Tuapeka Times AND GLODRIELDS REPOREER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1874. "MEASURES NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 334, 28 February 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times AND GLODRIELDS REPOREER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1874. "MEASURES NOT MEN."

By way of fulfilling our pledge given in our last, we would remark that, by our public wcrks and immigration policy, we are mu,ch in the same position with the great Napoleon, When once his career of conquest Had begun. The policy of " Rest and be thankful " was impossible to him. Any faltering on his part would surely have imperilled all that he had gained ; and however hazardous his work of conquest, and however great the ruin in which it might end, he could not panse to think of it : on he must go to fulfil his destiny. In a somewhat similar position has Mr. Yogel found himself by planning his scheme of great arterial railways from one end of the Middle and North Islands to the other. These trunk lines must have their feeders, or they would prove comparatively valueless ; hence his introduction of the- Provincial Empowering Borrowing Bill, and when that- failed, a series of Bills for the separate Provinces, which, in so far as discussed, also proved failures. For this, we have already said) we are not sorry ; yet we have not got rid of these Bills ; they are sure to come up again. What they propose to effect* is = necessary to give success to public works already in progress. Whether it is better to render the Colony or Provinces liable for the money, is a question not so easily answered. There are equal chances for corruption in either way. We confess, however, to a leaning towards making the Provinces responsible were their means of meeting their liabilities as thoroughly canvassed as was that of Auckland when the Loan Empowering Bill lor that purpose was before the Legislative Council. The Htfase ef Representative* and Legislative Assembly Would have an •opportunity of saying how far each Province might incur liabilities, and then these Provinces would be held responsible for

the interest. , And here arises the question of difficulty — the ways and means of meeting it. For these public works, roads, bridges, and tramways, schools, hospitals, &c, there seems a necessity.. Without the former the country cannot be opened up ; without the latter the 1 physical and intellectual soundness of the [community cannot be sustained. That tney are needed, and all the more needed because of our public works and immigration no one will deny. But, then, so far as we understand our financial position, it^will not be safe for us to go into these things unless we are willing to allow ourselves to be rated to meet the interest. Whoever is not willing to be rated as an ultimate result of such borrowing, should now speak out, and petition, and strive to carry the public along with him. For our own part we are not more in love with being rated than are our neighbors ; yet, as this scheme is part and parcel of our present Railway scheme, and necessarily arising out of it, thert are Reasons why we Bhould not refuse to submit to the contingency of rating, in ordter that the piesent arrangements may become in the e|id reproductive. Tramways must be constructed from existing , settlements to the trunk line, that the produce may be conveniently forwarded to market ; surveys and tracts made into country not yet opened, that the whole land may .become settled. As an instance of how such works tend to the development of the country, a military road made through Seventymile Bush, in the North Island, has furnished a settlement to the Scandinavian immigrants ; and like works are needed in Otago. From the tone of the debate in the Legislative Council, we gather that it will be necessary to render ourselves liable to rating as an ultimate security for interest on the loans. 'Are we willing, or are we not ? Better to look the matter in the face now. We have already given security pretty extensively on the lands of the Colony ; it is questionable if they can be further given in pledge. Should we not provide some security beyond our lands already pledged, we may bring ourselves into a like position with the small Republics of South America that have in some instances doubly hypothecated their customs, and the second series of bonds have had to be thankful for what they could get. We do not write this so much in the interest of Otago. We believe we might go in for all that is being proposed to be borrowed •for Otago without the dread of a rate. Still, we ought to look the question of a possil-Je rating in the face. When we weigh the advantages of a system of railways, we consider a moderate rating small in comparison. Take ourselves. Instead of having to spend threa days over a journey to Dnnedin and back, a man may manage it all in one, saving hotel expenses and two days for business, and one-third at least even of the present low rates from travelling expenses. Goods will be conveyed for at least one-half. Wood is becoming scarce and dear for fire ; we shall be able to have sea coal to mix with our own lignite at a moderate charge. The farmer will have a ready meaus of sending produce, when the market is slow here, to Dunedin, and in ma.ny other ways, if it should come to rating, we may expect to be repaid. If the people of Launceston and Western Railway district had looked at the matter in this light, and paid the rate, it wfluld have been better for them than to have incurred additional burdens on themselves by the wanton destruction of public property. -

Our Roxburgh settlers are not to be done. They have taken the bull by the horns at last. At a. public meeting they held on Thursday evening, a Committee was elected with the object of inviting Mr. Holloway to the Teviot district, " to see for himself the manner in which the lands are being disposed of to absentee capitalists, and the vexatious obstructions which are placed in the way of the residents obtaining even a few acres." We thoroughly endorse the action taken by our Rox.burgh friends. It ia well that Mr. HolJoway, in his travels over Otago, 3hould know that all, the fine agricultural lands that meet his eyes are not at the disposal of the Government ; but that vast areas of the best of them have passed into private hands. His Honor the Superintendent is doubtless treating Mr. Holloway in such a manner as to give that gentleman a very favorable impression of Otago as a*field for immigration ; but the Roxburgh people can show from their own bitter experience that each successive Government, for the last seven or eight years, has done its best to extirpate them from the country.