MR. LIGHTBAND ON RAILWAY TO FOXHILL.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 923, 6 February 1872, Page 3

MR. LIGHTBAND ON RAILWAY TO FOXHILL.

Mr Lightband, since his return to Nelson from the West Coast, has addressed a letter to a Nelson contemporary advocating the construction of a railway or tramway to the Upper Buller and Inangahua with the funds available for a railway from Nelson to Foxhill. He contends that the money so expended would be far more beneficial to the Province than if spent in the latter line. He says :

The General Government of the Colony are now stepping in, and making roads in the south-west portion of this province. Already they are about tospend£lo,oooinconnectingthelnangahua with the Grey Valley, and on the other side some £SOOO or £9OOO to connect it with the mouth of the Buller. Surely, in justice to the settled districts, they will press on at once such a work as I have indicated ; especially as they have now the power to take the land, sell it, or pay contractors with it.

The funds at disposal for the construction of the Foxhill railway are not local. The 4000 inhabitants of Motueka and Collingwood having to contribute equally with those of the Waimea and town of Nelson their share of the taxation, whether to stamp duties or general revenue, and are therefore interested in its reproductive expenditure. A cheap line of railway commencing where the dray-i oad now terminates —1 only regard as a pioneer work, as necessary, by comparison, as thoroughly proving a reef before purchasing or erecting a battery.