Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1901. MIDLAND COMMISSION.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 7 February 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1901. MIDLAND COMMISSION.

A Royal Commission, such as that appointed to enquire into the claims of the Midland Railway Bondholders, should be expected to interpret the powers vested in them in a fair and broad spirit, and it, therefore, comes somewhat in the shape of a shock to find that they have so narrowed and dwarfed the scope of enquiry as to call forth a protest from the Chief Justice. A yesterday’s telegram says :—“ When the Midland Railway Commission met this morning the Chairman announced he could not entertain the protest of Findlay, on behalf of petitioners, against the limited scope of the commission ; he also refused to receive the digest of the protest which Findlay proffered. Findlay, thereupon, said he would withdraw from enquiry, and would go back for directions to the Chief Justice, on whose directions the protest was made. After consultation the Commissioners decided to record the protest pro forma," It does not appear very clear as to what are the intentions of the Commission, but as the Chief Justice has practically to set foith what was asked for by the petitioners in their petition to Parliament ho will we dare say take good care that the issue is not unfairly narrowed. Should the Commission still refuse, matters will be brought almost to a dead lock, as the enquiry, if not extended to the full limits as set forth by the Chief Justice, could not bo accepted as a fair and exhaustive one. In the first stage of this extraordinary business, when the Company on the one hand and the Government on the other were in the Law Courts testing the correctness of their contentions and right, we did not blame Government for straining every point to maintain its position. That stage, however, has passed and gone. We are now on an entirely different plane. All legal right has been relinquished, and a moral and equitable claim put forth—and put forth in a respectful petition to Parliament. The bondholders have really thrown themselves upon the mercy of the country. And they should be made in a liberal and generous spirit. The bond-holders are the victims; the colony have derived much benefit from the railway, and is honestly bound to pay for that benefit. It would ill become a colony like New Zealand to take advantage of past mismanagement by a company to injure a third party, and it is therefore all the more desirable that the Commission should err on the side of liberal interpretation, than contract the sphere to narrower limits than that asked for by the petitioners, and sanctioned by Parliament.