THE LAWRENCE-TUAPEKA RAILWAY.

Evening Star, Issue 3791, 19 April 1875, Page 2

THE LAWRENCE-TUAPEKA RAILWAY.

The public meeting at Lawrence on Wed. nesday evening last, “to consider what steps should be taken to have the various contracts on the Tuapeka and Tokomariro railway proceeded with,” was well attended. The Mayor of Lawrence (Mr M. Hay), in opening the proceedings, said he had been assured by Mr Blair, the District Engineer, that the Government were as eager as anyene that the railway should be opened m soon as possible. Mr A Ferguseon said he had been in* formed that about L 2.000 was due to the men for wages on three of the railway sections, and that great privation was the re* suit. He characterised the conduct of con* tractors who acted in that manner as dis* graceful in the extreme.

Mr W. D, Morrison denied that L 2.000 was due to the workmen; in fact, there was very little due to them. Mr Campbell had allowed his men’s wages to fall in arrears, but that he could not help doing j bat now the Government had advanced him money and extended the time of his contract, and he had paid most of the men to whom lie owed wages, and ho doubt he would ultimately pay them all Referring to the great difficulties contractors often had in getting their money from the Government, he as much as L 3.600 had been owing him by the Government for centra t work, and he seldom got his vouchers paid, affer they were certified to, under less than six weeks. If contractors oonld not get their money from the Government they could not be expected to be in a position to pay their men. It must not be supposed that contractors were men of capital, for they were not so— at least on the Tuapeka line. Contractors sometimes lose by their contracts, and a certain contractor known to him undertook the formation of a railway section for L 12,000, and according to his own statement he be* lieyed it would cost L 15,000 or L 16,000 to finish it. It was not true that there was not a single person at work on the three sections, for on his section men were em> ployed making bricks, and he had started his men on the line that day at twelve o’clock. —(Laughter.) He was as anxious to have the railway finished as anyone oonld be.

Dr Stewart proposed the following resoln< tion:—“ That this meeting urge upon the Government to carry out the contracts in their entirety," which was carried. The Local Progress Committee has .been informed by the Under Secretary for Public Works that “ the Government are fully alive to the necessity for the progress of thework, but there are certain technicalities which stand in the way of its progress ; but every effort is being made to remove in order that the tunnel may be finished at the same time as the other portion of the line."