The Nelson Evening Mails. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1880:

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 190, 11 August 1880, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mails. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1880 :

The Public Works Statement delivered in the House on Friday night is being roughly handled by the press, the prevailing tone in all the criticisms that have come under our notice being that of contempt. Nor is this to be wondered at, for a more inane production of its kind would surely be most difficult of composition. Seeing for what a length of time the mountain has been in labor, the number of premonitory groans that have issued from it, aud tho mysterious reasons that have from time to time been given why the interesting" event should be postponed just a few days longer, the anticipation was general that, when the little stranger did come, it would at least lave the merit of being shapely, comely, and wellformed, instead of which — was there ever so ridiculous a mouse ? in halting schoolboyfashion the works that have been proceeded with during the year are alluded to in detail, aud this is followed by a reference to the unemployed, Mr Oiiver being good enough to say that he believes that the season of depression which has made their number so great will pass away and give place to a period of prosperity, a happy child- like faith for which, however, bo takes care to give nogrouhds. Thenecessity of spreading the expenditure on public works .over three years is recognised, and as a proof of his anxiety to effect this Mr Oliver tells us that in the Middle Island only one new section of railway has been commenced since last session, the others being cousigned to that limbo from which they are only to be released when "the grave considerations connected with a falling revenue " cease to exist. The " cheering fact is announced that the railways of the colony do not cover the interest' on their original cost by £237,730 per annum, but as they tend to the settlement and development of the resources of the country, this deficit might have teen put up with without a murmur but for two reasons. First the "prosperous years" have come to an etui, aud we cauuot afford to pay this amount of interest out of ordinary revenue, and next, the railways are so unequally distributed that all have to contribute to the taxation from which the loss ia to be made up, while thousands and thousands of the colonists derive no benefit whatever from them. Here was a theme for Mr Oliver to enlarge upon had he been so disposed, but he evidently was not, and the subject is dismissed in a paragraph of half a dozen lines. It is the key note of the failure of the ouce vaunted public works policy. The original idea of making trunk Hoes throughout the colony, and afterwards constructing feeders to the main arteries, was abandoned after the first year, and the . Ministerial motto, adopted>y successive Governments, has been "To him that hath shall be given," and in order to carry this properly into effect it became necessary that " from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." It is to some extent satisfactory to find a Minister for Public Works admitting thut this grave error had been made, but it would have been still more so did we believe that Mr Oliver .understood the full import of the admission be .was making, which, from the curt and off hand mauner iv which he deals with the subject, we are bound to say we do not. A long statement of the proportion of miles of railway to the (population, borrowed from the report of the Commissioners, and an admission that matters have been so badly arranged that a ridiculously low rale of freight is charged on the railways, very naturally leads the way up to the confession that " we have gone too far, aud find ourselves face to face with a state of things as unpleasant as it was unexpected." Mr Oliver "then does Mr Gladstone the honor of " fully adopting" an opinion once expressed by him when dis cussing the best means of making the Metropolitan District railway pay. It appears that the great English statesman then said, " As a rule, the State, or individual, or company thrives the best which dives deepest dovvn itito the mass of the community, and adapts it 3 arrangements to the wants of the greatest number." Having given his quotation, Mr Oliver at once proceeds to show that it is totally inapplicable to the circumstances of New Zealand, so that what on earth Mr Gladstone was dragged into the Public Works Statement for, unless for the purpose of showing that its author ha I read one of his speeches, it is difficult to discover. Then comes a series of arguments why we should not sell our railways, but as the impossibility of disposing of them is shown in the first paragraph, where it is correctly stated that uo ono would ever be got to pur- '■ chase at the price at which the ; colony could afford to sell, the whole of what follows might have been advantageously omitted. Reference is made to the "very valuable report " sent in by the Commissioners, but as some of the most important suggestions made by those gemjemen are completely ignored, we must presume either that the Minister bad ouly read that portion of the report re'atiug to the lines recommended to be constructed or to be dropped, or had been so busily engaged in the preparation of the swaddling clothes in which his little mouse was to be wrapped that he had not been able j to bestow upon them the consideration to ( which they are entitled. Coming to the ' financial position of the department we fiv.d as the wretched result of our ten years' public works policy, that with any number of lines awaiting completion we have, after borrowing five millions last year, but £821,923, left out of which-Mr Oliver having previously told us that he intended to spread its expenditure over a period of between two and three years— a vote is to be taken this session for £674,238, leaving only £147,685 for the remainder of tho period. The " works proposed " are then briefly summarised. They include such items as " extension of linp from Foxhill to Bellgrove," which, as is well known, is'already very nearly completed. Is it in bitter irony that this is spoken of as being on the "Nelson to Greymouth line?" Then we find, "the Picton and Blenheim line will be completed at the Blenheim end," such " completion " consisting of the erection of a few sheds. Surely " Works Proposed " is an unnecessarily grandiloquent title for such little jobs as these. In this particular district it seems that we 'are expected to be satisfied with very small mercies, as, in addition to the Bellgrove extension on the " Nelson to Greymouth railway " — we must ask pardon for the repetition, but really we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of contemplating the title of this line — nothing is to fall to our share but the completion and improvement of the road to Westport and Greymouth. Well, let us still live in hope. It is by no means beyond the realm of possibility that the opening up of the country by means of this road may lead to the development of such an amount of mineral wealth as will render the "Nelson to Greymouth line " so thoroughly necessary a work that whnt ia now but a fanciful name may iv the course of a few years become a reality.