THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi.` SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2793, 26 January 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi.` SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1878.

Although there was a disposition evinced at the meeting of the Thames Valley Railway Committee last night to magnify the difficulties in the way of getting the line constructed, the majority were in favor of going on energetically with the preliminaries. It must be remembered that under the most favorable circumstances a considerable time must elapse before the work is actually proceeded with, and if 'the course proposed in the first resolution had been adopted it would hare been tantamount to shelving the matter altogether. In appointing a deputation to confer with the Premier and the Hon. the Native Minister the Committee are in a fair way of realising what the difficulties to be contended with really are. The Native Minister will ere now have made himself acquainted with the position of the Government as regards the uncompleted purchases of land not acquired by Europeans. We do not therefore regard the Native difficulty as being likely to retard the construction of the railway. The agitation on this question will do good in this way: it will be an incentive to the Government to hurry en with the land purchase. business, the completion of which will greatly simplify the arrangements for the construction of the railway. The financial difficulty was also made too much of last night: that is altogether a secondary consideration. When it has to be entered upon it need not be approached with the conviction that the railway will be entirely unproductive, and that the whole of the guarantee will have to be met,from taxes. What we would urge upon the Committee and the public to keep prominently in view is that the railway is a necessity; that it will open a splendid country and facilitate settlement; that it will connect the fine agricultural and pastoral counties of Waikato and Piako with this extensive mining district. With regard to the latter it may be stated that unless the goldfield is extended or the back country opened for settlement, a few years will see a serious collapse in this district. To obviate such, a state of things the most strenuous exertions must be made to attract population and combine other pursuits with mining. This can only be done by opening the country; the country can best be opened up by means of a railway; the energies, therefore, of this commuuity should be persistently directed towards having that railway constructed.