THE EVENING MAIL. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1877.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 337, 23 May 1877, Page 2

THE EVENING MAIL.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1877.

* Words are things, and a drop of ink falling upon a thought may produce that which makes thousands think."

The Daily Times has fired another of its great guns at the people of Oamaru ; but, as is often the case with that ponderous journal, the gun was only loaded with powder. There w 7 as neither shot nor shell, and the consequence has been that, though there was a great noise, and no end of smoke, no damage has been done. Possibly the fact of our contemporary only using blank cartridge may be accounted for by the holy horror with which it looks upon even the prospect of those missiles of destruction, shot and shell, being brought into use, as witness its recent wailings and moanings about the chance of Dunedin being made a target of for the exercise of the powerful guns of some not over-friendly man-of-war. Be this as il may, however, the Times has been again indulging in that, to it, somewhat popular pastime of firing blank cartridge at Oamaru, with the notion, no doubt, of frightening the people of " the small port on the borders of Canterbury " into submission. The occasion of this waste of powder and indulgence in smoke is, of course, the action of the people of Oamaru in reference to the [construction of a line of railway into the interior of the Provincial district. 0 n r contemporary seems wrath at the bare idea of Oamaru daring to enter into competition with the commercial metropolis of the Colony for the inland trade, and indulges in a lot of nonsensical bombast aboub the importance of the inland districts being connected with the " capital." We are glad to find that our contemporary condescends to pay the people of Oamaru a compliment, by saying that they are wiser in their generation than those of Dunedin. We are thankful for even so slight an acknowledgement of superiority, more especially when we take into consideration the source from which it comes. " They won't lose anything for default of asking," says our magnanimous, unselfish, and publicspirited contemporar}', again referring to the people of Oamaru. Thank yon, ger..-•-.>us friend! We might return the compliment, only that to do so would be superfluous. The people of Dunedin are celebrated for the eagerness with which they attempt to seize upon any good thing that may be brought in the slightest manner under their notice. In the exhibition of this greediness the Daily Times is, and always lias been, a great sharer. Give ! give ! give ! has always formed the chief burden of its lay, and no sooner has it received what it has asked for than, like Oliver Twist, it has again cried for more. No matter what public undertakingis suggested, otu* contemporary has at once pronounced its opinion thereon, and that opinion has, without exception, been arrived at from a consideration of the probability of the undertaking benefitting Dunedin. If it was satisfied that the proposal was likely to be a good thing for Dunedin, than it was pleased, and supported the proposal ; but if, on the other hand, it could not see that Dunedin was to be then it became wrath, and characterised the whole of the proceedings in connection with the carrying out of the undertaking as something worse than a swindle. Dunedin has always been the Alpha and Omega of our contemporary's thoughts. No wonder, then, that many of the people of Dunedin believe in the Daily Times; no wonder, too, that our selfish contempoary does not find many admirers outside of the "commercial metropolis." It is not surprising, therefore, to find the Daily Times resorting to contemptible tricks in order to divert the minds of people from a proper consideration of the merits of the three different routes by which the railway into the interior can be taken. It cannot be brought, apparently, to a proper appreciation of the fact that were the line taken from Oamaru to t the Kyeburn it would effect a saving of more than onehalf in the length of railway to be constructed. No ; to admit such a thing would at once be to acknowledge the great advantage possessed by [Ormaru in the " triangular dual " going on between Oamaru, Palmerston, and Outrani. To

make so great an admission would be about the last thing the Daily Times would be guilty of, so long as there was any sort of a red herring procurable to draw across the scent. In judging of the distance to Kaseby by the three different routes our contemporary takes Dunedin into calculation in all three, and attempts, by a little artful manipulation of figures, to show that the Outram route is the shortest. While admitting in a sort of a way that the line to be made from Oamaru would only be 32 miles, while that from Palmerston would be 50 miles, and that from Outram 65 miles, our con_ temporary, with its usual amount of cool impudence, attempts to make the totals tell in its favour by adding thereto the distance to Dunedin from each of the proposed starting points of the alternative lines. This it does in the following manner :—" Then there is this difference, that from Palmerston to Dunedin is only 40 miles, and from Outram to Dunedin, only 15 miles; whereas Oamaru will be 76 or 78 miles by rail." Thus, by a little judicious manipulation of figures, and bringing Dunedin again into consideration, our contemporary proves to its own satisfaction that the Outram route would be the shortest, and that produce would by this route have to travel a less distance to reach a seaport town than by either of the other lines. The fact that Oamaru possesses a secure harbour and every facility for the transaction of shipping business, and that there is, therefore, no necessity of taking into consideration the 76 or 78 miles of rail between Oamaru and Dunedin, is passed by with that amount of cool effrontery which could only be expected from so great an adept in the practice of deceit as the Otago Daily Times. Out of its own mouth our contemporary is convicted. According to its own showing, produce would have to be carried a far and away longer distance by rail to Dunedin to find an outlet than would be the case were the line constructed from Oamaru. While produce from Naseby would have to be carried by rail no less than 90 miles by the Palmerston route, and 80 miles by the Outram route, it would only have to travel 60 miles by the Oamaru line before reaching a port of shipment. This is a fair specimen of the manner in which the Daily Times deals with the question of routes, and fully shows the narrow-minded and selfish policy by which it is actuated. We have no intention of going any further into the misty maze which our our contemporary has formed for the purpose of misleading the public and making wrong appear right.