The Southland Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1870.

Southland Times, Issue 1330, 1 November 1870, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1870.

I The fact is generally conceded that our political administration ia by no means one of the most potent. The system itself is attacked by some, while its dispensation is impugned by others. It is not necessary to investigate the cause, as the effect suits our present purpose. Irregularities are of frequent occurrence, but however sorely they may be felt, a certain amount of latitude is allowed for errors of judgment or unforeseen contingencies. If we are to accept unreservedly the deliverance of our contemporary the I" Tuapeka Times," even this small modicum of satisfaction must be dispensed with, and these irregularities accepted without any compensating clause what- ? ever. His version, practically analysed, amounts to the startling intimation that they are part and parcel of a mutual arrangement made and executed in consideration of preferment to office. In Friday's issue we cited a part of our contemporary's dictum, and in again reproducing it, we can only plead its novelty no nn i>t"-v""> T* """'l'' are asked by Southland if it is true Mr Macakdbew recommended the Tuapeka Bailway scheme? We answer in the affirmative that he did, and we may further add that Mr Macajtorew dare not do otherwise. Whatever the ' charmer ' may promise to do for Southland during his visit to that aspiring dependency, his political existence depends upon the agrandisement of Dunedin. Let him or any other man attempt to rob Dunedin of its prestige, and we say farewell to his political influence in Otago." Now this is rather a plain way of stating a nefarious practice. All the specious talk we are accustomed to hear about public policy andtne general interest is disposed of at once, and a plain' principle of political barter substituted in its stead. Either the " Tuapeka Times," in a fit^ of remorse, has resolved upon turning Queen's evidence and making a clean breast of it, or else it has got so used to the political intrigues of its district that their use has become its second nature. Be that as it may, the admission is a painful one.- Even supposing it does not act as an operating cause in the sense in which it has been put, it betrays the existence of a combination from which some of the more malignant types of political abuse flow. The question at issue, as our readers are aware, is an attempt on the part of an organisation designating itself the "Tuapeka Kail way Progress Committee," to divert the Southern Trunk line by way of Tuapeka. In discussing the matter, we cannot afford to lose sight of those moral restraints our Tuapeka neighbors have dispensed with, nor are we prepared to assume the headstrong language they have adopted. It is fortunate our cause does not demand the sacrifice, otherwise there would be no alternative left but to allow matters to take their course. Even supposing Southland held the political destiny with which our contemporary credits his district, we do not imagine the issue of the question would in any way affect its disposal. In accepting the responsibility of allegiance with Otago, we did so in the hope that it would banishlocal jealousies, and in that responsibility we are prepared to recognise the obligation under which we rest to consult the best interests of the Province as a whole. It was in pursuance of this that we denounced the diversion scheme as tending to promote an irreparable blunder. The primary object of the undertaking is to connect Lake Wakatipu with the capital, and to carry it out by Tuapeka would be to court .engineering difficulties far in advance of our engineering skill. Leaving the money consideration out of the question, such places as the Round Hill, Waitahona facings, the Devil's Backbone, the Ruggety Ridge Dunstan, and Kawarau Gorges are barriers which could not be readily overcome. The plans of the Committee were laid with a good deal of deliberation. One project was to enlist the co-operation of Dunslan, Cromwell, and Queenstown. Now if any place was interested in seconding the movement, it must be the Dunstan. The Southland line cannot possibly be taken nearer to it than the foot of Lake Wakatipu, whereas the condition offered by the Tuapeka project was to bring it right through the township. The physical impossibility of the proposal appears at once to have been recognised by the Dunstan residents. Hence the Tuapeka bait, with all its blandishments, is rejected with stolid indifference, while the last issue to hand of the " Dunstan Times " works out the problem of increased facility to be secured to its district by the completion of the TST^^-fc^ii line. TTiP- VVakfLfcipvi representation made on the subject are equally explicit, so that the " Tuapeka Progress Committee " has no reason to congratulate itself on the progress it has made in these directions. On the part of Tuapeka the agitation is not a genuine one, but rather the offspring of a sinister motive, particulars of which are furnished by the "local correspondent of a Tokotnairiro paper. Dating from Lawrence, he says : — " Those who have allotments at either end of the .town, at all eligible for a terminus for the railway in expectancy, have at once endowed them with a fictitious and romantic value, which no doubt they anticipate realising. In the absence of all other excitable matter this harmless mania will result in no evil, and I have no doubt the occupants of quarter-acres will find an amusing pleasure in mentally calculating their expected ' piles.' " This seems to be the pith of the whole proceeding, a proceeding which, put into conventional phraseology, reads thus : — "We, the electors of Tuapeka, being registered owners of certain quarteracre sections suitable for railway purposes, pledge our suffrage in consideration of certain facilities to dispose of these sections by way of imposition on

the public exchequer. Such a compact is repugnant to British instinct, and instead of being countenanced by the public authorities, it should be rated as the criminal conversion of private rights.