The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1878.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 191, 11 September 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1878.

Mr Macandrew's proposal to utterly disregard Nelson and Marlborough iu order that every penny tbe Government can lay their hands upon for public works in the Middle Island may be expended upon the development of the Canterbury and Otago districts, 13 fraught with such very grave consequences to tbe inhabitants of tbat portion of the colony which is intended to be ignored that we may be pardoned if we once more refer to the matter. Our present object is # not so much to express our own opinion "on the

injustice of the public works policy as to give publicity to those uttered by others. We will commence with an extract from a speech delivered, at one of the banquets to which he was invited on his recent southern tour, by his Excellency the Governor, and we commend the remarks he then made to the earnest attention of those who will shortly be called upon to legislate on this subject. Ihey are so appropriate to the case of Nelson and Marlborough that we feel sure that they will meet with the approval of every individual in those two distiicts under whose ! notice they may come. His Excellency after congratulating the colony on the hither- | to successful promotion of Sir Julius Vogel's public works scheme, went ou to say: — " Wheu great works of this kiud are un- i dertaken by a country which is under a free i constitution, there is always a little pressure j experienced which ifc is hard to resist; and j what I advise is, that the good sense of the country should tend towards the view I have expounded, which is, that our first object ought to be to complete the great through ] hnes There is no doubt that each district is inclined to think its own particular spot I the most important in the colony, and that it is more productive, has richer soil, and more energetic inhabitants than auy of her place; and the people believe that if they can only get a railway to their doors their prosperity would be complete. But we must remember that in legislating for a country the proper thing to do is nofc to legislate for any particular spot, but for tho general benefit, happiness, and prosperity of the whole. I believe that if the people will only look at it in that light the general opinion in the country will be that we ought first to complete the through line in this island. You have nearly done 3o s but you must not forget that the south portion i3 not the whole of New Zealand. You have obtained the benefits, and you should be ready to extend the hand of good feeling towards your brother colonists.'' Here is a reiteration of Sir Julius Vogel's idea when he first came down to the country with his proposals in 1870; that idea was embodied in an Act of Parliament in 1873, and endorsed by the then Minister for Public Works in 1874. It remained for Mr Macandrew with his Otago proclivities to propose in 1878 to attempt to tide rough shod over the will of the people as expressed by their representatives on those occasions, and that he intends to do so if he can is beyond all question. Bygone Ministers, bygone Parliaments, and the present Governor of the Colony have all borne testimony to the justice and the fairness of the claim of the northern portion of this island to participate in the advantages which are to be bestowed with so lavish a hand on the other parts of the colony, so that our members should have no hesitation in pressing that claim with all the earnestness, all the vigor, and all the ability they possess. The other extract that we have made is from the Marlhorough Pr ess of Friday last. Our eontemporay says :— «* Tlie Public Works Statement, as delivered by Mr Macandrew, contains suggestions tbat are the boldest and, at the some time, the most iniquitous yet devised by anv Colonial Government. The Ministry ask the House to sanction the construction of a net work of railways in Otago and Canterbury, as well as two lines connecting Wellington with Auckland. So far the scheme is only proposed, and to give it effect it will be necessary to pass certain Bills to enable the proposals to be carried out. Should the Bills come before the House they may be termed " Acts for the purposes of bribing members to keep the present Government in office," for this is really what the proposals amount td, as the expenditure of public money ih the districts returning a number of members will be out of all proportion to the sum proposed to be spent in places that return few members. The Districts of Marlborough and Nelson, comprising a large portion of the Middle Island, are to be entirely neglected, and this because the voices of the members from these places would count as nothing when compared with the weightier number from the Districts where the public money is to be spent. This being the case there is little hopelthat anything can be done to prevent tbe perpetration of such au injustice; and our only hope is that the Government may be defeated on their taxation proposals, and be compelled to resign and give way to men who have some regard for thc Colony as a whole.' Tbis is sufficient to show how deeply the sense of wrong that is being done to them is rankling in the minds of our neighbors iu Marlborough, who. together with ourselves, are to be sacrificed to the interests of Otago.