To Mr Rout, Nelson.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 193, 14 August 1872, Page 2

To Mr Rout, Nelson.

Have had interyiew'-wfith'MrEeeves . He says : tbat-agi^tipn^gi^Uk^;|o^a|iyance $prk~-rtbat; ,;.tta|e^^pr^^^is'^,^a]^|[isin| : ,int|qdslto carry '; iqut iw.Or^^ ; j'oxbOl' lineph&frthersi*^nq:%coan«l<wliatereir:f6r'

suppo'-ing that Government will not keep faith in the matter, but that ifc must not be hurried. Tlie work will begono^on with ss quickly as com-pa,tih]e'*-..with ...propei'.,, attention to preliminary details/ Rnil proper.; financial arrangpmentag^t willtbe ilone without undue delay. Tlie Goyerrfrae'nt is.going 1 to deal! fairly with Nelson, an-xwill not re-open the decision of last session de to railway, but act- according to that decision and its own promise. It vas his intention to have sent Mr Carruthers to Nelson to so over line by last steamer, but ou consulting found .he could not a,t ; present be spared, so many references bi*ing* iriafde l to him, but that ho shall go a** soon as ever he cnn be spared to examine the line, whioh is a necessary proceeding before calling for traders. That is substantially the statement of Mr Reeves; thc subject will not be neglected. D. M. 'Luckie. Mr A. Sciandeus said that ho had beon requested to move tbe first resolution, which -rias entirely introductory. Rightly or wrongly, there 'was in Nelson a growing disposition to look -upon the. General Government- with feelings of doubt and distrust. For his own part ho was iuclined. to believe that the Government felt tbat tbey bad to deal \yiih those who 'had for a long time lived in what was frequently called " Sleepy Hollow," and that consequently they felt at liberty, to do as they pleased -with u.°, and lo disregard, our wants whenever it suited them to do so, and it was high time that the people roused themselves and stood up for their rights. * The Province of Nelson was not nearly so unimportant as some people chose to believe, It was rich in mineral wealth,. aod possessed large tracts of land available for settlement tbat only required to be opened up by suoh a railway as that of whieh the Foxhill lino was to be the commencement. One thing bad given rise to very great dissatisfitction, which was that io the recently publisha i report of the Eogineer-in-chief, no mention whatever was made of this line, tbough we read there of others being commenced in far less important districts. It was true that in lhe telegrams received we were told that the Nelson and Foxhill line was proceeding as fast as the other survey worts, but, he was unable to see that anything was being done iu the matter, and consequently a feeling of dissatisfaction and disappointment very naturally pervaded tho minds of the people. He wished to state that bo did not think our. representatives were to blame in the matter, but that tbe whole of the blame rested solely with the General Government, who Hyetematically overlooked Nelson aud her interests. Some time ago Mr Curtis was just on tho point of arranging with Mr Brogden for the construction of the Nelson* and Cobden line, but war just then broke out" in Europe, and put a stop to tbe arrangements. Bir Vogel theu appeared in London to launch the general scheme for the colony, and Mr Curtis withdrew from the negotiations under lhe impression that that line would form part of the scheme. This, ho considered, gave us a claim on the Government ior our railway heing proceeded with. No doubt if Mr Fox or Mr Vogel were present that night, they would blandly assure ua that uo harm was intended to. Nelsoa, and that all would be right, but ho hoped that the resolutions then to be passed would assist our representatives in obtaining a more distinct pledge that the work should be commenced without delay, and we would then overlook tbe past slights to which we had been subjected. He would move :— 1. That this meeting views with great disappointment the dehiy that hns taken place in the commencement of the Nelson and Foxhill railway, and the absence of any mention of suuh proposed railway in the report of the Engineer-in-chief, although its construction was sanctioned by the General Assembly, and promised by the Government. Mr Acton Adams seconded the resolution. He considered that Nelson was making a perfectly fair and exceedingly modest demand. The line to Foxhill would be one of the cheapest and most easily constructed of all tbe railways proposed to bo undertaken, and he thought there should bo no more delay in the matter. He had just returned; from Marlborough, where he had seen gangs of navvies at work at both ends 'of the line, and for this he considered the. people of For remainder jo f news see fourth page.

Marlborpugh wereTafgely indebted to, Mr Seymour, their '..Superintendent, , for the energetic, manner in which he had pushed the negotiations until he had the satisfaction of seeing the work fairly commenced. Nelson was a larger and more important province than Marlborough, and had a right to demand that she should no longer be neglected, as had hitherto been the case. . . : ' / . ' The resolution was then put arid carried unanimously. Mr Akerstkn moved . 2. That while fully admitting the importance of many of the lines of railway contracted for, and immediately about to be constructed, this meeting is satisfied that the Foxhill line, as the first section of a railway to render accessible one of the largest and richest goldfields in New Zealand, is a work (looked at from a colonial point of view) second to none in importance, and promises the only means of opening up large tracts of country for both mining and settlement. A good deal of the ground had been cut from under his feet by the telegrams received from "Wellington, and he was glad to find that the Government at last appeared, to awaken to the idea that the people of Nelson were* in earnest. For a long time he had thought that Nelson, which could boast of greater resources than almost any province in New Zealand, was being systematically neglected. She had coal and gold in abundance, and a harbor possessing greater natural advantages for ship building or repairing purposes than any in the colony, and yet no attempt was made to turn any of these to account. New Zealand could never be made the great country for which Nature evidently intended it, by any forced scheme, but must be raised to its proper position by the industry and energy of the people in developing and (timing to the best account its numberless resources. It was difficult to account for the studied neglect that this part of the Qolony. had invariably met with. Tbe people were fully as intellectual, sober, and industrious as those in any other province, and yet their interests were constantly shelved and placed in the background. Mr Rotjt seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously. , Mr Elliott laid that he had been asked to move tbe next resolution. He fully concurred with what had fallen from some of the previous speakers, that the Foxhill railway must of necessity extend j ultimately to the West Coast. The great object of the public works scheme was to open up and settle the country. It bad been found that the taxation was gradually increasing, and decided that the only way to. lighten the burden of those now living in the colony was to introduce a large number of immigrants who should help them in bearing their load, but it was necessary to find land on which to settle the -new comers, and there was no tract of country better calculated for the settlement of a large population than the valleys of the Buller and the Grey and their tributaries. At present there was a large number of miners there, but that number would bp quadrupled if come solution were. found of .the great bar to settlement which at present existed, namely, the want of roads, in tbe absence of which the cost of living was something enormous, and required very profitable occupation to enable the residents in those parts to, exist. It was out of the power of the Provincial Government to provide anything like suitable roads, and the only reliable means; of communication would be a. railway, which would be tbe cheapest in the first instance, the cheapest to keep in repair j and would afford the cheapest means of carriage. A large sum of money had recently been spent by the General Government in making roads to Reef ton, but he would undertake to say that at the next meeting of the Provincial Council loud complaints would be heard that itbsse roads were utterly unfit for the traffic they had to bear. He thought be was expressing the general opinion in stating, that the Foxhill line was deemed so desirable simply because it was the first instalment of a railway that would penetrate.in to the Buller Valley, and it would "be as well to keep it before the Government that there something further to do than merely to construct the first twentytwo miles of ' rnilroad. He -would move : , .3. That through the absence of any harbor on the ; West ■ Oottt easy of access, Nelson,' from its , excellent -geographical position, is' the natural i port lor Ae.NoEth:-weßte.r|i division of the island. : ■', the cost -of f constructing a railway from K(^6ja \to sGrej; mouth and Weatporfc, would be in- : 4 ißignifi^i^ compared with ? the necessary .outlay r^djifirmanra^ of reduce :^ifiel^)pMgeß"nbi^,,nflc^M]7;:tq cqrer. losses arising |%rpm^.sransßhipment And -?^tbat;theyp6^ i^if»i^ia^n%i»^f»

them contemplated .something more than thia sliort line, and pointed to its extension iuto the interior of the country, and for this reason it claimed the earnest support of everyone present. The importance and value to the Province of such a railway as. that to which it alluded were incalculable, and the benefits it would confer nofc only on the Province but on the whole whole colony would be very great. One or two remarks had been made in the course of the evening with which he did not altogether agree. It appeared to have been generally accepted that the Government bad made up their minds to at once go on with the work, and the telegram, that bad been read was looked upon as something in the light of a pledge to that effect, but it was not nearly so explicit as he could have wished, nor did it convey the idea of absolute certainty. Something had been said of the larger provinces having it all their own way, but it was riot only the larger ones, but, as we had seen, one of the smallest, namely, Marlborougb, bad actually got its railway commenced. This bad been effected by the sheer force of pertinacity, and we would do well to follow the example of cour neighbors in this respect, for it was clear that it was onl) the importunate people who could gain their point. Something was said in the telegram that had been read to the efiect that .no good would result from a public demonstration, and of course it was natural that the Government should object to be bothered, but that was not the view we should take of the matter; it was for us to be constantly and unceasingly bothering them until we obtained what we wanted. He did not . think that our ■ representatives were neglecting our j interests, but he certainly did not like Mr Reeves' statement, and was very glad the meeting had been called. He had beard it suggested that there was an element of politics in the meeting, but he did not believe it. Had it been a political meeting he did not think it would have been so large a one, and certainly not so unanimous. Not even a joke had been made, but it • was clear that they were all there to give expression to an unanimous feeling of determination to insist upon obtaining their rights, but nothing more. The resolution was unanimously carried. Mr Baigent had a resolution to propose, the purport of which was to strengthen the hands of onr representatives in exacting a pledge from the Government that this work should be proceeded with without delay. For his own part, he looked upon the railway to Foxhill as but the first instalment of a line, which, when completed, would confer immense benefits upon the whole province. Had such a work been carried out when it was first proposed, how different a position would Nelson occupy at the present time. The town would have been a flourishing city, and the country, now unoccupied, peopled with thousands of inhabitants. He hoped to see a constant agitation kept up uutil we succeeded in obtaining that which would be the making of the province, — an iron road into the heart of the country. Before sitting down, he would allude to another matter in which he had always considered Nelson was very badly treated. When the Public Debts Act was passed, it was calculated that £250,000 were due by the colony to this province, but she was offered £90,000 to cry quits. This our representatives refused to accept, and the result was that we never got anything. Under these circumstances he considered that the General Government ought, in justice, to make this railroad for us for nothing. He would move : — 4. That the representatives of this province in the General Assembly be requested to' wait upon the Government wi'h the above resolutions, and endeavor to obtain , fr.om them 1 -- a distinct pledge that the Nelson and Foxbill railway shall at once be proceeded with. Mr Thornton seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously. A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the proceedings.