THE MANAWATU RAILWAY.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2456, 18 February 1882, Page 3

THE MANAWATU RAILWAY.

[fbom orra coeebbpondbnt.] WELLINGTON, February 17. The contract between the Government and the Wollington-Manuwatu Railway Company is not yet signed,' but is practically in the same position as when I last telegraphed on the subject. The only difference is that the directors have now decided definitely to accept the contract as finally agreed upon with the Government. The delay has arisen from their hesitating whether to proceed with the undertaking or to leave it for the Government to include in the new Public Works scheme, for which a fresh loan is to be proposed next session. The directors were uncertain whether the intimation of such a scheme might not interfere with their enterprise, or injuriously affect it by competition. However, on full consideration, the directors determined that the prospects of the railway were so good, in any case, that they would proceed with it at all hazards, and accordingly they notified the Government to that effect, and the contract was engrossed. But then a new hitch occurred. The fifteen miles distance within which land may be granted to a company at a rate not exceeding 30 per cent, of the cost was found to extend over a range of hills into Wairarapa County, which strenuously objected to their land being taken ; and as the proposed railway did not actually “serve” the land as required by the Act, the Government did not feel justified in granting it, but unluckily there is no other land acquired from the Natives which fulfils all the conditions, and the question now at issue is whether the deficiency in quantity due to the company can bo supplied by a conditional grant of the balance on its being acquired by Government from the Natives. This is now under consideration, and up to to-night no definite decision had been arrived at. The question is one materially effecting all other lines proposed to be constructed under the Act of last session.