boulders for making an equally good cement, and desires Mr. 11. J. Miller, Chairman of the Dock Trust, to institue enquiries which, if satisfactory, will admit of the cost of labor being spent within' the Province: * The

'Oamaru Times' and j.)unedin '-..Evening Star' have entered the lists, aiid are now.waging niiinie war on, the relative merits of docks v. railways The 'Star' condemns the contemplated harbor, works at Oarnaru as being worthless to the district, aiid as leading to heavy and unnecessary expense to the Province. The 'Times'. is indignant at the slightest aspersion being cast upon its pet project, and points out that dock accommodation, in* sheltering vessels visiting Oamaru, will at the same time open up the most extensive and fertile grain-growing district of the Province. Por oar own part we are decidedly averse, to speculative schemes and projects ; either by land or sea involving, vast expenditure to the country, and at the same time problematical reproductive results. There is an unceasing struggle going on by the inhabitants of this and that other district on the seaboard for. -grants, aids, subsidies —whatever one may call them —to develope this interest, or achieve the success of that. We do not 'complain of this action seeing that the scramble for financial assistance is almost universal; but we dq protest against the absence of system ; on the part of the Provincial authorities, by 'which common justice to the commuiiity at large is rendered quite subservient to the political influence of the few. We may just instance the almost quixotic haste with which the Provincial Council, during last session, recognised the; utility of forming a railway from Dunedin to Port Chalmers. £70,000 was the sum agreed upon—the Superiiitendeht was anxious to proceed without delay—the contractors were made to sign agreements—and the projected line was in a fair way of initiation. We

are at a loss to understand how the importance of this great undertaking was"so'lately discovered, and its want so suddenly felt. Between five and ten years ago there were more foreign vessels in port, more fresh blood arriving, and larger imports of merchandise, than in 1870, and yet the then floating property performed the work very satisfactorily between Port Chalmers and

Dunedin. The lighters■ employed in that trade still continue plying between these ports, conveying merchandise at a nominal figure per ton, and the steamboats continue their avocations as of yore. Their united value may be estimated at d 520,000, and yet in one session our far-seeing Council -would take steps to utterly ruin this floating property, with no apparent counterbalancing aim, and at the same time saddle the community with a debt of £7o,ooo;'at the rate of £7 per cent, per annum. Ifc cannot but be observed by our readers that,, whether the Government be Provincial or General with which the colonists have to deal, the one great object exhibited to borrow and spend. " Get money we must; the more the better j let us get i'ty and : spend it while we may. It will extend our patronage, benefit our living' friends, if we ourselves are not directly . aggrandised by its .operations.!' This short. L soliloquy might well and truthfully be put into the mouths of more than one of our influential men ; and the contemplated Oamaru dock works and Port.Chalmers railway works appear to only hold out means to the same end—entirely to the exclusion of the interests :c of upcountry districts whose welfare occasionally obtains passing attention, but I Beldom practical recognition.