ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Southland Times, Issue 941, 27 April 1868, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

WS DO HOT IDENTIFY OTJK3BLTBS lIT AXY WAT WITH THB OPINIONB EXPRESSED BY OUB COBBBSPONDENTS. THE COMPLETION OP THE NORTHERN RAILWAY. (TO THB BDITOB OP THB SOUTHLAND TIMES). Sib, — As the Provincial Council is about to be convened for the special duty of affirming the expenditure of money in the purchase of material for the completion of the Railway, perhaps you will allow me a space in your columns for the purpose of saying a few words on the subject, and endeavoring to point out certain erroneous ideas that are held by some members of the • Council. Whilst doing so, however, I may premise that any disinclination that may be evinced as to the necessity for completing theßailway arises only from the consideration that, if the Railway is completed to Winton, it will be the means of stopping the construction of roads in the various parts of the Province. I Bay I will premise this as the only objection that weighs in the minds of the members who are opposed to the finishing of the Railway, because I cannot entertain a doubt that the principle of making Railways is acknowledged by every man of common sense as the only efficacious and economical means of opening up the interior of a new country. Indeed, on this subject I will give an extract from an author, whose influential position enabled him to collect the very best and most important infor--mation that was likely to bo obtained in America. The writer in speaking of the rapid growth of settlement in America, says :— " In older countries it is population that creates Railways. But in young countries, euch as America, it is Railways that create population. Where, a fenr years ago, only a barren wilderness met the gaze, now townships have sprung up numbering thousands of inhabitants. Railways were started to districts that at one time contained only a few inhabitants, bat by economy of transit, in a marvellous short time pros-

perous townships have been created,'* ■ "Well, I assume that every one is agreed as to the principle of constructing Railways, and I will now endeavor to 9how that the finishing of the Eailway is most essential to our prosperity as a Province, and on which mainly depends the opening up of the interior of the country by roads. It is an undoubted fact, to all acquainted with road-making,, that nothing will serve for a permanent road in Southland but metal of the best description. In proot of what I advance I may point out the localities* where heavy traffic has been maintained in years gone by — Clyde-street, Tay-street, Deestreet, the Waikivi road, the Bay road, the Eiverton road, the Otautau road, part of the East road, and last, but not least, the present road leading to the railway station, to show that gravel, however well it may do for side-walks or roads that very little traffic passes over, will not answer for mainlines. Thus is it necessary for the construction of roads in the interior of the north-western district, which embraces some of the finest land in the Province, and which will surely bear a large population before long, that the Winton line should be finished. For by no other means can metal be got from the Green Hills and Bluff to make them. Could the metal be obtained to make the roads in the Eastern district without the aid of a railway? Certainly not. I will adduce another fact which appears to have been overlooked by the great majority of those who are averse to the construction of the Northern \xn.Q pure et simple. If it was not for the very great probability that this line is to be finished, there would not have been at the present moment any fund.* iv\a + ever in the Provincial Treasury — nay more, it is not improbable that the Government would have been compelled before this to have a second! time stopped payment. Would Mr Matthew Holmes have invested £20,000 in the purchase of land if he thought that he could have held it in fee-simple? Would those pastoral tenants of the Crown, who have lately become landed proprietors, thought it necessary to have invested in the purchase of their runs had not the contemplated finishing of the Eailway, by making land more valuable, rendered their investment a wise one ? I think it will be reasonably answered that they would not. The same rule applies to a host of others. I think the finishing of the line would do great good to Southland — would be the means of conferring nearly as great a benefit on this community, in a proportionate ratio as the railways in Victoria did to the colonists in the sister colony. I think that having paid bo much already for this work — some. £60,000 1 am informed— it would be sheer madness to throw away the offer of the General Government to give us cash to finish it. But to return to the phase of the question I started with. The opinion some people hold that roadmaking would be stopped, is erroneous, because the finishing of the line is altogether apart, and disconnected from jcDadjnaking^-or -of~absorbing funds that would go to make roads. The question, as I understand it, simply means this. The General Government give us a certain sum to finish the Northern Line of Eailway, believing that it will be the means of inducing further sales of Crown lands, which will thus be placed at the disposal of the Provincial Government in carrying on road-making, paying interest on the loan, and maintaining provincial institutions. But if we refuse this offer in the belief that the money offered for Eailway purposes can be devoted to road -making, then we make a most lamentable mistake. For the money is to be raised for a special object, and if this is neglected, the matter ceases j we loose the chance of selling land for road-making, and we may become something like the province of Marlbourgh, which is now experiencing a general collapse. Observes. April 22, 1868.