South Canterbury Times, TUESDAY MAY 3, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2532, 3 May 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, TUESDAY MAY 3, 1881.

We are glad to learn that the West Coast railway movement is meeting, with general sympathy and support The projectors deserve the greatest credit for the indefatigable manner in which they have prosecuted their task. They have not been content with agitation and advocacy, but they have clearly shewn that the line is a most practicable one, and that the engineering difficulties and large expenditure originally represented by the officers of the railway survey staff are exaggerations. So far as the project is now concerned everything looks cheerful. The route has been examined, and it has been clearly demonstrated that the construction of the line is not such a work of difficulty and magnitude as many imagined. One danger alone has to be passed and the battle is won. The danger rests with the Legislature. If members choose to be obstructive they may do a great deal to hinder this national work. That there will be a general rolling of logs there is not the slightest doubt. No concession can be granted to the South Island without a similar demand being made for the North, nor can Canterbury be favored while Otago is left in the cold. It is this dog-in-the-manger disposition that operates so disastrously on beneficial legislation and desirable improvements. The principle upon which it is proposed to construct this new line is one that has of late years been adopted to a great extent in the United States. The same principle is also likely to be acted upon in Australia in connection with the trans-continental railway. It constitutes a wide departure from the system of railway extension hitherto pursued in the colonies. Instead of the lines being made by the Government they are constructed entirely by private enterprise and entrusted to the control of the shareholders. All that the Government are required to do is to grant a subsidy of land sufficient to ensure the Company against a large prospective loss in case of their undertaking proving less re-» munerative than they anticipated. We are aware that in the opinion of a certain class of politicians—and they are very numerous—the withdrawal of railway works from Government control is very objectionable. According to the theory formulated by these political thinkers nothing can be prepared properly unless the Government has a finger in the pie. But colonists are beginning to learn wisdom. The experience of late years has shewn tl?em that public works,when performed and managed by the State, are invariably expensive and extravagant. We shall watch with interest the various objections that will be raised to this new railway system. Of one thing we are perfectly satisfied, that railways constructed by joint stock companies will be very differently managed from State railways. They will be made and maintained on economic principles, and care will be

taken to develop the traffic. If they are made reproductive their customers, the public, will share the benefit in common with the shareholders. It is a notorious fact that any undertaking capable of being worked by private enterprise, is invariably mismanaged when submitted to political influence. The less the amount of personal patronage vested in ministers the better for the tax-payers. We do not say that the Government railways are corruptly administered but we contend that the system of management is sadly defective. At all events the West Coast railway scheme deserves a fair trial, and if the promoters should only be able to show the Government how railways can be successfully run, and settlement promoted, they will confer a great and lasting benefit on the colony.

The special correspondent of a Dunedin paper ventilates a statement concerning the wreck of the Tararua ..which, if positively verified, must cause feelings of m'Ugled surprise; regret, and indignation. Tbe statement to which we call attention is as follows :—“I under- “ stand that when the news of the “ Tararna’s loss was first made known “ tbe Kakanui was lying in Bluff “ Harbor, and that an offer was made “ to the Union Company to send her on “ to the scene of the wreck, hut it was “ refused, and that the Kakanui was “ told that she might go up to the “wreck if it were convenient. It is to “ bo regretted that the services of this “ steamer were not secured with “ promptitude, for, had such been done, “ there appears every reason to believe “ that she would have reached the “ wreck of the Tararua before she" “ parted.” This, wo submit, is an assertion that should should not be lost sight of in the investigation that is impending. Admitting that the telegram received from Wyndham in the first instance was somewhat misleading, nothing should hare been left to chance. A valuable steamer with, numerous lives was stranded on a dangerous point and that should have induced the Union S.S. Company and their agents to have acied with promptitude, A statement like the above* (must either he confirmed or disproved. The public mind will not rest satisfied with a mere half and half investigation. If there is blame, the consequences arc so serious that it must not be smoothed over. The enquiry must be searching. When tidings of the wreck fUst reached us, it certainly occurred to us that help if obtainable would be procured from the nearest source. Bluff harbor is only about thirty miles from the scene of the accident whereas Dunedin is nearly one hundred miles off. If help was procurable from the Bluff it was as ridiculous to depend on a steamer from Dunedin as to wait for one from Melbourne. The question is at what time was news of the accident received by the Union Company’s agent at the Bluff? Was the offer re the Kakanui made as alleged? Had it been accepted or had the steamer been despatched immediately, is there a reasonable possibility that the lives on board the Tararua would have been saved ? For the sake of the friends of those who have perished, in the interests of humanity, and for the sake of the Union S.S. Company, whose excellencies have but recently been paraded by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce these questions should be answered.