The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2O, 1879.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5843, 20 December 1879, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1879.

The Public Works Act, 1879, as finallyagreed to by the Legislature, authorises almost identically the same amount of immediate expenditure as that originally intended by the House. In another column we reprint the alterations of the schedule, and those who are conversant with the districts will at once recognise that the sections of railway upon which an expenditure was originally authorised, will be gone on with as was at first proposed. A difference of title has been introduced into the Act, which is not important. The Council has altered the termini of several lines, which appeared in the seventh schedule of the Apjnopriation Act, as railways upon which expenditure for construction was authorised by the Act, and consequently the colony stands committed to a very much smaller total expenditure than before. For instance, the Picton to Hurunui line, entered as 140 miles, now figures as the Picton-Awatere line, 31 miles; the NelsonGreymouth line estimated at 180 miles is now restricted to Nelson-Roundell, 52 miles ; East and West Coast is now cut down to Amberley-Waikari, a northern extension of the main lino, only some ten or twelve miles in length measured on the map. These amendments are important, but they are entirely different in scope and effect from the alterations originally insisted upon in the Council. On Thursday night the Council struck out works involving an expenditure of more than half-a-million ; on Friday morning they consented to allow sections of most of the works they had previouslystrnck outtobe commenced i upon, but absolutely declined to pledge) the colony to carrying the works beyond the termini of the sections named. In one case only did they strike out a railway altogether. An expenditure of £SOOO was proposed by the first schedule of the Public-Works Bill upon the Wai-kato-Tqranaki line. The total length of the railway was entered upon the Public Works Appropriation Act as 146 miles ; the section proposed to be commenced was only one mile long. However, the Council struck out this line from the Public Works Act altogether. A stormy debate followed in the Lower House. Political capital was made out of the supposed neglect of Auckland interests as shown by the tacit acquiescence of the Ministry in this curtailing of their proposed expenditure. Mr. Hah, however, explained that the alteration was cf no practical importance. Survey work only could be carried on, and the Government, he said, possessed ample powers to push on the surveys on the Waikato-Taranaki line, if the native owners would allow them to do so. He also explained that the same remark applied equally to the survey of the East and West Coast line between Canterbury and Westland. It is no doubt true that conditional promises have been made by former Ministers of Public Works to carry out this project under the name of the Am-berley-Brunnerton line ; but as the Premier truly stated, there is a limit to the spending power of the colony, and so far as the present sources of information will allow us to judge, the East and West Coast line across the Middle Island exceeds our powers. Even though the line were constructed for a tithe of the probable cost, Mr. Blair’s report shows beyond question that it would be dear at any price, and that it would be sure to prove a white elephant, which it would be ruinous to attempt to maintain. A Canterbury Premier can surely be trusted to enforce the strictest exploration of every possible route, before finally abandoning a scheme upon which a vast majority of his constituents have set their hearts. Mr. Saunders averred that the NelsonRoundell line would prove a thoroughly bad speculation. Mr. Shrimski even went so far as to say that some of the new works undertaken would not return enough profit upon the original outlay to pay for grease for the carriage wheels. Sir G. Grey would have revelled in the scrimmage had he been present ; but his joy would have been damped by the flagrant apostacy of his pet disciple, Mr. Be Lautouk, who for the first time within the past two or three years heaped political blessings instead of curses upon the heads of the Legislative Councillors, and—wonderful to relate—Mr. Shrimski and Mr.

Lu.vdox followed suit. We fear that their utterances will not be found in “Hansard,” as the House was in committee, but the facts are as stated.