THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1876.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 363, 18 February 1876, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1876.

Bab and indefensible as many of the acta of Provincial Governments have been in the past, one of the worst is now being perpetrated in Otago. It might be thought that if a local Government had a conscience ; t would make an effort to shrive it when threatened with the gallows. The probable supposition, as many an othpr equallv pretty, proves false when practically tested. It will be remembered that almost coincident with the introduction ot the Abolition Bill appeared certain advertisements in the Provincial newspapers calling for tenders for the construction of the branch railways which were foolishly 1 sanctioned by the Council last session. Among these were the lines from to Outram, and from Paltnerston to Wayne's. In connection wich the introduction of the railway proposals into the Council it is not readily forgotten that the Government laid down a principle that ail railways sanctioned would be treated alike—that there would be no picking and choosing by the Government after. Once more we find the announced theory beautifully falling to pieces before the pressing necessities of the ajtual. As a fact we find that the Mosgiel to Outram line is the only one "let. Yurther, that even it is not let as a whple, because the money may run out, but piecemeal. The object clearly being, with the drainings of the Treasury, to commit the district and Colony sufficiently to the line as to make it certain that it will be finished, and North Taieri be propitiated. Another'fact is equally patent—That the line Palmerston to Wayne's is not to be let at all. To that line the piecemeal strategem is not considered to be applicable. In plain Scotch, the Mos-giel-Outram line being sanctioned, proclaimed by ' Gazette," and let in contracts, the necessary setting of the other proposals in which it heretofore stood encased can be dispensed with. We are told that the needs of the Provincial Treasury are eo great that the Education Board has not a shilling

for the pressing needs of the (School < 'orauiitteeSi .Neither has the Works Department, any more rope to proceed to carry out sums voted for roads and bridges in the Interior. It is also saitL to be imperative that the future #T Tapanui, and the Waifeaia District as a whole, shall be sacrificed by the pro - pt sale of the large area of lands —opened, and about to be opened as Hundreds—necessarily to a lew. We say necessarily to afew, because thearea reserved for lease on deferred payment is so small that the large holdersare prepared to buy wholesale. This has been brought under the notice of the Executive, who have been requested to urge theproclamationofthewholeofthelands as reserved for lease on deferred, payments. This power of reservation, it is said, can be exercised by the Governor. The difficulty which, it is to be feared, will be considered insuperable, is that the Provincial Treasury must have the money. It is not difficult to see that the £25,000 or £30,000 to be spent on the Mosgiel line would, if released, have saved the almost certain sacrifice of a very large area of the public estate: at the worst it would have enabled votes for necessary works in the Interior to have been expended. The Executive have thought it thenf duty to made hay while the sun shinep. This would not be so objectionable if the haymaking had been for the general good of'the Province. It appears to be very far from that. As has been stated before Outram was to be tapped by a branch running from Greytown. This was a cheap line to be done by private enterprise. The land for it had been arranged for, and the plant ordered. This healthy state of things was ruthlessly destroyed to please a few farmers in North Taieri, who probably had shares in the Mosgiel wool factory. The battle between the two Taieri Member?, the champions of the respective lines, is fresh in public memory. The victor has proved accommodating—agreeing to take the ordered railway plant at the public expease for the line he favors. The loser, unfortunately for himself, has had other troubles of a more warm and pressing nature. Such a leaf in Provincial history were well unopened it it were honest to leave it closed. It is no consolation or defence that it is more than balanced by a Tairua swindle, or a Piako scandle. The universsality of political jobbery in the Colonies, take it were we will is so patent that the question always arises—(Jan any clean thing come out of politics ? Fraud in its most detestable shape, because ever smiling underthe unetuous robe of assumptive virtue, seems too often to be the beginning and the end. Mr. W. N. Blair, Colonial District Engineer, was called upon to report to the Minister for Public Works upon the r-.val Taieri lines. We append the summing up of his report:— From the fact of both branches having their terminus at Outram, it is evident that it is recognised by both parties as the centre to which the trade of the district naturally converges; it is also on the main road to Upper Waipori and the interior. The question .'of accommodation, as between the two-line*, is therefore confined to the intermediate traffic.

The Grey town branch is all through cultivated land ; but .as it is in the hanr.s of one' or two proprietors, the passenger traffic cannot be extensive. The amount of produce sent to Dunedin will, however, be as groat as from any other equal area on the Taieri Plair,. The good cultivated land on the Mosgiel branch is confined to mile at each end, and Blocks X. XV. and XVI. (North Taieri) near the 12th mile. From 13 to 16 miles the lines passes through a low uncultivated swamp, and there is only about 90 chains between it and the ranges; consequently a large traffic can never be de veloped on that portion. As the 1| mile at the commencement of the Mosgiel branch is embraced by the main line, and the J 5 mile at the termination by the Greytown branch, the only special advantages it possesses over the other, is the accommodation afforded to the three blocks in North Taieri, just mentioned. This reduces the whole controversy to the simple question. Is the traffic from North Taieri of such importance as to warrant the construction of 4| miles of railway, for its special accommodation ? So far as my judgment goes, I have no hesitation in answering it in the negative. I do not think the advantages to be derived from the adoption of the Mosgiel branch instead of the Greytown one are at all commensurate with the extra expenditure involved. Having compared the respective merits of the branches, I shall now consider as to whether either of them is at present urgently required. It will be seen from the plan, that the Mosgiel branch, for the greater .part of its length, is only 2-f miles from the main line, and that the whole distance.to the ranges is only 4 miles. Five miles is considered the standard distance between stations in England; consequently the Mosgiel branch is 3 miles too near the main line, and/there is little of the plain beyond the English limit of remoteness from railway communication. The Taieri Plain is also intersected in all directions by roads, mauy of them being formed and metalled. For these reasons, and the fact that there is no special trade, such as minerals, at any point on the plain, I believe, that there is no immediate necessity for either branch. 1 Since the above was written the results of the sale of sections in the Heriot Hundred, is to hand and will be found in another column.