Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1893.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4420, 16 May 1893, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1893.

SECOND EDITION

A largely attended meeting, which ' was virtually a conference of representative men from all parts of Otago, was held last week at Dunedin lo urge i on tho Government the necessity of extending the Oiago Central lino to a . paying point, Wliat was virtually nsked was a prompt expenditure of ! £IOO,OOO to bo disbursed in n business i like manner in opening up the country and it is probable that the Government will have to comply with the request. Ministers have a good many ( supporters down South, and tboy will be apt to lose some of thorn in tho coming general election, if they refuse this demand. The meeting decided to leave it to tho Ministry to find ways and means, All that tliey ask is that -the amount named shall be found and that it shall not I be dribbled away in tho manner dear to the Ministers, but spent rightaway, TheOtajo paopleare unanimous in this mutter and there are amongst them some fairly good business men and these will make the Otago representatives in the House beetir themselves, Tho probability is that the £IOO,OOO asked for will be obtained and we hope that this will bo the outcome of the conference. After all the Otago central opens up country and as Mr Vincent Pyko pointed but, it is the lines that do this which are profitable to the Colony. Our millions have been wasted in running railways along the coast to compete with sea carriageinStead of taking them into tho interior, Our own looal railway pays because it opens up country and had it ran along the valley or the Ruatnahunga, as it ought to have gone, it would bave made the most profitable line in the Colony. Even now, it is crippled by the unmade link whioh at the present rate of progress will take ten years to complete. Thero ought to be a conference in Wellington as well as at Dunedin to secure justico for this province, but the Wellington people are not quite as progressive and persistent as the residents of Otago. The probability is that the Wellington line will be practically left out in the cold, while the Otago Central, with a valid claim for extentiou, but not nearly so strong a one as that which we possess, will gain its point. The Wellington people are happy and contented with their mile extension to To Aro and do not i consider that the gap in the great i arterial line that brings half the produce of the North Island into tho Empire City is ten times as important to the dwellers therein as the Te j Aro toy. What little money is j available for oonßtruotion will pro>

bably be divided between Auckland and Duuedin, with probably a couple of men and a wheelbarrow tare and. there kept on the Eketaliuna extension for the concurrence of the labour ibureau.