The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 20, 23 January 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1872.

The Wellington Independent, a journal which is generally supposed to represent the opinions of the Ministry, has recently based an article upon Mr. Lightband's notorious letter. It starts with the assumption that " the Nelson people are begining to lament the cousent of the Government to include the Nelson and Foxhill Railway in the schedule of the Railways Bill of last session," and concludes by recommending that the Government should, •' in the interests of the people of Nelson, delay any further action in the mntter until the Assembly meets, when -the sense of the Nelson members could be taken."

We are sufficiently grateful to out" contemporary for his watchful caro of our interests, but we would remiud him that, unfortunately for his case, he is altogether at fault in bis premises. The Nelsou people do not "lament the consent of the Government," &c, but, on the contrary, they are, with one single exception, per-

fectly unanimous in their desire that thi9 railway should be proceeded with without delay, and in the belief that, as the commencement of a through liue to the West Coast, it is calculated to largely advance the welfare of the province. It u one of tho members for — we can scarcely call him a representative of— the town only who regrets that the construction of a great and important work is to be beguu in the province, and, in tho obstacles he has thought fit to place iu the way of its being commenced, we have no hesitation in saying that he wholly misrepresents the views of those "who placed him in the position he now holds. It m;iy suit the organ of a Ministry that has never very cordially supported this scheme to assert that, because ouo individual has spoken in slighting terms of if, the people of Nelsou are averse to its being carried out, fortunately, however, it so happens that the public have recently availed themselves of another oppoitunity of expressing their opinion on. this subject, and they have once again placed ou record their earnest conviction that the railway in question, as being a work that is calculated to benefit the province, should be entered upon without delay. So far from any of them regretting that the Government had given its <:«nseiit to the work, we nover yet remember to have seen the Nelson public so thoroughly unanimous on any question, and the resolutions passed at Mr. Curtis' meeting furnish a tn^st complete reply to the misstatement of which the Independent has been guilfy. And now, with lvgard to this much abused raihvay and the question of its usefulness to the country inwhicb it is to be constructed. It is, as we have remarked before now, an unfortunate circumstance that the name "Nelson and Foxhill railway " i.as been attached to it, thus leading those who fire not fully acquainted with the matter to suppose that Foxhill is fco be the termiuus, whereas rhose who voted for it in the House, and all who support it in this province look upon it as but the first instalment of a line that is to open. up the communication between Nelson and the West Coast, together with all the rich valleys and mineral lauds that intervene. It, is argued by some that the railroad should be commenced at Foxhill, from whence it should work its way into tlie interior, but it must be allowed by all. that, to be of sny real service, a railway ia a country such as ours must have a port ot its terminus, and consequently that the rails will at some time have to be laid between Foxhill aDd the tuwn of Nelsou, in order to make the work complete. Is it not, then, far better to commence at the port, and thus to save all the expense of carting the whole of the material for a distance of twenty- three miles, the more so when it has been clearly shown by estimates based upou data which we have no reason to suppose ate other than reliable, that there will be sufficient traffic to cover all the working expenses of the line ? It is cot necessary for us to re-publish the calculations that were produced at the meeting of October last, as to the probable receipts of this railway, but they are to be found in the newspapers of (h.-it time, and it is for those who commit themselves to the general assertions that " a more foolish expenditure of tbe public money could not well be conceived than the construction of the Foxhill line," or that " its cost will entail a burden upou the provincial revenues for which no corresponding advantage can be realised," to prove the fallaciousness of these estimates, and to show that the calculations which have satisfied the people of Nelsou are founded upon an unsouud basis. Until they make some show of doing this, their rash statements and petty sneers — for as yet we have not heard of a single real argument being brought forward by the opponents of the scheme — are scarcely worthy of notice.

To one portion of the article before us we would call special attention, as clearly showing the animus of the writer iu his attempt to deprive Nelson of a public work to which she looks as being a step in the direction of opening up her communication with the interior. "All the people of Nelson care for," we are told, "is a share in the expenditure of public money, and they think that seventy or eighty thousand ponnds spent within' twenty miles of Nelson -will benefit the tills of the shopkeepers and publicans, and enable a few owners of unremunerative farms to sell, their land at fancy prices to the Government." Such a sneer comes with a very bad grace from the leading journal of a town that for several years has existed almost entirely upon the expenditure of public money in its midst, and which, but for the lucky accident of its having been selected as the seat of Government, would now rank as a very insiguificant portion of the colony. In Nelson, on the contrary, the settlers have struggled bravely on in the face of many and great difficulties, depending entirely upon their own resources, and

not requiring to be spoon-fed with the nutriment supplied by the Colonial Treasury, and yet on the first occasion of their making a perfectly just aud fair demand that assistance should be granted them, fiom a loan specially obtained for the purpose, for opening up their provincial territory, they are told by the Independent that it is not that they care for improving their inland communications, but that their only desire is that the tills of the shopkeepers aud publicans of the town should be replenished. If no more reasonable objection than this c;ui I e brought against the construction of the first portion of a railway that, it is hoped, will, iu the course of a few years, penetrate to the heart of the island, it would have been more to the credit of the Wellington Independent to have maintained a strict sileuce on the subject. As it is, it has permitted an article to appear in its leading columns containing statements that are the reverse of true, insinuations that are uncalled for aud offensivo, and suggestions and recommendations that are not only ungenerous, but malicious.

In the absence of Mr. Lijihtbaud we shall refraiu from touching any further upon tho part he has taken iu throwing this damper upon our railway scheme. It is clear, however, that the matter is becoraiug serious when the Ministerial organ expresses its views with such candour, and it is for tho electors of Neison to decide what steps it is desirable for them to take in order to counteract the evil influences of (he ill-advised letter of their representative. Trifling ailments way be treated with mild medicines, but violent diseases frequently compel the use of equally violent remedies, and, what is of quite as great importance, promptitude ia applying them.