The West Coast Railway.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4490, 26 May 1883, Page 2

The West Coast Railway.

A considerable number of members of the Council and of the House, and leading mercantile men, responded to the Mayor of Wellington's invitation, and met yesterday to consider the action of the Canterbury Eailway League in seeking to divert the money voted for the extension northwards of the Middle Island Trunk Railway to a line to the West Coast, The Mayor quoted in detail from the proceedings of the League, and the meeting was addressed at length by Mr Travers and.Sir Wm. liizherbert. The latter insisted that any diversion of the money allocated for the extension of the main trunk line would be a scandalous breach of the public faith. It was, he said, on the strength of making a trunk line from Invercargill to the Bay of Islands that the Public Works scheme and its debt of £26,000,000 had been accepted by the people of the colony, and no deviation from this should be permitted.—On the motion of his Worship the Mayor, seconded by the Hon. John Martin, the following resolution was unanimously agreed to :—"That any diversion of the funds allocated to the construction of the Middle Island Main Trunk line would be improper and at variance with the general scheme of the Public Workg.' s —On the motion of Mr N. Bead, it was resolved to send copie3 of the resolutions to each member of the Legislature and Govern ment A Christchurch telegram says in referenoe to the above line:—A deputation interviewed th» West Coast Bailway Commission to-day, and gave the

approximate annual consumption of coal and timber in Canterbury from data furnished by the Collector of Customs :— Timber. 20.355,800 feet; laths and shingles, 327, 800 ; sleepers, 42,814 ; besides seven cargoes from Tasmania, particulars of which were not supplied; coal 90,000 tons.