The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1878.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 182, 2 September 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1878.

We received a telegram on Saturday night from a correspondent in Wellington informing us that at a meeting of the Nelson and Marlborough members held that day for the purpose of considering the proposal to exclude these two districts for five years from the public works system, the following resolutions were unanimously agreed to: — " That the scheme of public works, as proposed by the Government, does not provide for any extension of the main trunk line of railway to the north end of the Middle Island-" " That such omission from the scheme is a direct breach of faith, not only as regards bhe promises of past Governments, but as teing in direct contravention of the terms of the "Railways Act, 1875." " That the Provincial districts of Nelson and Marlborough are entirely overlooked iu the present scheme, and that this meeting interview Mr Macandrew to lay before him a strong expression of the feeling entertained by the members from those districts, and by the public whom they represent of the great injustice it is proposed to inflict upon them." We are glad to find that the members from the neglected districts have taken the matter up, and trust that by their attendance at the public meeting to be held to-morrow night the residents in town and the surrounding districts will do all in their power to back up their representatives in endeavoring to secure justice for Nelson and Marlborough. The matter is one of the gravest importance. It is not only a question of a certain sum of public money beiug expended in the district— that is quite a secondary consideration—but it is whether or not we are to he included in tbe scheme of railways by which

it is proposed to connect all the other centres of population in the colony. Iu order to allow residents in the Waimea, who are equally interested with those in town, to be present at the meeting, arrangements have been made for a special train to run, and we understand that the Chairmen of the County Council, and the various Koad Boards, have been specially invited. It behoves every man who has the smallest interest iu the welfare and progress of the district to attend and by his presence to give weight to the' resolutions that will then be passed. Since the foregoing was in type we have received the fol owing telegram from our Wellington correspondent :— '• The Nelson and Marlborough members had an interview with Mr Macandrew this morning, and urged the claim of those two districts to be connected in "the scheme of the main trunk hues, and that they ought not to be shut out for five years as now proposed in the Public Works Statement. Mr Macandrew promised to bring before his colleagues the statements made, but held out very little hope of any revision of the scheme as laid down in the Statement. Possibly a coach road to connect Nelson with the West Coast might he completed, but no actual promise was made."