The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 303, 21 December 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1872.

We bad occasion some few days ago to comment upon a peculiar article that appeared in the Grey Miver Argus with reference to the movement recently initiated here for establishing inland communication with the West Coast. We then remarked upon the poor stock of arguments that appeared to be at the disposal of the writer in his advocacy of a line from the Coast to Canterbury as being superior to that which it is proposed should be constructed to Nelson, all the reasons that he could advance in favor of his pet scheme being contained in a letter that had appeared in a Canterbury paper, and which, from the prominence awarded to it, we considered — and we think justly so — to have been adopted literally by the Argus. We are glad now to learn that he admits, after its having been pointed out by us, that the letter in question had its " weak point ; " that no spirit of local or Provincial jealousy has influenced him in raising objections to a through line from Nelson , and that he considers it a subject for congratulation that the people of Nelson are going so formally, practically, and publicly to work to obtain information, &c. We hope yet to be able to show to our West Coast neighbours that in helping ourselves we shall be beueiitting them, and to adduce good grounds why they should unite with us in the hearty endeavor that is now being made to establish inland communication between Blind Bay and the western extremity of the- Province, but, as we have said before, it would be premature to attempt to do this until the full information that will be supplied in the report to be brought up by the Comtnifctee has been laid before the public. We give below an extract from the article in the Argus to which we liave alluded. Our contemporary says:—" The article which we have already had upon this subject has been dissected with some adroitness by the Nelson Mail, and our contemporary caricatures our quotation of the letter of a Canterbury settler on the subject, because, in the concluding sentence of that letter, he seemed to advocate the connection of the East and West Coasts solely on the ground that it would advantage the eastern producer, while he said not a word as to the western consumer. That letter we simply quoted in its entirety as printed, but certainly not as adopting it literally, nor was it difficult to discover that, though 'pointed and pertinent' as a whole,, that one statement was its ' weak point/ Anyone who knows the first principles of buying and selling knows that it is the purchaser who, if carriage is involved, pays for its cost, and the community most generally advantaged, though not exclusively, by the construction of a railway Intersecting the Middle Island, would be the- large ' body of consumers on the West Coast. By no line starting from Nelson would they be equally, or irearly equally, benefitted, because in no direction, so much as in , the direction of Canterbury, 'are supplies of live-stock or produce available, ;' while in the same direction there are

markets and harbors as accessible for the pisposal or export of minerals. It As in no spirit of local or Provincial jealousy that we have ventured either now or on previous occasions to state, as we have 6tated, somewhat briefly and imperfectly, the reasons which exist against the ready adoption of any Nelson scheme before other projects of apparently greater importance have their merits equally discussed. Nor is there any disposition on the part of anyone in. this district to condemn the interest which the people of Nelson have taken in the subject of connecting themselves more closely with their West Coast customers and clients. It ought to be rather a subject for congratulation that the people of Nelson are going so formally, practically, and publicly to work to obtain all information regarding the resources of the basins of the Motueka, the Buller, and the Grey — their population, present and probable, the prices of the necessaries of life, and so on. This spirit of statistical inquiry is well worthy of imitation on the part of the people of the districts themselves, and on the part of the people of Canterbury, beginning with the Superintendent of the Province, who has on more than one occasion exhibited an interest in a portion .of the Public Works scheme which is inevitable some day, and the propriety of undertaking which it is now full time to consider."