The Puapeka Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1870. "Measures, not Men."

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 143, 3 November 1870, Page 4

The Puapeka Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1870. "Measures, not Men."

While some of our Dunedin aspirants to political honours are, no doubt from a deep conviction of its necessity, making the Tuapeka railway scheme an election cry, the " Dunstan Times " is making a weak effort to bolster up the WintonWakatipu scheme. Our contempol'ary. says that "from Win ton to Kingston sixty miles of level and good road exists, available for traffic both summer and winter, and preferable at all seasons to the road between Clyde and Palmerston." The fact that a road exists from Tuapeka to Clyde does not come within the range of onr contemporary's knowledge. We should have imagined that the rattle of a coach and fonr in the streets of Clyvde^ every Thursday evening, from Tu^P^ peka in one day, within a few yards of our contemporary's sanctum, would have kept his mind alert to

the very significant fact that a road from Dunedin via Tuapeka exists — a road, we may remark, along the whole line of which industrious set-

tlersi&Ke converting the wilderness into jUruitful garden. For our contemporary's information we may st&te that, bad as the Tnapeka road to. the Dunstan was duriug last winter, it was not so bad as the Palmerston route. This was forcibly exemplified by the preference shown to the former by waggoners and others. It is not because a railway would benefit Tuapeka alone that we would urge its construction, but because it is infinitely the best line of road to the Dunstan, and passes through the only settled portion of the goldfields. But that is not all ; it is the shortest road from Dunedin, and when the railway is completed to Lawrence, the time occupied in transit will be greatly reduced. Goods which now take three, days to come from Dunedin, will be brought by the steamhorse in as manj' hours — a matter of very great importance. Now, what does the " Dunstan Times " say about the road from Winton to Clyde. He says "it is level and good from Winton to Kingston; then from Kingston to Queenstown and Frank ton there is water carriage, and with a small outlay waggons could reach Cromwell and Clyde from Winton, the entire distance to Cromwell not being more than 110 miles." This sounds plausible, but it is evident our contemporary is entirely unacquainted with the country he attempts to describe. That the road is level, no one will gainsay, but this levelness is one of its greatest objections. It is extremely liable to floods, and many are the drays which, in olden times, have been delayed on the Five Rivers Plain for weeks together, and would be now, if the traffic were again revived. Our contemporary cannot have any idea that the Matanra has to be forded half a dozen times, in as many miles, on this very road line which he is advocating. Now as regards the distance from Winton to Cromwe'l, it is stated to be 110 miles; but if the distance of the water carriage from Kingston to Queenstown were added to our con f emporary's estimate, a nearer approximation to the actual distance would be arrived at, say 130 miles. Besides, it must be remembered that where water carriage intervenes, most expensive and inioi^yenient delays occur, and the damage to which goods are subjected is bej'ond calculation. Ra*TvVays being one of the great equalisers of the present age, when once we have the Clutha and Tuapeka lines completed, Dunedin and Balclutha will be brought within 70 miles of the Dunstan, and the great wants of our contemporary, namely, " breadstuff's and horsefeed" will be supplied at remarkably low prices. The Clutha producers who have oats on hand unsaleable all the } T ear round at 2s. a bushel, would only be too glad "to supply the Dunstan district with horsefee'd in such quantities as would meet the requirements before the district could bupply its own demand. If, however, the Dunstan persists in returning to the Provincial Council and the House of Representatives, men whose entire interests are bound up in pastoral pursuits, it will be a long long day before it will be in a position to supply its own demands in this respect. Given a railway to Lawrence, our contemporary need not fear an abundant and cheap supply of breadstuffs and horsefeed. We have from time to time laid the facts of the case before our readers as to the advantages to be derived from the Tuapeka route to the Dunstan, and it is not necessary for us again to enumerate them, but we would leave it to any person who has travelled both roads, as we have done, to say which is the driest, least subject to floods, and passes through the most genial climate. The Tuapeka route we have no hesitation in pronouncing to be nature's winter road. An there is not the shadow of a chance of our contemporary's Utopia being realised, and as there is every probability of a railway to Lawrence being completed in two years' time, we would strongly recommend him to lend us a helping hand in advocating the immediate construction of that line of railway, which would indeed be a blessing to the Teviot, Alexandra, Dunstan, and Cromwell, as well as the Tuapeka and Waita- i huna districts, and an instalment of j the main trunk line which wi11,.! before many years, not only unite the interior of Otago with Dunedin, hut make the up-country towns j jiipl^emporiums of commerce, and dispensers of those comforts iand household gods which are the real accompaniments of advancing civilisation,