The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 131, 10 April 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1879.

We have been accused of being in opposition to the contemplated railway from Waihenga to Greytown. Nothing would give us greater pleasure than to contribute to the success of such a movement; but to our mind the late agitation on the subject was surrounded by suspicious circumstances, and we did not care to be a party to a process of delusion which we saw was under weigh, and which we felt certain would end in disappointment. In the first place, the Huangarua Small Farms were puffed up in a ridiculous manner. Only a small portion of the Huangarua Estate is fit for farm settlement, and even this part is of a rather interior quality of soil, The major portion of

the estate consists of sheep hills, many of which are not worth perhaps more than a pound an acre, A branch railway, in our opinion, is absolutely necessary to enable the land to be sold to advantage, and the "most profitable direction the line could take would undoubtedly be to the Featherston- terminus. Why was it proposed that the ■line should be taken in .ppjjjjjr direction? Simply, because the ratlierston people would not contribute towards the cost of its construction, and so' an offer was made to Greytown to the effect that if it would find so much money it should have the line. We feel certain that Greytown cannot find the money, and we hardly see why it should do so merely in order to promote the speculation at present engaging the attention of the Hon. John Martin. Had the latter gentleman offered Greytown or Featherston some dii'ect interest in the enhanced value which the proposed line would give to Huangarua, there would have been a greater inducement for one or other' of the townships to throw itself heart and soul into the movement. A timtf will come when branch lines will be constructed to feed the main line, and it would be better, in our opinion, to " bide a wee" for the right time rather than to blindly go in for a hazardous speculation which may result in the prime mover making his game and throwing over, like a sucked orange, the township which backed him. It is significant of the meeting recently held at Greytown, that the two principal speakers at it have subsequently proved themselves to be men of straw. We repeat,-the time will come, when the question of branch lines in the Lower Valley mil be taken up, and not by men of straw, but by such men as Messrs Pharazyn, Bidwill, Russell, and McMasters. Then, and not till then, will the confidence of the public be accorded to the venture, and till then it will be better to wait patiently,