THE PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT AN ELECTIONEERING PROJECT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5449, 13 September 1878, Page 5

THE PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT AN ELECTIONEERING PROJECT.

(From the HaicJces Bay Tclcyrapk.) Our morning contemporary, in its article to* day, reminds its readfcrs that on the delivery of the Public Works Statement it expressed its “ admiration of thq great scheme, so happily conceived and so well digested, which Mr, Macandrew had placed before Parliament.” To show that it was not alone in its estimation of the Statement, our contemporary next proceeds to give extracts from those journals that had expressed similar views. It quotes from the Lyttelton Times, Christchurch Press, Timaru Herald, the .Dunedin papers, and the Auckland Herald. A tolerably long article is by this means constructed, the whole of which is devoted to an unreasoning laudation of the public works proposals of the Government. These proposals are characterised as bold, comprehensive, far - sighted, sagacious, and lucid ; a well-matured and carefully-digested scheme, that will meet with the general approval of the, country. If the proposals had embraced the East Coast districts; if the scheme had not entirely excluded the whole of tho East Coast from any participation in the plan for the progress of the colony, and did not purpose to devote the land revenue of the east to make railways in the south and west, wo might have held a different opinion of the Public Works Statement to that which we now entertain. It would be very difficult to withhold praise from scheme which proposed to enrich ourselves; and perhapsweshould not be very particular in our enquiries who would be the , sufferers by the arrangement. So has it been with the journals circulating iu tho .districts that are to benefit by the public works proposals. They can see no injustice in a plan by which they will be enriched at the expense of others ; nothing can appear to them more comprehensive than a scheme that included tho whole colony—one half to find tho money, the other half to spend it. Wo can well understand that Canterbury, Otago, and Auckland regard such a proposal ns the height of wisdom, but we are at a loss to conceive how Hawke's Bay, Nelson, Poverty Bay, Bay of Islands, and other parts of the colony, cau hold a similar opinion. So far, indeed, from expressing admiration of- tho scheme, at Nelson and at Gisborne public meetings have been held condemning it as unjust, and tho reverse of statesmanlike, for it proposes that, during the next five years, no works shall be undertaken except in a few favored districts, ‘while those that ftre to be neglected arc appointed to be the geese to lay the golden eggs. To us the Public Works Statement is only comprehensive and sagacious iu so far as it embodies the scheme of 1870. It is amusing with what audacity the Public Works Minister has seized upon the original ideas of Sir Julius Vogel, and has brought them forward as though they were his own. There is nothing new in , the proposal to complete through lines from Wellington to Napier, Wellington to Waitara, and so on, nor is

there anything original in the proposal to set aside land to pay cost of construction. Outlying districts ‘have every reason to complain that they are still to suffer under the old neglect, and the decision of the Ministry to spend money only on railways which will at ouce pay a dividend is stnl further aggravating” the injustice to which they have had to submit. The Statement, we cannot help thinking, is an electioneering advertisement, drawn up to catch wavering southern votes. Works winch cannot possibly be completed under seven or e : ght years are held out to the unconsidering as in immediate prospect. The only wonder is that a line from “ No m in’s land to a Castle in Spain ” was not included in the list of Canterbury railways. Had such a line been proposed, and the Crown lands at Wairoa, at Poverty Bay, in the Seventy-mile Hush, and iu the Bay of Plenty set apart for its construction, our sagacious morning contemporary 1 would still have expressed its admiration of the scheme for the simple reason that it had emanated from a patronage dispensing Minister.