The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1889. The Eketahuna-Woodville Line.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3284, 16 August 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1889. The Eketahuna-Woodville Line.

The sooner the onus of constructing new lengths of railway is transferred from the hands of Parliament to those of the Railway Commissioners the better it will be for New Zealand. Of course Parliament must find the money necessary for a'l desirable construction, but the time has arrived when no vote should pass the House, for new works unless such undertakings were recommended and endorsed by the comparatively independent Railway Commissioners, With such a precaution the colony is tolerably safe, without it we shall undoubtedly suffer from political jobbery in the future, much as we have done in the past. If no public work were considered by the' House or Government until it bad been recommended by tho Commissioners, the Eketalnma-Woodville line would be speedily constructed andtbeOtago Central would be indefinitely shelved. And yet about the most honest Premier wo ever had in New Zealand favors the Ulago Central and deprecates the construction of the Wood-ville-Eketahuna link on the ground that it would ruin the WellingtonJ'anawatu Company. Sir Harry Atkinson has, however, in his allusion to the company expressed himself somewhat too strongly, The completion of the Wairarapa line would hardly ruin the company, but it would offend it, and this is what the Premier evidently fears. Were it not for political considerations, he would feel it bis duty to equjp and complete the Government line so that it would compete with the company's route; but these political considerations, which we take to mean the I support of certain Wellington, Hanawatu, and Napier representatives, compel him to subvert the interests of the colony to those of the company. The Railway Commissioners now issue through tickets between Wellington and Napier, which include the coach fare over the unmade section of the line; but when the district railway was under the charge of the Government, the managers of it dare not attempt thus to secure a portion of the through traffic. They feared to offend the mysterious and influential personages who were interested in the company. The truth is that the company lines exercise a dangerous influence on the welfare of the colony. Ministers and members are gagged by theia, so that they cannot openly advocate the true interests of the colony; their hands are sp tied by them that they fear to do the thing which is right and just. Perhaps no Premier 'ever b,4 a

greater claim on the gratitude of tho colony than Sir Harry Atkinson possesses. Ho came to its assistance when it was in extreme peril and danger speedily bringing it into safety. In administering its affairs he has manifested singular self denial -cutting down his own official income, an act almost of heroism for a comparatively poor man-but even Sir Harry Atkinson cannot bo trusted in the matter of railway construction. He will not sin, as Sir Julius Yogel and some others of our statesmen have sinned, in yielding to local demands, but he is not adamant when a question of retaining votes arises. The only protection that the public can have will be to make the consent of tbeKailway Commissioners essential to the construction of.any npw lino, No Ministry and no Parliament in New Zealand has yet had the courage to discard jobbery from the administration of the public works fund, and the colony will never bo secure until the task of indicating now works is absolutely relegated to independent hands,

At the time the last Road Board elections were about to take place, some of tho Beturning Officers found themselves in a quandary because the new ratepayers' rolls were not completed on account of the Property Tax Department being a good deal behind in its work, The Government was appealed to for advice, and tho Property Tax Commissioner, instructed by the Colonial Secretary, replied that tho elections must be held under tho new rolls, otherwise they would be illegal. As many of the Road Districts in the Wairarapa were affected, we pointed out that the elections would be illegal if thoy were put off till tho Property Tax Department had completed its task, and that the. Statute book contained nothing whatever to show that the old rolls should not be used if the new ones were not ready. It appears that the Colonial Secretary has now arrived at the conclusion that our view was perfectly corroct, for he has informed the Wairarapa North County Council precisely to thateffect, when applied to for advice upon the same question. The Colonial Secretary will not he likely to argue that Eoad Boards stands differently to County Councils with regard to this point, and one may, therefore, venture to congratulate him upon his discovery of the only suitable interpretation of the Eoad Boards and Local Elections Acts. We have no desire whatever to claim credit for having been proved right in expressing our opinion in opposition to the law officers of the Government. Our only object is to show that these officers are not by any means infallible, and that they can go very far astray on very simple points. Of course we are not now dealing with the question whether the best interests of the ratepayers are served by the Acts named as they stand, hat being quite a different question.

At the meeting of tho Masterton school committee held last evening the headmaster reported that a member of that body had visited the school and addressed tho children when under the iiifluenco of liquor, The oommitteo considered no action was necessary to be taken on this, report, as tho person referred to had forfeited his seat by three consecutive absences from meetings. It is, howevel', to be regretted that the oommitteo did not express somo apology to the teaching staff for the gravo offence committed by one of their number. Tho. headmaster discharged a painful duty in formally reporting tho incident, and the committee in its turn should not have burked its responsibility by silently condoning conduct that in the interests of the children of Masterton ought to have been noted.