The Waikato Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1879

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1112, 9 August 1879, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1879

Equal and exact justice to aU men, Of whatever state or persuasion, reUgious

or poUtical. Here shaU the Press the People's right

maintain, ' . Unawed by i. nfluencfi and unbribed by gain.

The dissolution of Parliament will interfere with a matter which we would have wished lo have seen cleared up, the action of the Government with respect to tho ThamesWaikato Railway j for Waikato sottlers cannnot but feel aggrieved at the palpable injustice which has been done them m this matter, passing by the portion of the lice authorised by Parliament to be constructed, and expending the money voted for that work on the Grahamstown end of the line, which it now turns out was nofc authorised at all, but which has been proceeded upon on the strength of a piece of official sleight-of-hand referred to m the debate m the Assembly published m another column, One map which' every member would ]ook at, attached to the Public Works Statement, shows the railway lino between Hamilton and Aroha only ; the other map taken horn the same block but showing- the line prolonged fco Grahamstown, was subsequently placed on the table of the Houje, and being supposed to-be identical with the one first seen arid examined, and m every members bauds;, was not looked afc. The first map was not; al tered, as has been slated. There was no such piece of clumsy forgery as that— bul; the substitution of the new map when the railway w„s subsequently authorised .was taken advantage of a3 an excuse for fche action of Government during the resess m entering upon the construction of a lir.e of railway of the intended-, construction of which the Assembly had, it now seems, nofc held the rotnob3Sb idea.

lv the debate, of which we publish as nin'oh as space to-day will allow .uk, the matter is viewed of course from a colonial point of view, but there is another aspect which will present itself to every Wikafco' sefcilor — fch.9 injury and lo.ss which this misappropriation of public funds has inflicted upon this district*. As the draughtsmen In tho Survey Department saw ifc, " a political point ! has been worked" by the substitution of one map for the' other, and the con-tituei'cy at the Thames has been favored afc the cost of Waikato and the Piako. This district has been sacrificed for tho Thames, and but for the action on the part of tho Government, -(.30,000 might during the past twelve months have 'been expended between Hamilton and the Thames River -in tlie construction of the iii'jo of railway as authorised by 'the Assembly. Work during- the last ' few , months has nofc been so •plentiful -Jhuti- the effect of this expendifcut'e .would nofc havo been most beneficially felt throughout the district \ hut no ( Lite iwtewate pf the

working 1 man' clashod with the necessities of political expediency and the former went, fco the wall. The money that would have found work ior 'hunch _ds was eiuhei* left unexpended or spent, iv purcb.asinpf political support, m bheshaiio of land bought for railway requirements at Gnihams'Pwn. . . '

Meanwhile, the railway rumaiiis nntoucheil afc this end of the Hik*, fchou^li the sum voted, considering how many miles of ifc are re.ciy formed, wmi'd |»i_ljably.bave opened up horse tram coniuinnioation, till the bridge over the Waikato was bnilfc, between Waitoa and the Hamilton Hi ver, the same as now nbont to be under taken on the Hamilton Branch Extension.