L—ll

104

(2.) Upon the company requesting the Queen so to sell or lease any land, the Queen shall forthwith cause the value of such land to be assessed at a price not being less per acre than the certified valuation per acre of the block, and the value of the remainder of the block shall be deemed to be the certified valuation of the whole blook, less such assessed value of the portion disposed of. (3.) In the case of a purchase, the amount to be paid by such person or persons for the purohase of any such land shall be fixed by the company, but shall not be less per acre than the value assessed by the Queen under the last-preceding paragraph ; and on payment by the purchaser to the Queen of a deposit of 10 per cent, of the purchase-money, together with the estimated cost of survey of the land required, the Queen shall cause the same to ba surveyed, and, after completion thereof and payment of the balance of the pur-chase-money has been made to the Queen, and on the further request of the company in writing, the purohaser shall be entitled to receive a grant of the lands so purchased. (4.) In the case of a lease, the rent or royalty and the terms and conditions of the lease shall be agreed upon between the Queen and the company; and the applioant for such lease shall, at the time of such application, pay to the Queen the estimated cost of survey, and, before the execution of the lease, shall also pay one half-year's rent in advance; and so soon as the company shall have earned such grants of land as to entitle it to receive a further grant of such value as may be shown by the assessment hereinbefore mentioned of any land so leased as aforesaid, then the Queen shall, on the request of the company, issue to it a grant of such land, subject to then-existing lease. (5.) All purchase-moneys, rents, or royalties received or collected under these provisions shall be paid to the Receiver of Land Revenue of the district in which the land ia situated, who shall pay'the same into the Receiver-General's Deposit Account ; and all suoh moneye, rents, or royalties sha,ll from time to time be taken into account as provided by these presents, and the whole or part thereof, as the oas9 may be, shall be paid over to the company on its request, after it shall have become entitled to the same in respect of grants of land earned in accordance with these presents. (6.) In the event of any lands being sold under this clause upon any system of deferred payments, or being disposed of by wa.y of lease, the duty and cost of collecting or enforcing all such deferred payments, or compelling payment of any rents or royalties, or enforcing the covenants and conditions of any such lease, shall devolve on the company, which shall collect and receive such payments, rents, or royalties as tho agent of the Queen, and shall forthwith pay the same, without any reduction, to the Receiver of Land Revenue as aforesaid, to be dealt with under these presents ; and the Queen shall from time to time grant to the company suoh power or authority as may enable the company, in the name and on behalf of the Queen, but at its expense, to recover or receive any moneys due or payable on deferred payments or under any lease, or otherwise to enforce the performance of the covenants and conditions contained or implied in any such lease or contract for purchase on deferred payment. (7.) When any land has been so sold or let by the Queen under these provisions the same shall be deemed to have been selected by the company, and the value thereof shall from time to time be debited against the company in the account mentioned in clause 24 at the price at which the same shall have been so assessed as aforesaid. On selection by the company of the remainder of a block within which land has been so sold or let, the value thereof shall be the amount of the certified valuation of the whole of such block, less the assessed value of suoh lands as shall have been so sold or let. Now, the East Coast land is open, and not bush. It could be taken up for pastoral purposes in large areas, and was so taken up. You will notice that the Grown has not in this claim made any great point of settlement being blocked in Canterbury. They know that the land there has been used for sheep-farming purposes under licenses, notwithstanding the restrictions, and has produced perhaps as much as it would have done had there been no reserved area there at all. It is on che West Coast and Nelson that they claim great loss for blocking settlement. Now, when the contract was made it was seen that land in West Coast and Nelson was not fit to be taken up in large areas ; that it was mainly bush land—would have to be cleared; and that settlers would not be content—would indeed be unable to deal with and clear more than three or four hundred acres. It was also seen that it could not be expected that this clearing would be done by men unless they could get some security of tenure ; and moreover, it was felt that if this security of tenure could only be given when the company had actually earned the grant of such land, the clearing and consequent settlement might be unduly delayed. What then was done? Clause 33 was inserted in the contract to enable the company to send on applications for such areas to the Crown, and get the Crown to give a title immediately—" forthwith cause value to be assessed." This applied to the whole of the land in the West Coast and in Nelson District, on the western side of the main range, so that the whole of these lands might have been settled as soon as applied for; the purchasemoney or rent being paid into the Crown's hand, and held until the company should get all, because it was entitled to the money. Surely that was a simple means of avoiding this disastrous lockingup. And yet what happened? I proceed to show that the Crown, so far from facilitating this means, seemed to place every obstacle in the way of its operation. "Upon this point there can be no doubt, because we have the whole correspondence between the Government and the company in respect to it. It all appears in the appendix to the proceedings when the Midland Eailway petition was before your Committee in 1892. The correspondence is not new to my friend Mr. Bell, for he put it in on behalf of the company in 1892; and I use it now merely as an answer to the charge that we are responsible for this blocking of settlement, and have caused this colony's loss in this way alone of £500,000. I have taken only a few of the letters out, but if Mr. Bell wishes to have the whole of the correspondence put in I shall not object. Here is the correspondence : — Correspondence relative to the Selection of Land under Clause 33 of the Midland Railway Contract. The General Manages, Midland Railway Company, to the Hon. the Minister for Public Works. Sib, — New Zealand Midland Railway Company (Limited), Christchurch, 23rd June, 1890. In dealing with small applications for land within the authorised area, under clause 33 of the Midland Railway contract, we have hitherto understood that the fact of the Commissioner of Crown Lands handing to the company his assessment of the land applied for included the assent by the Government to the sale of that land, and that before handing it over he had taken any necessary steps to ascertain whether the particular land might be so dealt with. As evidence of this the assessments have provided for applications about which there is any doubt being advertised. It was therefore deemed unnecessary to refer such applications direct to the Minister for the two months mentioned in clause 29 of the contract, but the Commissioner of Crown Lands for Nelson has written me, under date of 20th instant, stating that it is necessary to do so. This clause was not intended to apply to dealings under clause 33, but to selections by the company of whole blocks. The delays which must necessarily arise from every small application having to be first referred to the Commissioner for assessment, and then to the Minister for a period of two months, will be so great as to be a serious delay