For tho cansev that lacks ■as3istanoo, For tlio woag tiat. needs raelctiinco, For t>lo futuro Iα tlio distance, Aacl tlis sood that-we caa do.
TUESDAY. DECEMBER 1, 1891.
The " New Zealand® Times" of November 26th, in an article on the North Island Trunk Railway, gives ex" pression to views which, we have very little doubt, are widely entertained in Wellington. It states that "the Loan, after the decision of a very independent Parliamentary Committee, committed the country, by arrangement with the public creditor, to the interior line. That line is a matter of honour backed by a million sterling."

It is rather unfortunate for our con temporary's argument that he is wholly astray with regard to his facts. The Act under which the million was origin ally authorised did not specify any particular route. So far as the matter had been decided by the Government when the money was borrowed, the route adopted was un questi6nably that via Stratford, which tor more* than ten years had been indicated as the line of continuation for the railway in course of construc tion from Wellington to Taranaki, northwards to Auckland. So definitely was this deemed to have been deter mined that the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Taranaki district actually advertised the sale of the township of Stratford as the point of junction for the trunk line, and every Public Works Statement prior to the bonowiug of the money bears testimony to the same fact. To speak in plain English, the extra prices realised by the Go vernment for town allotments in Strat ford were obtained by representations which subsequent events have shown to be absolutely" fraudulent, and we are by no means sure that every original purchaser could not recover damages .-gainst the Government by action at Ixx.
