The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1878.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 207, 30 September 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1878.

It is almost incredible v but it is, nevertheless, a positive fact that, ou the House being", asked the other day to agree to the following principle :— " That no contracts should be entered into by the Government till after the money for such works had been duly appropriated by larhament," it refused to do so by 4G to 32. The foregoing wa3 an amendment to the motion that the House should go into Committee of Supply, and had reference to the Tapanui railway job, and had it been carried the Ministry wonld of course have considered it a hostile vote, so that rather than injure the feelings of members of the Government, the representatives of the people by a large majority decided that for the future such matters as public works contracts were not to be interfered with by ' them, but were to be left entirely to the Government, that is, to Mr Macandrew. The facts in connection with this latest, job are given by the N. Z. Times as follows:— " Last year, in committee of the House of Representatives, a resolution was carried thai land of the value of £50,000 should be set apartfor making a branch railway from Waipahai to Tapanui, in the Province of Otago. It does not appear that the resolution, if reported, was ever adopted by the House of Representatives, and it certainly was never heard of by the Legislative Council, or by the Governor, the other branches of the General Assembly. The distance between the places mentioned is, we believe, about 10i miles. On the 28th June last an advertisement appeared in the Otago Daily Times inviting tenders for the work, which were to be sent in on or before the 29th July. On the 30th July, whilst the General Assembly was in session, secretly and without any intimation to, or authority of.the Parliament, a contract was made with Messrs Proudfoot and McKay for tbe construction, not of a line of lO.i miles from Waipahai to Tapanui, but for the construction of a line of 15.} miles from Waipahai up the valley of the Pomohaka river, at the cost of £Gl,500; the money to be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue of the colony by equal instalments at two. four, and six months after the completion of the contract, Messrs Proudfoot undertaking, for a consideration, not to require usual progress payments, but themselves to find the money for the work in the meantime. On the " stumps" and in the House of Representatives, the Premier has glorified himself for his feat of colonialising the land revenue, and making it " the inalienable inheritance of the future " youth of this colony," that is what he says; what he does, or permits to be done by his colleague the Minister for Public Works, is to take £61,500 of that " inheritance" without authority of law, and spend it in making a railway for the landowners of the Ileriot Burn District, which they were obout to make under the District Railways Act at their own cost and risk, if only they had been allowed to do so." And Sir George not only supported the doctrine that Parliament is to have nothing to say on such contracts himself, but he was actually able to persuade forty-five other representatives of the people to go into the same lobby with him on so important a question. He probably felt flattered by the reason given by one of bis supporters for so voting. MrSwanson said:— "l shall vote against the amendment, not because I approve of the action taken by the Government, on the contrary I think they were wrong, but I think we ought to get on with the work of the Committee of Supply."