The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1870.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 241, 12 October 1870, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1870.

The frequency with which the telegraphic wires are broken or washed away between Christchurch and Hokitika has often led to the enquiry whether some better and more reliable line of communication between the East and West Coasts could not be formed than that which at present exists. We can, we think, most clearly show that a far better route could be chosen. A line from Nelson, passing through Foxhill, thence to the Matakitaki and Lyell districts, and down the valley of the Buller to Westport, would possess these advantages over the ChristchurchHokitika line ; instead of passing through a wild and uninhabited country, which offers no inducement either to the miner or the settler to take up his habitation there, and consequently is likely to remain in its present barren, useless state to the end of time, the Buller line would thread its way through at least two places, the Matakitaki and the Lyell, which are likely to become centres of population, and to be in a position ere long to claim the establishment of a telegrophic station in their midst, not of course of an expensive nature, but such as might be attended to by the linemen for a few hours in the day. Again, the line would not be exposed to damage from floods to such an extent as is the case on" the Bealy route, while a third advantage is the facility with which poles can be obtained along the whole distance. When the Hokitika diggings first broke out, Canterbury, with commendable energy, established telegraphic communication with her outlying district on the West Coast, but it does not at all follow that the line which in those days was most suitable for Canterbury interests is the one that is best fitted for general purposes. Of course, from its having been in operation for so long a time, it has come to be looked upon as one of our institutions, and that, we fear, will militate strongly against the change we should wish to see carried out, for, in New Zealand we are much given to running with painfully monotonous exactness in certain well-defined groves, in which we have, in many instances, been placed by the purest accident, but out of which there is always the greatest difficulty in extricating ourselves, no matter how clearly it may be proved that it is desirable

to overstep our self-imposed boundaries with as little'! d^jf as possitj_ie> ''"Bat,' . although we ffqjtr lpi|fc thereis no likelihood of the existitfg border of things being changed at present, we must still hold to our opinion that the line we have pointed out is the one that should be adopted for connecting the two sides of the Island, i and that it would be far more convenient for general purposes that Nelaon, instead of Christchurch, should be the transmitting ' station.