Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 404, 31 October 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

In company with other member^ of the goldfields' press, we have been offering criticisms on the Harbor Trust Ordinance. This action on the part pf the goldfields press generally, did not please the editor of the "Otago Guardian," who undertook to lecture ns in quite a fatherly way, and in doing so, attributed to ns what we did not feel we deserved. ■ We replied, not in anger, as he assumes, but in selfvindication, and with a view to put in a proper light the claims of our constituents; and -we have looked into the' "Mount fda Chronicle," ' and find a reply, founded indeed on different data to our own, but with the same aim, and likewise free from passion ; andin the "Guardian's " issue of 22nd October we are treated to another lecture, in which'there is a curious mixture of emotions. At -times ' ' sad " at our perversity ; at others, swayed by alternate doubts as to our " iyiiorance " or " dishonesty ;" at another, time, bowing to ns with mock politeness, he accuses ns of raising an "idiotichowl about the shamefulness of improving the harbor whilst the roads are" not in perfect order" — thus raising a mail of straw and thrusting, him through' with his logic. We must, 1 : however, do our contemporary the justice j tha.t by a side-wind lie 'lectures the Dimedin people as well as ourselves. We do him the credit to say that it is not his j fault in the aforesaid article' if he does not benefit both Dunedin and np-country. He sa3 r s ' ' that any' Dunedinu nedin merchant will willingly allow that the more money tlieve 1 is gpcht on'up-country roads andbridgi-s, so muoli the better." Weli, "iv the abstract we grant it may be so^ but we affirih that in practice we fail to read this> opinion. Money, is expended slowly and grudgingly on the up-country roads. •Winter after winter .comes rpund," and next to nothing is being done to make the "i'oads passable all the year round ;" and] notabjy we' do know that one Duuedin merchant, and a member of Ithe, Government, . intrigued to T ,onst the only man ■in the Government' who ever attempted to do anything like justice, to' the up-country roads, just because he was doing it. This may not please the '•Guardian" any more than our former criticism's,- but we belie our trust andour constituents if we should allow this criticism to pass without comment. Our contemporary is- right as "to his theory, but we dp. not credit the Dunedin merchants wich the practice. And now, as to the main gist of our contemporary's arguments. We have founded our criticisms of the Harbor Trust Ordinance on two thiugs,' viz., the haste it was gone into before proper surveys had been taken and proper data could be submitted as to ■the feasibility of the scheme. The last meeting of the. .Hoard reveals that they are now incurring expense without funds ' to meet it— 'so at least' Mr. M'Dermid put the matter, and we find no reply in' the repert to meet his demands fo'r'ihformation as to jbhe spurces of the funds. Another ground of our opposition ia not onr objd3ti<& as to tlfe applying to local purposes funds locally raised. In this, ■if t'we are' meant, 1 we say a* man of. straw r has been raised, and our language was! so guarded that we do übl acquit'bur'contemporary' of 'fiegligence' in. : attending, to* our criticisms before replying. ;oWe.'c}is'(tinctly" stated that we had no objections ■ to the deepening of the Harbor, provided,. in c<ns6-',pfl t&venv>e \hefovj ;?)isHjfficieni, {he Trust would provide a rate to supply the jdefie^ency.' Wje do think, stilly that Dunedin, having drawn upon the country forthe "'Port' Chalmers' Railway 1 and Jetty, should not so soon place itself in a possible position.to fall back upon Provincial sepuVities. . -It ought not to do so until other pa>-is 'of the country have "at leaat one igwbd: '-road. The-- roads i'-np^emfntry have • been * so- bad that; .very few .waggons have ...passed .during the ,win--ter, and it is no uncommon occurrence 'that people are" often 'without necessary 'supplies through tile- -roads 'being I one scene of mud and mires., C. Provided the Harbor Trust , consent to .the .insertion of rating powers m the Ordinance in the_ event of revenue tiof'b'eing sufficient to f meetmterest,on borrowed capital, we withdraw our opposition. It would be a good example to set to other districts that go iii foV'iixlf'a improvements atthe expense of the -country.-'" As" regards* tnain roads, ,-we r hold,that .these. should- be constructed as. they have .hitherto been. We trust our contemporary will now understand' that we^do not and never have asked that money locally raised" in | Dunedin 'in the: way he indicated '-'W dxperid'ed- 'ilr the cdfmtry'; tfKat we':ask;is, that the Ijro--.vincial-i^reaaury or ltd securities be cstre"fully defended against any possible call from the Harbor Trust. We no not see the matter bo clearly aB our contemporary

professesa to do, and if he is correct in his estimates, it is a very harmless thing we ask at the hands of the Harbor Trust. The entire reproductiveness of the Harbor Trust scheme may appear to our friend the "Guardian" as plain as a pikestaff, but it does not follow from that that it is. so. There is such a thing a§: robbing Peter to pay Paul. -,It maay he fairlyconcluded that the Hirbor Bcherae will avert much traffic from the railway, and the two works jointly prove a charge on the Province to a considerable amount. The "London Economist," of 23rd May, very justly says :—": — " There is no kind of expenditure which requires more careful study before hand, and more rigorous restriction to objects which are sure to pay, than expenditure on new public works."