The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 995, 7 November 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. ♦ * * ♦ ♦ Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and nnbribed by gain.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1878

It is satisfactory to learn that the Thames- Waikato Railway will be at once proceeded with, and that the sale of land in the immediate vicinity will, it is expected, recoup the colony the cost of its construction. Wo have no doubt that the Government has not over estimated the returns when it calculates to repay the whole cost of the line from the sale of allotinentis in the proposed township at Omaha, and in the sale of small farms, the largest of which we are informed will be 320 acres, on the Te Aroha block. The action of the Government in this case is wise and business-like. Too often the land has been first sold and then the Government has constructed the trunk road or railroad, as the case may be, where, had it first made the road, or guaranteed its formation within a definite time, the land sold would have realised a far larger sum and its enhanced value would have gone into the hands of the Government, that is, of the general public, instead of into those of speculators, who bought cheap when there was no road and became directly benefitted by the work of road construction afterwards undertaken at the public cost. But there is another feature in the affair which in justice to the district must not be lost sight of. The proceeds of the stile of these lands which it is intended to apply to the construction of the line would, if ordinarily dealt with, be subject to a deduction of 20 per cent, as the proportion of the Land Fund due to the counties in which such lands sold are situated. If the whole of the pries realised by the sale of these lands, as appears to be contemplated, is expended on the construction of the line, a manifest injustice to the counties interested will have been inflicted. Elsewhere, lines of railway have been constructed from the general funds of the colony without infringing on local revenues. There is no reason why the Thames and Piako counties snould be made the single exception to this rale, and in all fairness whatever the amount realised, the proportion of 20 per cent should be paid over to the counties as in other cases. The Thames-Waikate railway, above all others is a colonial concern, aud if by making it the Government can so enhance the value 0/ public lands affected by it, as by the sale of a comparatively small proportion, to recoup the cost of the line — the districts benefitted have all the more claim upon the colony for the prompt recognition ot what is really their right, the fifth of the price obtained by the sale of the lands.