The Nelson Evening Mails. TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1880.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 195, 17 August 1880, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mails. TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1880.

Iff the condensed report of the proceedings in the House last night, which appears in our telegrams to-day, gives anything like a fair idea of what took place, the debate on the report of the Railways Commission must have been a highly amusing oue, member after member rising, presumably with the view of gratifying his constituents, to express indignation at the injustice of not proceeding with the railway in wbich his district was specially interested, and from the number of the protestants it is pretty clear that the dissatisfaction must be very widespread. Mr Hutchison was warm on the subject of tbe Wellington Eoxtou line, and here, by tbe way, we may remark that, in the House on Wednesday night, Mr W. H. Levin delivered a speech on the wrong that was being done to Wellington by uot extending this line, in which he made use of Several arguments that are so peculiarly appliable to the treatment we have experienced here with regard to the Nelson-Grey-mouth railway tbat they might have been used by one advocating our cause.- *" The West Coast line," he said, " bad been promised iv the most emphatic manner over and over again." Have the promises made to the people of Wellington been more numerous, or more emphatic than those given to the people of Nelson ? Why, even the Christchurch Press when arguing against the completion of this line, admitted tbat a solemn promise tbat it Bhould be proceeded with had been made by every successive Government since the subject was first mooted. Again to quote Mr W. H. Levin : — " He might say a great deal more, to show the moral claims of Wellington to the West Coast line. The block of reclaimed land had been taken from it on the promise that the proceeds would be devoted

to. the construction of the line, and the people had willingly put up with the construction of a shanty of a station, on the ground that more money would be left for tlie nromh-ed railway.'' What about Nelson's " moral claims "? Did she not forego her arrangements with the Messrs Brogden on the promise tbat the railway, the completion of which it was then in ber power to obtain, should^be constructed as one of the maiu trunk lines of the colony, and did she not at Mr Vogel's request willingly put up with the delay, lest by carrying into effect her arrangements she might mar the succees of the colonial schem*?? None wbo ever offer the slightest opposition to the Nelson-Grey-mouth railway must venture to talk about tbe " moral claims " of any other district. This, however, is a digression from last night's debate, in which Mr Shephard appears to have been the only speaker who condemned the report of the Commission on general grounds. All the other objections were of a purely local character. One wanted one line, and another another, while Captain Russell expressed a general approval of the report;, but ventured humbly to submit to the Government that he would like them a great deal better, and, iudeed, would entertain a higher opinion of the Commission if they would but give him just a few more miles of railway in Hawke's Bay. On the whole the debate was neither an edifying nor a creditable one, and if it could be expuuged from the columns of Hansard New Zealand would not suffer in the opinion of those who derive their information regarding the politics and politicians of the colony from that not always reliable record.