THE RAILWAY PLANS.

Southland Times, Issue 1734, 29 April 1873, Page 3

THE RAILWAY PLANS.

(to the editob of the times). Sib, — Referring to the telegram the Mayor of Invercargill received from Mr Richardson, stating that the plans and specifications of the WintonKingston contract could not be sent to Invercargill — whether it is practicable now or not to send them, I cannot tell, but certainly it was a blundering piece of shortsightedness not to have sent them at first. I would ask where should a plan and specification be shown if not in the locality where the work is to be accomplished ? 1 believe there are men in Invercargill who would tender for this line, but who will not trouble to go to Dunedin for an uncertainty ; and even in the locality which the railway is to pass through there are men who know every inch of the ground, both able and willing to undertake the work. Now, seeing that this is about the easiest piece of country for making a railway in the southern hemisphere, it is not at all unlikely but the sending of these plans to Invercargill might have been a saving to the Government to the tune of some £10,000. But I suppose that is nothing to the borrowing powers of New Zealand. In all probability the Winton-Kingston line will be given to some swell from a distance, who will drive about in his carriage, and cut a fine figure with a retinue about him as large as the Queen of England's, and who most likely knows a great deal more about horse-racing and gambling than making railways. Still it will pay him well, because he has got £10,000 too much for it. Money paid for labor is well spent in a new country, but money paid for nothing is lost, and lost to Jwhom ? Why, to me ! Taxation is staring us in the face. We will all have to pay for misspent public money, but I for my part am determined I will not do it if I can possibly avoid it. Hoping that my fellow workirg, industrious, persevering colonists — men who have really worked and labored for the good of this young country, and who don't deserve to be robbed of those labors — will have an eye to the future and their own interests, — I am, &c, "WiNTOir-KiirgsTOK. April 26th, 1873.

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