From PapersPast:
Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1880. THE FOXTON RECLAMATION WORKS. CONTRACT SHORTLY TO BE LET.
We are pleased to state that the working drawings for the reclamation works, new railway station, and increased wharfage, are now being prepared, and that in all probability tenders will be called for a part of the work in a few weeks. This will be good news for the whole district. Times have been for a long time very bad, and we have suffered from an overstocked labour market. The expenditure of some £15,000 at Foxton will attract the superfluous labor from other parts of Manawatu, and will thus afford relief to the entire district. For a long time past, the expenditure of General Government money in Manawatu has been very small, and as a consequence settlement has not progressed as it would have done had there teen more money flowing into the district. Expenditure in a district capable of settlement returns to the Colonial exchequer indirectly, by increasing the number of producers, and strengthening the number of actual, permanent colonists. This does not operate in districts where the land is of too poor a character to sustain a large population. Manawatu comes under the former category. The greater the expenditure of public money that takes place, the faster it progresses, because money leads to settlement. We shall have great pleasure in witnessing the turning of the first sod for reclamation purposes, believing that not only Foxton will be benefitted by the work, but also the fertile district of which it is the port.
