106

I.—ll

I have further to request that you would be good enough to notify your consent, or otherwise, as early as possible. I have, &c, For the New Zealand Midland Railway Company (Limited), Robert Wilson, Engineer-in-Chief and General Manager. The Hon. the Minister for Public Works. [Note. —Similar letter of 23rd September, 1890, a list of twenty more applications was forwarded.] You will note that these applications for land were sent in on the 15th September, 1890, and yet we will find none of them were dealt with by the Crown for over two years, and I will now give a sample of the kind of obstruction the company had to meet: — The Assistant Under-Secretaby for Public Woeks to the General Manager, Midland Railway Company. Sir,— Public Works Office, Wellington, 7th October, 1890. Midland Railway: Land Selections under Clause 33 of Contract. —I am directed by the Minister for Public Works to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 15th and 23rd ultimo respectively, forwarding lists of lands which the company wishes to deal with in terms of clauses 29 and 33 of the Midland Railway contract. In reply, I am to state that the several parcels of land referred to in the lists forwarded are so insufficiently described that in many cases it has been found impossible to locate them. lam therefore to request that you will kindly supplement the information already supplied by furnishing the numbers of the sections in each case, and also by indicating their position on a lithograph plan of the district. I have, &c, H. J. H. Blow, Assistant Under-Secretary for Public Works. Robert Wilson, Esq., C.E., General Manager, New Zealand Midland Railway Company, Christohuroh. Now, the reply to this letter shows how really frivolous is this objection and easily, if the Government were anxious to assist settlement, they could have expedited it. The General Manager, Midland Railway Company, to the Assistant Under-Secretary for Public Works. Sir,— New Zealand Midland Railway Company (Limited), Ohristohurch, 28th October, 1890. Land Selections under Clause 33. —Referring again to your letter of the 7th instant, to which a reply was sent on the 9th instant by telegraph, as follows: "In reply your seventh, is it not sufficient that particulars asked for have already been supplied Commissioner of Crown Lands. What you will ask will take some time, and applioants irritated by delay " —though we have not heard from you in reply, I would again point out that sufficient information has been supplied the Commissioner of Crown Lands to enable him to locate the various applications. It would be impossible to furnish the numbers of the seotions, as in most capes the applications are for unsurveyed lands, and in few instances are the existing lithographs of the Nelson District sufficiently accurate to enable us to locate the applications on them. The only maps on which they can be properly located are those in the possession of the Government or District Land Office. The large scale-plans of the authorised area furnished by the Government to the company are also so inacourate as to be of little use in locating these applications. I believe that the Commissioner of Crown Lands has been able, from the information supplied to him, to determine the position of all the applications, and will be able to advise the Government on the subject. I have, &c, For the New Zealand Midland Railway Company (Limited), Robert Wilson, Engineer-in-Chief and General Manager. H. J. H. Blow, Esq., Assistant Under-Secretary for Public Works, Wellington. That letter, I repeat, shows how easy it would have been for the Crown to have co-operated with the company to help settlement if it had really wished. Here is the reply:— The Assistant Under-Secretaby for Public Works to the General Manager, Midland Railway Company. Sir,— Public Works Office, Wellington, 31st October, 1890. Re Midland Railway : Land Selections under Clause 33 of the Contract. —l have the honour, by direction of the Minister for Public Works, to forward herewith, for your information, copy of memoranda of instructions re the above, recently issued by the Hon. the Minister of Lands to the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Nelson and Hokitika. I have, &c, H. J. H. Blow, Assistant Under-Secretary for Public Works. Robert Wilson, Esq., C.E., General Manager, New Zealand Midland Railway Company, Ohristchurch. Then we find inclosed memoranda of these instructions : you will find much made of regulations and instructions, ending finally in the Crown discovering they had no power to make them ; but these regulations seemed almost intended to block settlement. Listen to what Mr. Wilson says:— The General Manager, Midland Railway Company, to the Hon. the Minister for Public Works. Sir, — New Zealand Midland Railway Company (Limited), Chrietchurch, 11th November, 1890. I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 31st ultimo, forwarding copy of proposed instructions to the Commissioners of Crown Lands of Nelson and Westland, as to dealing with land under clause 33 of the Midland Railway contract, and to point out that in some respects these instructions would be unworkable, and are at variance with the Midland Railway contract. The chief objection is to advertising the lands before the assessment be made by the Commissioner. It is obvious that the applicants will not go to the expense of advertising until they have come to terms with the oompany as to the price, &c, and, of course, the company cannot fix their selling prioe until the assessment be made. It is necessary, therefore, for the assessment to be made before the application be advertised, and at the same time as the Commissioner makes his assessment he should state whether there are any objections within his knowledge to the land being dealt with, leaving only open any objections which may be called forth by the advertisement. Further, if ihe routine proposed by these regulations were adopted, it would mean, first, that a month must elapse before the applicant had agreed to advertise; then, obtaining the assessment would probably take another month ; and the consent of the Minister would occupy another two months. Thus, it would take four months before any piece of land could be definitely dealt with. The contract, however, provides that the value shall be " forthwith " assessed; and, even if the provisions of clause 29 apply to sales, under clause 33, which the oompany does not yet admit, the longest delay allowed by the contract is two months, and not four months. For convenience I enclose a draft of some alterations which I would suggest should be made in your instructions to the Commissioners of Crown Lands. As the present applications have been held over a long time, I have the honour to request that you will give the matter your earliest attention. I have, &c, For the New Zealand Midland Railway Company (Limited), Robert Wilson, Engineer-in-Chief and General Manager. The Hon. the Minister for Public Works, Wellington. Here again an honest desire shown by company to push on and facilitate settlement, while Crown really blocking it. I read another letter to further emphasize this : —