The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 879, 7 February 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1878.

' Equal and exact justice to all men, _ Oi .wjiatever Btate or persuasion, religions or political. \ * # * * * Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain-

Th* question of the extension o the' railway line into Hamilton is,f happily, becoming a matter of soraebhiug more than local concern. During the teceni vist oi the Premier to Cambridge one of the matters prominently brought iefore bis notice was th« desirability of connecting that important township »nd rapidly rising district by rail. way with both Auckland and the Thames. The extension asked for by the people of Humilton is rea ly what wonld be a jxirtioii of the Thames Waikato line crossing the Waikato river at the point at whict* the late surveyed line for the Thames Bailway touches it. Between Cambridge and the point j of junction with this line on j the East side of the river the | country presents no difficu ties whatever, neither hill nor sw.imp. im. level sound ground and the. line could be laid as cheaply per mdc as any work of the same Kind that has been undertaken m tbe colony. Idoes seem most unhappy that when nearly all the rest of ' he Waikato is to be Bo largely benefi ted by railway construction, a district so i uportant as Cambridge, which leads also to the iuteriol' and lake country, should be left out m the cold. The matter once taisiea up by the Cambiidge people is not iik ly, however, io be a. lowed to drop. We have see*, the result of continued agitation m the ca-* of Te Awamutu and recommend tne same cour.su to Cambridge, lor it is plain to see that but tor tile cMUti. ued representations made of he Cuse, Over t..e lm? > welve months *>i m re, Government wo«d have .iliowjrd theox'en ion of the li.ie he joi.d Uhaupo to remain uutottcited Tiie people of Grah'arnstowa ,i* e oiKiieat ir tue matter - of -she Thames Waikato Railway I'he.V* have not ,uiv ' interviewed the Premier and the Defence Minister on rhe. subject, out are, thbu H h then* Council, organising the necessary measures for I'Utdii. £ the fnattei with the Asaeijjbly. To this work they invite the co< peration of the Waikato and Pvnko County Councils, aod the

borough *of 'Hamilton, aud wo uaderstand.^ that .the ;l%h, instant 'Ims? upoii>aß ibe dite of a conference of tbe above lO«al bodies, to be] held at' -Hauiilton for the di3uukion Ot this aiid other matters, iin which they are more or less interosited; Tlie preSeut^Premieif, when, leader of the OpjM)Biuon, was a strong advocate foi* the coiiscructiou -of the Thames-Waikato Rail wny by guarantee from the Govern nent. The plan dd w whch seems to obtain, both with tho people of the Thames und witli the Government, is a. recourse to tho " Dm: riot Hail ways Ac , 18?7," which oflkr.-» 7 per.oe.it. guarantee to a company under tuking such a work —5 per oeni. ol which, is paid from he races of the district benefitted and 2 per 3,'iit. only by the ' Government. Wow, it .would appear that „he- line betweeu Grahamstown" and the Waikato passes through a considerable quantity .of native land, whioh, of course, cannot be rated, nud the proportion of 6 per cent., will therefore fall all the inorei .heavily on the lands he<d by Iforo-,, peaiis. An excep ioual . case" like' this, it is thought, is a proper subject; fpr the ssembly to consider, and theiefore one of the matters to be discussed at the. .conference" ou the 15uh instant is for the Counciis interested to take concerted measures to' press upon the Assembly the desirability of increasing the Government's proportion of the. guarantee m ail those instances iv whic i. a large portion of the landd benefitted, belonging to native owners, cann*)t be rated for the purpose of tiie guarantee. To the importance of the Thames Waikato railway, m the interests of settlement and colonisation, we haveso often ulludedchat.it .-.eems almost, like unnecessary reiteration to refer o them again, but we cannot . but recor t our satisfaction to fiud the Preinier?~givu»g ex,ps^ion J -to so pronounced an opiniou ou tne Value, of this proposed railway as that made to the Grah.itnstowu deputation when he snidf " My own opinion is that the s-.fety of the country will be secured when this work is done." No more forcible argument than this can be used to induce the Assembly to make a special exception m favour of this railway.. Nor, wo believe, does the Premier overstate the facts of the case. The construction of a railway Irom the Waikato river to Grahamstown would do for the settlement of th* intervening country exactly what the Waikato railway and river traffic have already clone for Waikato, fill it rapidly up with boua fide setilers. There are a number of small capitalists at the Thames and elsewhere anxious to take up land m the Uppor Thames country, and there are many of our small farmers, even m Waikato, who begin to find their bo dings too circumscribed, and who would sell out at high prices to purchase .arger sections m the new couutr> that suoh a i ail way would render available for segment. Mean- ■ inie there is a steady exodus of capial from rhe .-outli driven by tbe high rices m land there to see!*; an outlet for investment m the north. The. railway is ihe one thin^ ecPHsary to make . second Waikato of th<* district lying tiast of us, and this done there is no exaggeration iv the statement that the " safety of * he country woald be secured. "