The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 97, 2 April 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2.

A special meeting of the Borough Council was held last evening for the purpose of considering the application ofthe County Council as to what assistance and countenance the former body would give towards the proposed line of railway which it is sought to construct between the town and Patutahi, together with the Borough Council’s decision as to which line of route they would elect to take the same through the Borough. At the very outset of the discussion it was plainly seen that the County’s mode of procedure was faulty. While commending the prompt action and wise determination of the County Council in trying to bring to a successful issue a scheme, the urgent necessity for which was fully recognised on all sides three and a half years ago, we cannot help expressing our surprise at the want of tact shown in the manner, up?to. the present time, which: they have gone about the matter. Notwithstanding that attention has been called to the wisdom of the precedent so amply demonstrated by the satisfactory and prompt results which eventuated from the combined action of the two bodies sitting as a conference on the Harbor question, the County has utterly ignored the logic of the fact that in a multitude of Councillors lieth wisdom. And what will be the result ? Simply that much time will be wasted, and the ground have to be gone over again. It appears as though the Borough Council has speedily realised these facts as shown by their having inaugurated the initiatory step of electing a committee to collate data to lay before their own board, prior to an interview with the County members. Of course, the construction of the pro-posed-line is’a question of equal importance to both local bodies, and cannot possibly be brought to a successful issue except by the united action and approval of both Boards; and it must be plain to all that the best step towards the attainment of this object would be by a conference between the two bodies. The larger the ship, the greater the danger from contact with small rocks. In proof of this we need only point to the fact that the very same movement came to grief, between three and four years ago, through a very slight informality in a committee report. We are compelled to confess that the manner in which the subject was approached by our Borough members last night bodes ill to the project. One member objected in toto to any steam engine running through the town on the grounds of its being an intolerable nuisance, whilst another shadowed heaps of mangled children and women as a certain result of such an innovation. Others saw dire results from frightened horses, and nearly all seemed to lose sight of the general practical good and great benefits which would result to the whole community at the expense and sacrifice of the whimsical notions and prejudices of a few. The wisdom of taking the line Childers Street must be obvious to all for many reasons. In the first place, the latter road is but partly formed, and the construction of a line along the same would necessitate the making of a good road by the contractor throughout its entire length ; it is more direct and less likely to interfere with the ordinary street traffic which is nearly exclusively confined to. the Gladstone Road, and, .therefore, less likely to occasion any of those terrible catastrophes which have given rise to such fears in some minds. By having the line on the Gladstone Road we destroy a good road, and by having it on Childers Road we shall have a good road made for us. But all these palpable facts and plain arguments are no good if members are not prepared to sink those small, petty, selfish interests in the general desire to benefit the whole district. Any slight individual sacrifice will be more than compensated for by a participation of the general benefits attending the progress of the whole district.