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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2123, 19 October 1885, Page 2

THE PROSPECTS OF WELLINGTON. Speaking at the annual; meeting at the Chamber of Commerce at Wellington, the Chairman, Mr Travel's, is reported by the Press to have spoken as Mows;—" He' regarded Wellington as' essentially a trading community. There was no part of the district with which it was in com-

municatun which produced any minerals; there was no coal, and it had no metallic minerals. It had timber and agriculture, but it was in every sense a trading community. It possessed a magnificent harbor and an unequalled position as regarded New Zealand, and what it' wanted in reality was to be placed in communication with the largest possible area of the country by which it was surrounded, as well as by the country whose communications would naturally converge towards it—the northern parts of the South Island. He was now about to refer to a subject which was of great importance to the city of Wellington, and lie might say' incidentally that he agreed with a point stated in a pamphlet read before the Philosophical \ Society of Nelson by a highly educated 1 and intelligent gentleman, in which he said that while there was ah'examination of members and other persons occupy special positions, it was unfortunate ' members of the Legislature should not bV subject to an examination in political economy, and geography and other subjects which would be useful to them.(Applause), The ignorance members displayed in these subjects was marvellous, and a great many of them were distin- . guished by the crassest ignorance of the circumstances of the country they represented. It was generally supposed that the West Coast of the South Island was calculated to produce nothing butgold, and any idea of constructing a railwayto put it m communication with the East Coast I was looked upon as absurd. The fact was that in a large portion of it there was ' enormous success of wealth, which lay entirely undeveloped in consequence of want of communication. One mine alone deposited into the sea a source of'-wealth twenty times greater than the removal of gold produced by the mino. Prof. Ulrich and other gentlemen had recently entered into a contract to purchase the tailings of this mine, a fair sample of which had been sent to Germany, where ores were treated m a most perfect manner and with the utmost economy, and it was found that the mine was sending 15£oz. per ton into the liver because the ore could only be effectually treated by chemical means, llie members for Wellington should learn a little geography, and make themselves acquainted with the resources of the country before they utterly condemned such a project as tho East and West Coast Railway,