WANGANUI AMBITION.

Patea Mail, 28 September 1880, Page 2

WANGANUI AMBITION.

Mr Ballanc* has been misunderstood. When he said the Wanganui river is more improvable than the Clyde, he was “ opening up no new ground, not having advanced beyond that to which the Harbor Board is already practically committed.” Now this misunderstanding is neither explained nor confessed. Observe what Mr Ballance said, as reported in the Herald: —“ Many gentlemen then present (Waitotara railway luncheon) could remember the Clyde when it was not nearly so good as Wanganui, and with nothing like the same facilities for improvement.” There is his statement, and it was so erroneously based that we deemed it a public duty to point out in what particulars Mr Ballance had erred in making this false comparison. Mr Ballance now replies that lie “opened up no new ground';” that “he was careful to explain that the problem was a practical one,” etcetera. He quotes the late Mr Balfour, Mr Blackett, Mr Barr, and Sir John Coode. Did any one of these persons ever sanction Mr Ballance’s dictum that the Clyde formerly had nothing like the same facilities for improvement as Wanganui ? If not, how can Mr Ballance quote these authorities to show that he has opened up no new ground? Mr Ballance would do more justice to his intelligence, and would inspire more public confidence in his thoroughness, if lie would candidly admit that it was opening up new ground to say the Clyde had nothing like the same facilities for improvement as Wanganui. A public man-never improves his position by trifling with known facts. Let Wanganui river bo improved, by all fair means, a work in which we heartily sympathise ; but do not build hopes on false comparisons.