RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION BILL.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1470, 1 November 1878, Page 2

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION BILL.

[by telegeaph.] [Pbe Pebbs Agency.] Wellington, November I. The following is the report of the Conference on the Railway Construction Bill; The managers, being unable to agree upon the question whether clause 3 of the Bill is or is not an appropriation clause, recommended that the amendments made on the said clause be omitted, and that the Ministry advise his Excellency the Governor to avail himself of the power of the 56th section of the Constitution Act by transmitting the following amendment for the consideration of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives instead of those that the Legislative Council proposed : “Provided always that no contract shall be entered into for the construction of any railway, or any portion thereof unless—l. In the case of each line to be constructed plans and estimates shall be laid before the Governor in Council, with a certificate from the Chief Engineer, that the route chosen for the railway is the best available one. 2. Such plans and estimates to be approved by the Governor in Council; and it is hereby declared that within thirty days after the commencement of the then next session of Parliament such plans and estimates shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament, together with a copy of any contract which may have been entered into in respact to which such plans and estimates refer.”