MR REEVES AT CHRISTCHURCH

New Zealand Mail, Issue 50, 6 January 1872, Page 16

MR REEVES AT CHRISTCHURCH

[lndependent.*! Mr Reeves, the Resident Minister in the Middle Island, has been the first member of the Executive to avail himself of an opportunity of making a public exposition of the intentions of the Government with regard to carrying out their policy of public works and immigration. At the banquet attendant on a recent agricultural meeting in Canterbury, Mr Reeves, in responding to a toast in honor of the members of the General Assembly, took occasion to stale explicitly the views and intentions of the Cabinet regarding the construction of the various railways and other public works authorised by Parliament, and the measures that are being taken to secure the successful importation of additional population to this colony. Me also pointed out that, however anxious the Government, might be 10 push on the railway works in the different provinces, there were certain insurmountable causes which rendered it impossible that they could all be constructed with equal celerity. He successfully deprecated the impatience which seems to prevail in each division of the colony arising from want! of reflection and inadequate ideas of the magnitude of the operations which the Government' have undertaken. His

explanations of' -the deliberate inten

tions of the Government and of the causes which of necessity must delay the period of actual active work of construction were well timed. It has been the fashion for those opposed to the present Government to hint in the most flimsily veiled manner, that, all that the Ministry intended to do was to keep the colony upon the tenter-hooks of expectation, and, by playing upon the hopes. and anxieties of the various provinces without any serious intention of satisfying them, to maintain tlicmselves in power. We had an instance of this the other day in the gratuitously shabby 7 inuendos indulged in by the “ Nelson Examiner.” That organ of the Opposition having nothing else upon which to hang an accusation against the Government, found fault with the provision that one of the railways in the province of Nelson should bo proceeded with leisurely, and for that reason alone it had the temerity to accuse the Government of desiring to keep a bait hung indefinitely before the nose ol the Nelson electors. Mr Reeves’ speech should at once dispel all such ill-natured assumptions. ■As a Minister of the Crown and a representative of a very important constituency it is not likely that he would commit himself publicly to utterances that had not positive foundation in fact. He says : “ I can assure you—l say it distinctly—that the promises which the Government have held out in the direction of progress, they intend to carry out to the fullest extent. They intend to make railways through this island, and through parts of the North Island with as little delay as possible.” With regard to the concomitant policy, immigration, he is equally explicit:— “ They intend to increase the quantity of labor to be brought into this colony, as compared with the rate at which immigration has lately been carried on.” As proofs of the sincerity of the intentions of the Government in this matter, lie refers to the successful negotiations concluded with Colonel Fielding for the settlement of two thousand adult males in the province of Wellington, and to the instructions recently forwarded to the A gent-General in England, authorising him to send out during the current year eight thousand people. In order to combat the impatience of those who seem to expect that all the railways can be put into hand and completed at once, he draws attention to some facts that are woith repeating. Referring, to the enormous amount of material required for the railways, which must be imported from England, he says: —

I feel that tlie difficulty which the Government of this country will have to contend with is about to take an entirely different form from that which it has hitherto assumed. Two years ago the difficulty was to induce people to enlarge their views, and to support what is now commonly termed the policy of progress; that is to say, to induce them to support the Government in pledging the credit of the colony for these public works; but. that difficulty has in a great measure disappeared, and its place baa been taken by another of a-very different kind. We are now met by the impatience of the public to

have the railways made all at once, and without due regard to the difficulties and hindrances that stand in the way. I feel that it is almost impossible in the very short time I ought to take up on an occasion of this kind, to Explain to you fully why railways cannot be made in a day, and why works of this kind cannot be completed as quickly as you desire. A a I pointed out on the last occasion. I addressed you, the difficulty alone of bringing out the rails and the ironwork required for bridges in so short a time is one that it is impossible to overcome. When I explain to yon that the lightest form of railway requires about 100 tons of dead weight for every mile that is constructed, you can calculate for yourselves what amount of tonnage will be wanted to bring out the material required for 500 miles of railway ; 500 miles would take 50,000 tons of shipping. You all know, no doubt, that the largest ships employed in ordinary trade and for purposes of immigration —ships of say 1000 tons —do not care to take much' more than 150 tons of iron on board, and the number of ships that come herein the coarse of the year is necessarily very limited. I can illustrate this difficulty best, perhaps, by stating that the 2900 tons of dead weight required for the Northern railway, from Addington to Rangiora, have been able to be brought out only at the rate of 100 tons a-month. Therefore, you will see that unless the Government adopt some very different method of bringing out railway material, the construction of 500 miles at our present rate would land us well into the next generation. I am not pointing out these difficulties as excuses for delay on the part of the Government, or with any idea of discouraging you as to the comparatively prompt and speedy construction of the railways. The Government intend to make them, and as speedily as possible, and to avail themselves of all necessary appliances and means to construct them as quickly as they can be made ; only, I would have you bear in mind that, as every part of this colony thinks it has a fair claim to have its particular railway made first—as you think in the case of your railway—and as the Government must necessarily serve all parties with some degree of equality, these railways cannot be made in a day.

As to immigration, Mr Reeves echoes -oiu' own opinions as to the improbability of obtaining suitable immigrants from England at the rate the colony desires, and he refers to the favorable prospects of providing settlers from North Europe as some compensation for this difficulty. His comments upon the result of Mr Vogel’s mission to England will recommend themselves to everyone who has taken a dispassionate view of this question, and who has been at the pains to estimate them by those which have attended previous missions. He alludes as some proof of the practical character of Mr Vogel’s proceedings at home*'to the contemporaneous visits to New Zealand of Messrs Webb, Brogdcn, arid Colonel Fielding—each representing important commercial and financial interests for the purpose of un ■ dertaking large engagements involving the investment of an amount of capital that could not he raised within the colony. His references to his own position in the Cabinet are modest and frank. He states that he had not sought for office in any way, hut that as a Middle Island Minister was considered necessary, and that the lion Mr Hall, who would in all probability have acceded to the position of Minsiter of Public Works, was prevented by ill health from accepting office, he had been offered the post he now held and had accepted it with the intention of discharging its duties to the best of his ability. The hearty responses that were accorded to him by the large meeting he addressed proved that his-explanation was perfectly satisfactory, not only as it affected himself, but the Cabinet of which he is a member.