The Southland Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1648, 15 October 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1872.

The promise extracted from the late Ministry by a deputation of Southland members of Assembly, "to consider favorably" the construction of twelve miles of the Winton-Kingston railway, may now be regarded as a thing of the past. "We are not sure that there is any great cause for regret in the fact. The line has been " considered" one way and another nearly long enough, and it is high time that some steps of a practical kind were taken, to advance from consideration to actual performance. It is now a mere waste of time to recapitulate the arguments in favor of making this 1 line, which are foanded on the essential merits of the work, as part of the great scheme for opening up the country by means of railways. The line from the Bluff Harbor to Kingston, when finished, cannot fail to be one of the most remunerative of all those constructed under the Public Works and Immigration scheme. The forty miles of railway— from the Bluff to Winton— already working, will, doubtless, be purchased by the Colony from the Province at a valuation, which, added to the amount expended in constructing the line from Winton to Kingston, will represent the cost to the Colony, under the present scheme, of the whole work. There are no means at present of estimating the sum which the Province may receive for the Bluff and Winton line, 'but it is not likely to be an excessive valuation. It is understood that the whole of the remainder can be finished for something like £2500 per mile. Probably no line of equal length in the whole of our railway system will be made for the same money, or anything like ib. When we consider that there are absolutely no engineering difficulties in the way, and that the effect of completing the line to Kingston will be to afford all the country bordering on Lake Wakatipu ar. easy means of transit to one of the best harbors in the Colony, that the country through which the line passes is unrivalled both for extent and excel lence as a field for settlement, that the route runs through the centre of what is believed to be the largest coal-field in New Zealand, to say nothing of much more that might be urged of a similar kind, the wonder is — not that the late Ministry should have promised the favorable consideration of twelve miles of the line — but rather that they did not pledge themselves to push on the construction of the whoJe. If such questions were decided, as Mr Stafford and his friends professed to wish to decide them, on the intrinsic merits of the works alone, the Winton- Kingston line would be in a fair way of completion by this time. But we all know that the influences under which the Executive have to come to their decisions, are not quite so simple as in theory they ought to be. The Winton Kingston line might even be better, as a Colonial undertaking, than we have represented it to be, yet let no one imagine that it would be made, on that ground alone, for many a day to come. Those who are specially interested in the completion of this work, will have to keep the subject before the Assembly, and press it on the attentiou of the Government, if they expect to see much progress made. Every inhabitant of the Southland and Wakatipu districts ought to make a duty of doing all that lies in his power, and turning every opportunity that arises to account, to forward this important object. Our representatives have hitherto appeared strangely lukewarm. Some of them certainly waited on the late Ministry on the subject, but the most remarkable feature of the interview appears to have been the extreme modesty of the demands preferred, and the corresponding caution of the Ministerial replyt The recent change of Ministry, however, makes the success or otherwise of the deputation a matter of less importance than it might have been, further than as affording a means of judging to what extent we are likely to be indebted to the exertions of these gentlemen in the matter. The apathy, to use no stronger expression, which has been manifested by the pastoral tenants of the Crown in the district which the railway will open up, may also be noticed. It is possible that some of these gentlemen may still entertain old-fashioned ideas of hostility to settlement, though it might have been expected that under the provisions of the Southland land law, by which their pasturage rights are secured against all but the actual purchaser of the freehold, such opinions would by this time be comparatively rare. The fact that in many cases, nearly in all cases, indeed, the runholders themselves are large freeholders, might have been expected to lead them to take an interest in the progress of an undertaking which will confer great additional value upon that portion of their investments which consists -of freehold land. But if, from whatever cause, they choose to remain indifferent, there is all the more reason for others to bestir themselves. The difficulties to be contended with are the natural unwillingness of any Government to undertake more work of this kind than they can help, the ignorance and carelessness of the great majority of the members of the legislature regarding the real merits of the case, and the hostility of others, chiefly connected with Provincial politics, who favor other and far inferior schemes, w hich are likely, if ever carried out, to prove of mure direct advantage to Dunedin. It is to be hoped that the result of the meeting

which is to be held to morrow night will be to give form and consistency to the public feeling which undoubtedly exists on the subject, and to initiate an organisation capable of bringing; the influence of that public feeling to bear ia the proper quarters.