The Wairarapa Daily MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1891

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3912, 14 September 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1891

We understand that the peculiar manner in which the £17,000 placed on the estimates for the EketahunaWoodyille railway is to be expended is due to an effort made by the member for Masterton to " please " the settlers. Giving pleasure to certain settlers is no doubt a commendable virtue, if the Colony is not called upon to pay dearly for the gift. New features are being introduced into the art of constructing railways, and the reason appeared to be advanced for the novel departure is that it will gratify certain settlers. Hitherto railway construction has been carried on with a view to the economical ex penditure of loan money. The expenditure has been regarded as a matter of business, and this is the first time that it has been based on the more sentimental consideration of giving pleasure to scttlen. Had a contract been let by public tender, for, say four or five miles of line from the Eketahuna end, the public would have known first that it got full value for their money which was to be expended and secondly that the new length would prove immediately remuneritive from a traffic point of view. The second advantage is, how* ever, at once sacrificed by dividing the small sum available between the Eketahuna and Woodville ends so that practically it will.be useless for traffic purposes. If this, however, gives pleasure to settlers, we presume nothing more is to be said about it. Again we are teld co-operative bodies of settlers are to contract for this work in sections. This no doubt will please settlers, but what will the Colony have to pay for affording them this gratification ? If the settlers happen to be trained navvie they may do the work to advantage, but if. on the other hand, they chance to be men unused to the heavy and exhausting work demanded by railway construction, it is pretty certain they will not do the work to advantage, It is very possible that where the £17,000 is expended it will be found that the Colony has £12,000 worth of work for the money which it has expended, but still what matters a loss ot £SOOO if settlers are pleased ? Of course the Engineer in charge may make an effort to obtain a fair value from the co-operative labour, but if he understands that the Government are more anxious to please the settlers than they are to obtain work at an ordinary rate of expenditure, he will probably chip in with the settlerpleasing idea. We fear that the course now being pursued by the Government is a dangerous one, and that it means squandering the loan money on whichall colonists pay interest for the benefit of a few. There is, of course, no objection to the experiment being tried, and, itissofar satisfactory, thatit must necessarily be adopted at the present time on a limited scale. Fossibly men unused to heavy labour will be sent up to the bush to join the co-opera-tive bands. The tailor, perhapß, of the Empire City, will wield a pick and handle a shovel, while the genuine navvy, finding his occupation gone, will have to go to town to sit cross--legged and learn to use a needle and a thimble. One thing is quite clear, and that is, that the Government is not protecting the public purse, and that it is endeavouring to obtain popularity at a serious cost to the Colony. We have, of course, to thank the member for Masterton for obtaining- a small vote for the further construction of our local railway, but we cannot quite approve of the vote being distributed as a sort of pocket money amongst settlers without the safe guards which have hitherto been used for the protection of the public purse. Ihe thing may be popular, and with the Ministry now in power whatever is regarded as popular is wont to be considered right, but it will involve the Colony in further difficulties and increased taxation.