Public Meeting re the Thames Valley Railway.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3531, 20 April 1880, Page 2

Public Meeting re the Thames Valley Railway.

! A public meeting was held this morning at the Pacific Hotel, for the purpose of considering the question of deputationising Mr Oliver re the Kail way question. ' Among the gentlemen present we t noticed Messrs Brown, McGowan, Mc«..i Cullough, Wilson, Wood, Clark, Bead, Grigg, Farrell, Hetherington, Angove, j Craig, Stephen son, Dr Kilgour, and others. ! Mr W. McOullough was Tbted to the chair. In opening the meeting he said that it had been thought advisable that a deputation from the merchants and traders of the Thames, irrespective of the deputations by the local bodies, should be made to' the Hon. the Minister for Public Works, on his arrival, for the purpose of urging upon him the necessity of proceeding with the railway at once. It now remains for the gentlemen present to express their views on the subjeot. . Mr McGowan said that as the time was so short, it had been proposed that all the deputations should merge into one, for the purpose of bringing the question before the hon. Minister. Of course if there was not time, they would have to do that, but he thought it highly desirable that a deputation representing interests outside that of the local bodies should wait upon the Minister. Most bodies, when they went to deputationise, asked for money, or for endowments, but he wanted to show the Minister that the whole interest of the Thames was centred in the work. The question of the railway appeared to be becoming a political one, but he hoped it would not be open to political influences. The whole population of the Thames were interested. The Thames was tod Urge a township to be trifled with.

Dr Kilgour thought it wise that the meeting had been called, as it seemed that it was a question, hot of what; they wanted to do, but of what they could do under the circumstances.

Mr Read said that there was one side of the question which should have weight with the Minister. The settlers of the district had promised to give the laud provided the railway was proceeded with at once. The people of Puriri had given land, and naturally wanted the work to be proceeded with immediately. As the Government were not doing anything, they had got the land under false pretences. He thought no community had a better right to consideration in the matter of public works than the Thames. The revenue was large from the place. There were many places in the South where railways were being proceeded with, where they were not of half so much use as in the Thames Valley. He would take the Wttirarapa Valley Railway as an example. There, there was nothing but stones for 20 miles, and the land would only support a few sheep. Certainly farther on they came to good land up by Mastertoh, but the same might be said of the Thames- railway, which when finished would benefit the settlers of tbe Waikaio. He considered it an injustice not only to old settlers, but to those who could not get their implements' up on to their land.

After some further remarks by Captain Farrell, Mr McGowan, and Mr Dean, it was decided "That Messrs Wilson, Hetherington, Eead, Stephenson, Wood, Brown, the Chairman, and the mover form a deputation to wait on Mr Oliver." Any other gentlemen representing commercial interests would be welcomed' as additions to the deputation. ;