Mataura Ensign GORE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1881. THE EAST AND WEST COAST RAILWAY BILL.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 403, 24 October 1884, Page 2

Mataura Ensign GORE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1881. THE EAST AND WEST COAST RAILWAY BILL.

It is belie 'ed this bill, which appears to be the chief of the "policy bill-*," was adopted by Sir Julius Yogel from Mr Leonard Harper, of Christchurch. This may account for some amazing defects that characterised it before it got into committee: For years past there lias been in the City of the Plains an agitation in favor of a line- of railway to connect the ambitious traders of that town with the goldfields. About two years ago "The Railway League" was formed for the purpose of keeping the subject burning, and of browbeating everybody who presumed to doubt the profitableness of the proposed gigantic work. This League appointed three cute gentlemen to inspect the ground, and to report. They were men to whom the .me would have been an undoubted benefit, and therefore not likely to be impartial witnesses as to. the. colonial value of the undertaking. They went, they saw, they funked. They returned, like the ten spies of old, with a dismal tale, and had the amaz ing folly to tell it. The League soon disposed of the traitois who were appointed to report favorably and didn't, and went calmly on it** way howling "fbr the " cloud-scraping l*aihvay. v No doubt that in Christchurch some understanding existed among wealthy and interested men as to what would be done if certain concessions were made.; This understanding no doubt ripened in the sunshine of the presence of Sir Julius into definite proposals, and Mr; Harper, as the chosen representative and selector of the embryotic Company, sketched a bill as favorable as possible. He forgot to mention tbe route to be taken by the line, and also omitted to fix a minimum price of the land to be conceded to the Company ; but he was careful to say the price was to have no regard to value added by the line. He ako stipulated for all coal and minerals found on the conceded land. He also carefully fixed upon the Government the cost of all surveys. These are some samples of how the bill proposed to feather the nest of the Company atthe expense ofthe Colony. Thatthe Government should adopt such a bill as a policy bill is at least a little peculiar. Perhaps they wished to gratify the House by letting it make some obvious improvements. In com- ( . mittee, therefore, the route was fixed for Arthur's Pass, and the minimum price of land was fixed at 10s per acre. Ail attempts to get the land concession reduced from 50 to 30 per cent, of the whole cost of the line were in vain, as were the attempts to make goldfields discovered on the land public property. An attempt was made to limit the area of land to be given, but beyond fixing the minimum price nothing could be done. In the first draft of the bill there was nothing to prevent the Company receiving all the remaining Crown land in Canterbury, Nelson ancl Westland. As it is the area that may be alienated will probably not be less than 2,000,000 acres— about 8^ per cent of the whole area of New Zealand. In addition to this the Government guarantee the line to earn twojper cent, on the cost of construction. The bill then amounts to this : The : Colony pays half the cost ©f the line in land at the present value, or having regard to the enhanced value, say the whole cost. But liaving paid for the line, it will have little to say in the management beyond guaranteeing some of the returns- And finally the Colony will be compelled sooner or later to buy the line, at a stiff price, and will thus have paid for it twice over, and will at the same time have no chance of making it pay because the country abcut it will all be in the hands of a vast Company. This is a pleasant outlook, certainly ! Still it is relieved by the hope that temporary ■relief will be afforded to the labor market by the expenditure on the* work, and that the thorough ex. pioration of unknown country involved $?in building the line will lead to discoveries profitable to the Colony as , well as to the Company. There is ! also the consolation that the land to , be alienated is probatjy oj. an inferior quality, and that its proceeds will be '- turned into a permanent possession lr instead of being spent as revenue. It ; is, of course, only right to say that no

Company may be forthcoming to accept the. conditions of the bill, which j;eyent would of course leave the matter still open to be dealt, with next session. Indeed, it has been freely declared that the fixing of the Arthur's Pass route and the stipulation for at least 10s per acre have killed the whole project. If that turns out to bo. true, wlmt further proof -could be 'required that the line is not wanted and that it cannot possibly pay 1