The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 9 August 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 1880.

It will be seen by the Public Wprks Statement that, notwithstanding ths unqualified condemnation of the Otago' Central Railway by the Royal Commission, the Ministry intend continuing the construction of the line. It will also be seen from the Public Works Estimates forwarded to us by our Wellington correspondent that the Minister for Public Works intends asking Parliament to vote a sum of L 87,720 for the work, including L 50.354 as expenditure and liabilities already incurred. Thus it will be observed that despite the recommendation of the Commission thai; the work should be abandoned, it is proposed to expend during the remainder of the financial year a further sum of L 37.371 on this notorious job. That Mr. Oliver bad some misgivings as to the wisdom of thus setting at defiance the recommendation of an unprejudiced Commission is shown by the fact that he makes special reference to it in two distinct portions of his report as a means of providing work for the unemployed. No reference whatever is piade to the value of the work; there is no attempt to justify the expenditure of a large sum of money upon a work condemned without mercy by an independent Commission of his own creation. In the face of a recommendation that the work should be abandoned, he proposes to expend nearly L 40,000 njo-re upon the line, and this, too, notwithstanding that the Commission which condemned the line was brought into existence for the avowed purpose of placing a wholesome check upon railway jobbery for the future. This, too, he does without a single word of explanation, save the excuse that it will provide work for the unemployed. If this is the only argument that can be adduced in favor of the continuance of a gigantic job calculated to cost the Colony L 1,100,000, then the case must be even worse than the Commissioners have represented it to be. We might reasonably have expected that when pror posing bo flagrant a departure from the recommendations of the Commissioners — almost the only departure from their recommendations—that Mr. Oliver would at least have attempted to adduce some show of reason for adopting so stranga and unwarrantable a course. The cry that it will find work for the unemployed forms but the sorriest of arguments in favor of continuing an undertaking which five independent Commissioners declared to be uncalled for, and which they assert should never have been commenced. _ -At such a time as this it may be well briefly to refer to the origin of this precious Otago Central Railway. Such a retrospective glance will be of value as showing with wh3t haste, what cunning the job was nerpetrated in Parliament., The necessity for establishing communication with the interior of Otago was, in the early part of 1877, mooted by Mr. 0. A. de Lautour, M.H.R., in the columns of the Mount Ida Chronicle, and the feasibility of extending one of the Oamaru branch lines to Naseby via the Maerewhenua Pass was mooted. The article, it is true, also pointed out the alternative routes via Strath»Taieri and Shag Yalley. But while admitting the possibility of carrying the line by these different routes, the superiority of that via Maerewhenua, having Oamaru for the terminus on the seaboard, was fully recognised. On looking over that article, we find the writer—no mean authority—urging that the short length of carriage placed it far before the Shag Yalley or Strath-Taieri lines. The feasibility of carrying a railway over the Maerewhenua Pass was also shown by the fact that a water-race had been taken from the very heart of the Pass to Otekaike Downs. The practicability of the scheme having tbus been set forth, the subject was freely discussed by the Press and the public, the outcome being that Messrs. Thornton and Bull were engaged to make a survey and report upon the practicability and probable cost of making a railway to Naseby. That report not only showed that a railway could be made, but that its total cost of construction would onlyamountto about L 300,000. The practicability of the scheme having thus been placed beyond a doubt, it was decided that efforts should be m3.de to construct a line between Naseby and Oamaru, either by private enterprise, aided by a Government concession of land, or entirely by the Government. Not until matters had progressed thus far did the question of opening up communication with the interior occur to the minds of the Dunedinites. So far they had manifested no interest in the establishment of railway communication with Naseby. The energy displayed by the people of this and the Maniototo districts arrested their attention, and, to use the words of Mr. Yincent Pyke, it was determined that the efforts of Oamaru to secure communication with the interior " should be snuffed out." Thi3, too, notwithstanding the incontrovertible facts that Kyeburn to Oamaru would be only a little over fifty miles, whereas from the same place to Port Chalmers would be over ninety miles. In the following session of Parliament the question was brought up in the form of a motion expressing the desirability for constructing a line to tap the interior of Otago. No mention was made of any particular route, and the whole of the Otago members, including those from this district, voted in favor of the motion, which was carried, and a survey ordered to be made to ascertain the best route. Then it was that" every pressure and every influence was brought to boar upon the question. A very indifferent survey—and, as pointed out in a previous issue, no survey at all of the Maerewhenua route—was made by a Dunedin engineer, who, looking through a pair of spectacles of a strong Dunedin color, sent in a one-sided report. At last the consent of Parliament was obtained to what is now justly pointed out as being a most scandalous waste of public money, and a railway was commenced that, had any due regard been paid as to the probability of its ever paying, would never for a moment have received consideration. This was simply done to prevent Oamaru obtaining that advantage to which by its natural position it was fully entitled. We haye said that every lever was used in favor of Dunedin, and it paay be well to mention some of the despicable courses resorted to. It was argued that the port at Oamaru was, not to be looked upon as onp pf sufficient importance and. .safety to be regarded as an outlet for the produce of the interior,

and it was hinted that such would never be the case. But what a different aspect affairs are beginning to assume. The fact that a Secure and commodious harbor was being formed at Oamaru was entirely ignored, and the claims of this town and port were pooh-poohed. That there was neither force nor reason in these so-called arguments time has abundantly proved. There can now <::; us? hardly the slightest doubt that in a short time the port of Oamaru will be able to accommodate with complete safety vessels of considerably larger dimensions and heavier draught than Port Chalmers. Again, it was clearly pointed out at the . time when the subject was under discussion that! the line proposed from' Oamaru to _ Kyeburn passed through vast quantities of good arable land, an.d a survey had demonstrated that there was nothing impracticable in its construction, but all this was ignored. very kind of oojection was raised jigwinst ti:e Mat vev.heisua route, the whole of wmch only :>ad existence in the prejudiced minds of the greedy cormorants of Duuedin. All this was really done from a jealous apprehension of the benefit that would accrue to Oamaru. Ths Strath-Taieri route was declared to be one of surpassing excellence ; it would open up a vast amount of magnificent land, and it would pay handsomely. But now, when political influence is put aside, and unbiassed opinions given by an independent Commission, how different is the tulel The same influence, however, that vi;>s brpug.it. to bear at the inception of thb Sv.ra.rhTaieri railway job is again being thrust forward to endeavor to assure its completion ; and Oamaru, in addition to being robbed, so to speak, of its natural birthright, is also to be called upon to bear heavy taxation to pay for the inevitable lo3s that will undoubtedly result from the completion of thisgiganticpolitical swindle. This it is already doirjg in a smaller measure in bolstering up the Duneain rrade by contributing towards the loss made on the railway tratlic between here and that city. As an old biovcrb has it., ''Truth is the hidden we all should dig for/' and it behoves us through the Railway Committee and our members to seek to obtain what has been for some time asked for. viz., that a detailed survey should be made of the Kyeburn to Oamaru route, and an estimate of cost given. Were this done, we need have no fear of the result on the merits of the case. This is what the Railway Commission recumrecofnmendation is shown by the fear :tod mend should be done, and the wisdom Ql' the trembling that it has occasioned amongst, the interested advocates of the StrathTaieri line. Were they less fearful of the result of a thorough and impartial investigation of the respective merits of the two routes to the interior, they would certainly not have hailed with such terrible alarm a recommendation that must strike every reasonable and unbiassed person as being both sensible and just.