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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1696, 28 May 1884, Page 2

The Post has the following on Mr Buchanan;- .•■•-■ "It will orcate a feeling pf painful snrprise to find that the Southern opposition .to the completion of tho main North Maud

Trunk llailway will moat with assistance and support from a Wellington member. Wo had supposed that on this question at least our Wolliugtou members would have been unanimous, M r Buchanan, the representative of Small Wairarapa, however, has declared himself as opposed to.the prosecution of this work. His reasons are of a most extraordinary kind. Because when the interior of the island is opened up it will take a long time to settle and stock it, ho would indefinitely' uoitpono opening it up; and bee iu.ie the disj Lted sections of the North Wand railways ou'y 2p,cent lie assumes that when uuited by a through line they would still prove uuproQtab e. The assumption will not hold water, It it because tlw lines are no; connected tint they do not pay. His statement that the th-oiyh traffic on tlw nuiu southern trunk lines does not pay, and that its the b.anches which make the profit, is, we believe, totally at variance with .tho real facts. Many of the (south Island branches do not pay evon WJikiuß expenses, and are a he»vy drag on the earnings of the nnin lino. We are astonished at tho lino taken up by Mr liucha'ian; and, althouph tin Wairarapa settlers nuy not benefit in a very direct manner from the prosecution of this most necessary work, they will, we trust, have sufficient patriotism to teiont the selfishneis displayed by Mr Buohinau. ludireo.ly they must, in common with the rest of the North Island, benelit largely by the completion ol the trunk line from Wedingiou to Auckland."

Mr Buchanan is very well informed on railway traffic questions, and because he has the honesty to state his convictions on this particular line, the Post slates him. There has been for some time past a railway ring in Wellington to promote the formation of lines to benefit the Empire City at; the expense of tho colony. We do not blame the ring, but it looks rather :bad for the way it is working its points when a straightforward man like Mr Buchanan has to give it the cold shoulder. Mr Buchanan is not, as our contemporary urges, •'•selfish." He is simply " honest," and this is a very inconvenient virtue in railway rings.