The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1889.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3162, 25 March 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1889.

The Coming Battle Over the North Island Main Trunk Railway Route.

Under the above heading the genial member for Thomdon fires the first shot! We do not like this Northern Trunk railway, because it is one of those political railways which cannot possibly be made to pay, and which consequently keeps the colony poor. It is costing New Zealand now very many thousands of pounds per annum for interest, and wt have the grim satisfaction of knowing that the farther the line goes the greater will be the burden. Through traffic between Auckland and Wellington, bondicapped by sea, carriage, will never pay working expenses; and with respect to tho intermediate traffic, as the bulk of the line passes through absolutely sterile country, which is unsuited for settlement, the prospect of local support is exceedingly dismal.' Still the railway is tlie political prize of an Auckland ring, and, as the colony is pledged to it, the only consolation left to us is that there is some chance of minimizing the further loss wliioh we are bound to sustain. Of course Dr Newman does not admit the sterilty of the land, on the contrary he claims in thi letter to which wo refer that the line will open up " vast blocks of fertile land." Unfortunately these vast blocks of fertile land exist only in the imagination of the learned doctor. When he rode through the country lie saw stretched before him magnificent bush panoramas, and naturally concluded that only a rich fertile soil could produce the arboreous paradise on which he gazed. But had he examined the ground on which he trod, he would have found that it consisted of barren lava and pumice atone, which wouli not carry a rabbit to the acre. The roots of the forest trees penetrate through this sterile crust and tap the fruitful soil below, but no grass could be made to grow in such a country. Mr Buchanan, the member for Wairarapa, and other good land judges, who subsequently passed through the country, absolutely decided its character from a settler's point of view. It is sad J;o see Dr Newman still nursing his delusion I However, tho maintenance of it is necessary to a project upon which he has set his.heart, viz,, the early completion of the central route. The present Ministry are unsympathetic with this route, and no doubt tho Premier is doubly sincere in his advocacy of the Taranaki route. At any rate, Dr Newman is probably quite justified in the apprehension he has formed that the Government are not loyal to a certain compact made in favor of the Central route and intend in the coming session to upset it, Whether the Government havo a moralrightto disturb a question which the Auckland and Wellington members had a perfect right to olaim as settled in their favor we know not. If they have, we hope members will consider in the first instance whether the construction of the line ought to be continued at all for the next ten or twenty years. If money is available for construction, it ought to be speut where it will bring some immediate return. If the fight between the Auckland and Wellington members on the one side and the Taranaki contingent on tho other, leads to tho line being hung up for another generation, we shall have much to be thankful for, but M.H.B.b arp not sane enough yet to take ao. bold a step. '