THE PROMISED TE AWAMUTU RAILWAY EXTENSION.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 901, 2 April 1878, Page 2

THE PROMISED TE AWAMUTU RAILWAY EXTENSION.

%ir,— ln your leading: article m Thurs^*" clay's issue of the Times, you plead the cause of Te Awaniutu, m relation to the railway extension, with zeal and ability \ and, indeed, it is time for someone to move m the matter. As you say* " Great is the faith of the people of the Upper Waikato," and great, too, is their patience. While hundreds of miles of railway have been made and opened m the south, the Auckland - Puniu line has dragged its slow length along at the slowest possibls rate of progression, mid still we have patiently waited and hoped, and havo gone on ploughing our way through the nine miles of mud or dust which, according to the season, lie between us and the Waipa river at Alexandra, and which it is necessary to traverse m order to take down our produce or fetch up our goods. But a time came when all this was to bo changed. The Atkinson (or Southern) Ministry went out, and the Grey (or Auckland) Ministry came m. All ! then our wants were to be attended to—Waikato i)eople were to receive that share of attention which had so long been deniedi them. Well, Auckland and Waikato may have got their share of attention, but of what did it consist : Ministers' visits, speeches, and promises'! Auckland and Waikato want bread, and they get a stone, or, at any rate, promises as indigestible and unsatisfactory as a stone. Why shouldthe promises of the Government be less sacred than those of an individual —yet so they seem to be. Have we not been promised (definitely and repeatedly) by the Premier and the Minister of Public Works, that tenders should bo called for the Te Awamutu extension so soon as the plans were ready, and that those plans should be ready by the first month m this year. Yet, here we have three months gone, and we get no si°-n Worse still, the summer is nearly oyfer and nothing done. Well may we adxmf the sentiment of the wise man when he said, "Put not your trust m princes,' 4 or. those who stand, to us, m their places* And wljy should we have to beg so lon* ! wd so patiently for .that which any business man would see, m a moment, to beto Ins interest to do. If there were any doubts as to the paying nature of tho enterprise, we might underafamd-flto reason- for delay ; but there is none. Here we have fanners who dare not send their sheep to Auckland, because so many have died on the road from the weight of fat and wool they cany. Here are potatoes offering at lidiculously low prices, because the distance is too great to cart them. Mere are men anxious to improve their farms by means of artificial manures, and who are prevented from doing so by the * expense and difficulty of transit. So Ion«» as the line' raft alongside of -the iiveiV-.it had a formidable competitor to Contend against, but here it will have the whole ot the traffic. This fact leads me to another matter which you mention, viz. : the talcing of the line back to the river at Alexandra. Would any business man for $v moment think of doing anything so guicidai fts ici t.uu- straight jnfo cftnipet^ tion when he might have a* monopoly? But, you say, it is only on account of the natives. Well, who are these natives who are so anxious to get the railway to their settlement ? Are they the owners of the land? Have they such influence that they can deal with a high l lan( i the Government? We know who ReAvi Maninpoto is; he owns the country Ik tbo fcjitk qt 3?iljikilu, and lives within ftiree ihilds of Te Awamutu. He was the man whose .luflueuoe has shielded us from bloodshed vs. Waikato ev.er tfUce the ftjAt at Qrakau, perhaps aiuivflitw-tUuli of -Jay

other man. Possibly, he wonts a railwayto his settlement, as he is going m largely i for cultivation, and has to send m all his produce on pack horses. But these Waikatos — the King and his people — where m- i s. their land that they should give a road tHrb«igh the country? They are allowed to livp oh the land and cultivate it, and they aave the river by which to send their produce to market. At any rate, if the natives are to have a voice m such a question, consult those who are really men of influence and the owners of the soil. But they are very white natives who are at the bottom of the Alexandra agitation, and, if the Government did its duty and considered the true interests of the country, it would at once push on the line to its proper crossing on the Puniu River, where it would be a boon to natives and settlers alike. — I am, etc., J. H. Mandexo. Te Awamutu, March 3, 1878.