The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1871.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 259, 2 November 1871, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1871.

The element of excitement that is generally to be found at public meetings in Nelson was, last night, entirely wanting, owing to the absence of any opposition whatever to the resolutions proposed. In its place, however, there was a far more healthy feature; there was an an air of sober, serious, earnestness which showed that the people of tbe town, and of the country districts—and of the latter class we were very pleased to see so large a number —were fully awake to the importance of the matter they .were there .met to di8(BU88;:' tOThere .was jao,A*tali talking,'*-, no rash utterances about going in' for a scramble for the money to be obtained from England, but it was felt that the

whole colony was committed to the borrowing of large sums of money, towards the interest upon which Nelson would somo day Lave to pay her share, and there was an unanimous, expression of opinion that if we could show that the railway scheme could he iuittated in our Province with anything like v reasonable chance of finnucial success, we had a rigbt to demand that we should partake of the benefits to be confene.l by the expenditure of the borrowed money. That there is such a chance of success may. wo think, be safely inferred from the figures given by Mr. Luckie last, night for which he was indebted to Mr. Austin, •who had carefully compiled them, and it will be generally allowed that his estimate of the probable traffic is far more likely to err in the direction of being under than over the mark. There were also some calculations as to the present traffic on the road which are of importance as tending, to show approximately what might he looked for if a railway were established. With' the large demaud upon our space, it is impossible for us now to give more than a brief summary of thos6 figures. They were as follows: — The goods traffic is estimated at 13,000 tons per annum, which, at ss. per ton, would give £3250; passenger traffic £3000; live stock £350; mails £200, making a total of £6800. Setting down the c'ostof working lhelineat £16 per day, or £112 per week, the result would be £5725 per annum, showing an actual saving of a trifle over £1000. Estimating the traffic on another basis, Mr. Eout, who made the foregoing calculations, arrived at a still more favorable result, making the gross returns about £8500 for the year. Those figures, of course, are only approximates, but, as was urged by the speakers last night, even if there were at first a loss of £1000 a year on the working expeuses as shown by mere debtor and creditor accounts on the books of the railway, the advantages which could not be put down in figures, but which would be none the less felt., would in various ways compensate by five fold, any apparent loss. It is, we believe, intended to hold a meeting at Wakefield on Monday night for the purpose of allowing the country settlers an opportunity of expressing their opinions on this important question, and no doubt the same interest and unanimity will then be displayed, as in the Provincial Hall last night.