The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 200, 22 August 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1879.

We have met with an article in a recent issue of the Dunediu Tribune which may perhaps throw some light upon the election-

eenng visit to this district of Mr Armstrong, who went over to Collingwood early in the week with a view of securing a seat in the House. It appears that the people of the South are beginning to make calculations as to the probable effect npon Otago of the defeat of thc present Mhiistrv, and it ifl evident that they fear that with any other Minister for Public Works but "Mr Macaudrew their district will only receive justice in common with other parts of the colony, and not be petted rind pampered p.s ha. hitherto been the case. The att.ele in question contains what will be news to our readers, who hid no idea oi* the good things that, are in store for them. We take from it the following extract :— " As v.-. .tatea on a former occasion, there were, probably, gocd reasons for the votes -* the Nelson and Marlborough members, an. jhi-u presumption turns out tq be -.orref... The price o. tbeir s_ppo_i, __s amy arranged 'Anc. agreed to by that political Reynard, Sir William Fox, was to be a railway from Christchurch to Nelson, at a cost of a million and a half of public money,— a political railway, through private property, cousistiDg of a succession of vast sheep runs, much of it alaiost untrodden by the foot, of man. But — even if this country had been unsold and still public property— it is questionable whether it would for some years have been ad.isable to incur the expenditure necessary for such a line, as the greatest proportion of the land is fit only for pastoral purposes j ahd one part of it is considered the roughest and most broken piece of country iu New Zealand. This is the mountainous tracklying between the Wairau Valley and Nelson —where, according to Professor Owen, the moa may yet. if anywhere, be found. And the welfare of the Colony and its people is to be sacrificed to such iniquitous compacts as this. + ****** The electors of Dunedin must have no vague promises, but insist on distinct pledges to support Grey, Macandrew, and New Zealand, versus Fox, Saunders, and such jobs as the proposed Nelson Railway." We are not ashamed to confess our complete ignorance of the route referred to in the foregoing, but probably we have just as clear an idea of it as had the writer. We can, however, say that no such line as that spoken of was ever clamored for by the people of Nelson. It is easy to understand the alarm with which Otago views the possibility of any large sum of public money being spent elsewhere, for it has so long been accustomed to receive the lion's share of tbe spoil that the people of the Macandrew country begin to regard it as their right. We scarcely know why Mr Saunders' name has beeu dragged into the matter as ia the case in the last sentence of the article quoted, which, however, should have run thus:— "The electors of Dunediu must have no vague promises, but insist on distinct pledges to support Grey, Macandrew, and Otago, versus Fox, Saunders, and such acts of justice as carrying out the terms of the public works policy which provided for a trunk line through the islaud " It is becoming more and more clear now why the gentleman from Dunediu was sent up to try and get a seat for a Nelson district.