The Southland Times. MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1868.

Southland Times, Issue 937, 20 April 1868, Page 2

The Southland Times. MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1868.

Thp prospect of the early completion of the Oreti Eailway, in whatever light viewed, is one which cannot fail to be satisfactorily regarded. The advantage to the Province — looking at the matter as one of present benefit — only in the field opened by it for labor, and the consequent attraction to population, is very considerable. It is, however, in the permanent influence which the work — as a reproductive one — will have on. the future of the Province that we are most concerned. That this will be very great, none who have paid much attention to the subject will be disposed to deny or question. The various debates which have taken place on the subject, enlisting all the argument of the Province, and bringing to bear upon the matter the practical deductions of those best qualified to arrive at a conclusion, have settled the point of the desirability and absolute necessity of the work. The correspondence recently published, between His Honor the Superintendent of Southland, and the Colonial Secretary, on this subject, will have been read with interest, as evincing the deep interest his Honor has taken in the completion of the work, and as also showing the readiness of the General Government to assist. The somewhat lengthy correspondence has resulted in an important concession to the Province, by means of which we are able to pay for the work in money, instead of in land, as originally contemplated. The advantage of such a course need not be argued, it being self-evident. Whether the view taken by the G-eneral Government as to the legal effect of the propositions submitted by his Honor, for the purchase of land in the name of the Oreti .Railway Trustees be correct or not, may be doubted. However this may be, it has proved in the long run, much better for ourselves that the legal difficulty has been started, inasmuch as the arrangement by which the interest oa the Southland Debt up to the end of 1868, is to be capitalised, is preferrable to obtaining the money by overdraft at the Bank. Reference to a paragraph in Mr Richmond's letter of 19fch March, will show, however, that the difficulty, such as it was, was not started with the view merely to raise an objection. The General Government, as the really responsible party, is properly anxious with respect to any alienation of the land, and particularly so, because such alienation diminishes future means, and the effect which the proposed vesting in trustees of 60,000 acres of land would have, if by any unforseen casualty the work could not be completed for the contemplated sum, would be materially to add to our difficulties, and lessen the prospect of speedy release. Mr Richmond says : — " The completion of a practical arrangement for carrying out the Oreti Eailway will, your Honor has on several occasions stated, give a great impetus to land sales. The Government agree that this will probably be the result. As a further consequence, the

contribution of the land fund towards the extinction of the debt will be materially diminished ; for as under present arrangements the land fund is only charged in any case with interest and a small sinking fund, the rapid alienation of the land will in all probability bring that contribution to an end before the repayment of the debt shall have been provided for. Should this be the case it may easily happen that the rest of the colony may have to bear a considerable part of the local burden. To provide against such a contingency the Government are of opinion that concurrently with the concession of the point asked by your Honor, the Provincial Government should agree to the Appropriation of one fifth part of the land fund for investment as an additional provision for | meeting the local liability. On this con- | dition the Government will readily assent to waive all further application for interest up to the end of the current year, and will issue debentures for a sufficient amonnt to cover debt and interest to that date. — The Province may now congratulate itself upon having the work so long looked for definitely arranged ; and further, on the ' fact that the completion of the Railway will, under the present circumstances, be effected as advantageously and economically as is possible. In substituting the cash payment system for payment in land several difficulties are obviated, all of which tend to produce dissatisfaction, aud, without a doubt, materially to increase cost. In the payment by land with free selection the objection arises that such a course occasions a system of " spotting," and even in this case, where the very best land is selected, it does not necessarily follow that to the contractor it represents its Governmental value of £1 per acre. Most assuredly it does not unless at the same time the public creditor may have at his elbow a purchaser standing ready for the land which he has just selected ; and why, with cash in his hands, any person should need the intervention of a third party between himself as buyer and the Crown as settlers cannot be understood, except on the principle that profits made on the contract completed would justify the selector in submitting to a loss upon the nominal price of his land. If there be no free selection, but the contractor is compelled to take in payment for his work any block of land specially allotted for that purpose, the public in that case must suffer to a still greater degree. On the assumption that the lands selected and allotted for the purpose of payment for work are, either from their position or quality, the most valuable of the Provincial lands, by the operation of the contracting system it follows that we do not obtain full value for them. If, on the other hand, the land be only second or third rate, the value it will assume in the eyes of a contractor becomes depressed in a still greater ratio. In the settlement of this question, which has i been arrived at, His Honor, by his management of the correspondence and general conduct of the business, as well as by its satisfactory conclusion, has assuredly done for Southland the best that it was possible to do.