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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5635, 22 April 1879, Page 2

We observe in the Auckland journals A statement that the work of extending the Waikato rail way from Represent terminus, on the old site of Fort Britomart, to the entrance of the Queen-street Wharf has not yet been commenced by the contractor, and we would seriously recommend the Government to seize the occasion for reconsidering the whole question as to the urgent necessity or the policy of this “great” work, or whether, in the interests of the citizens themselves, it is necessary that the Colony shall be put to a heavy expense for the execution of a work which no one even in Auckland or in the North can now or does seriously regard as being either necessary or useful. There was a time when there were, as we have heard, a few enthusiasts who regarded Queen-street as the centre of life and motion in the Northern province, and who felt that no road or street that did not radiate from that important thoroughfare could be of any service to the people of the province ; but the province has outgrown Queen-street and fogeydom, and those who attempt to justify the temporary revival of the old traditional spirit at the present time do so openly on the ground that the expenditure of some £35,000 of the public money in the city would be a good thing for the poor man during the coming winter, and preventthescarcity of work and the reduction in the wages of labor, which the present tightness of money must inevitably produce. Whilst the price of wool and of cereals continued high there was a margin of profit in which the working man was cheerfully allowed to share ; but the margin has disappeared, and expenditure in the work of production will and must now necessarily be contracted or stopped until it can be made with a reasonable prospect of advantage to the farmer and the runholder. In view of diminished profits, or of positive loss, we may expect to observe a general buttoning up of pockets throughout the colony. No sane individual, who had an honorable purpose of meeting his engagements or maintaining his credit will risk his own capital, or borrow the money of others, to employ it in an unpromising enterprise,' and no Government ought to be permitted to do that with money committed to their charge, which prudence, under ordinary circumstances, could not justify. There is nothing, excepting the assumed necessity for the expenditure of public money, somehowor other, in the North, to justify, at the present time at any rate, the proposed work. It is ah authorised undertaking; it has the sanction of Parliament, and is covered by an appropriation. In all these respects it is on a different footing from the Thames Valley railway job, but it is, nevertheless, a waste of money which could be usefully and profitably expended elsewhere in opening up the country. It is said, and we believe correctly, that the difficulties' to be encountered in the construction of the breakwater or facing for the reclamation, are greater than were supposed to exist at the time when the tenders were sent in, and that therefore the contractor has not been in a hurry to proceed. As he might even be content to get clear of a job which promises to be unprofitable, both parties may now find satisfactory reasons for a reconsideration of the case, and for a postponement of the enterprise to a future and more favorable time. It may be a consolation to the Government to know that in following the prudent course on this occasion their political party interests will be scarcely, if at all, affected. Their case is now so hopeless that the votes of Auckland City West and Auckland City East will not suffice to save them, whilst in the ranks even of their opponents Ministers might find men who would recognise the virtue of a somewhat tardy repentance, and give , them the benefit of a doubt at their approaching trial before the High Court of Parliament.