The Oamaru Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 5 August 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1880.

The Dunedin Chamber of Commerce — tlie three tailors of Tooley-street—have met in solemn conclave and entirely demolished the unfortunate Railway Commission. They have lashed themselves into a state of frenzy posesssing somewhat of the peculiar mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous, and while under the influence of this temporary suspension of reason have given utterance to a mass of nonsense that, had it emanated from children, would have been delicious, but which coming from the leading citizens of the metropolis, is only calculated to create a smile. It is needless to Say that the occasion of all this fury signifying nothing was the total condemnation of the Otago Central Railway, Jt is also needless to say that all that was stated at the meeting was not in accordance with truth. For instance, Mr. J. Ashcroft is reported to have said that Mr. Blair had made a painstaking survey of seven different routes, and had declared the Strath-Taieri the best and the Maevewhenua the worst. Mr. Ashcroft is here either guilty of culpable ignorance or wiifui perversion of facts ; we will be charitable A.nd attribute the mis-statement to ignorance, For his information, then, we state plainly and feai-lesslv that Mr. Blair never made a survey of the proposed line from Livingstone to Naseby. He certainly did drive from Duntroon a few miles across the country, take a brief and not very critical look round from his comfortable position, and then drive back a r, ain. Having accomplished this disgraceful, if not distressing, task, the engineer reported strongly against the line. That he would do so—that he would use his ojficial position for the "ratification of private ends—was well known at the time, but the protest entered by the people of Oamaru against the employment of an engineer known to possess strong Dunedin proclivities was -without avail. So much for one of the statements of " truthful James." Mr. Ashcroft also had a little fling at the Livingstone line, reiterating much that appeared in the Daily Times' article to which we referred some few days ago. He joined with My. Gillies in saymg that the line ran through a narrow gorge, and was not at any point more than four miles from a parallel line. But with questionable honesty both these gentlemen omitted to state that the two lines yun parallel for a matter of little more than chree miles, and that they were so laid oft* in order to avoid heavy grades and a long tunnel. We have, however, no desire to go fully into the Livingstone and Ngapava: branch line questions, and shall there- j fore content ourselves with saying that when Mr. Ashcroft, who is not unknown in Oamaru, says that the people of Oamaru are pot at all wishful for the completion of the Livingstone line, he is guilty of stating a deliberate falsehood. Again, we say that the line when finished will pay well, and that is a vast deal more than can be said of any existing line, save the Port line, perhaps, within 30 or 40 miles of Dunedin—probably owing to the greedy city being divided from t-Jje po.imtry by high mountains, and th.e consequent great expense of working railways. We have little hesitation in expressing "rave doubts if any line of railway having -Dunedin for its terminus could be made to pay unless excessive rates were imposed, and yet the " three tailors" of Dunedin apparently think that no other part of the country is entitled to consideration in the matter of railways. Had the construction of railways depended upon a company whose object was to secure a fair return for the money expended, instead of upon a Government driven in any direction in order to secure votes, Dunedin would still have been without railway communication with the country, because it would have been seen that by no possible chance could, ia fair rate of interest be obtained upon tie enormous sums necessary for the

construction of lines in any direction. . We are pleased to observe that Mr. Begg recognised the fact thai; one of the Dunedin lines does not return anything to the Colonial; Treasury, but, on the contrary, is an unquestioned burden to the Colony. Speaking of the Strath-Taieri line, he is reported to have said :—"They should not urge the Government to go on and finish the line. They might take a lesson from the experience of another inland line —that from Clarksville to Lawrence. When it was contemplated they had heard a great deal about the country to be opened up, and how it would pay, and it had been constructed in obedience to the pressure. Well, it had now been running for five years, and every LI 00 of receipts entailed LI 10 of expenses. Yet they had been told it would pay handsomely, just as was said about the Otago Central Line. And he reminded them that much of the wool and the passenger traffic which would come by the Otago Central Line now came over the Lawrence one, wjiich nevertheless did not pay. The Lawrence line had cost L24Q,000, and that meant that the taxpayers of this overtaxed Colony ljad to contribute LI 4,000 a year to give the Tuape'ka people a line to their door. Beyond Strath-Taieri, lie contended, the land was, as Mr. M'Kjepi'ow termed it, of a mixed character, and hp was quite sure that if there were a railway to Maniototo tomorrow, they could not sell a large quantity of, land at a good paying figure. Even alongside the line from Dunedin to Invercargil Xj3 &n acre could not be got for better agricultural land than existed on the Maniototo Plqins," That these remarks are true in every- respect even Mr. Ashcroft did not attempt to deny, notwithstanding that during his remarks he indulged freely in statements and assertions at total variance with facts. We shall revert to the subject in a future issue, and in the meantime shall content ourtelves with the assurance that, despite she fact that the " three tailors " have met and decided the question that Dunedin only shall be considered in reference to railways, there is a higher power than the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, and that the Strath-Taieri railway will for years to come be classed amongst the things of the future.