I— ll

116

no comparison between the two lines, and it requires no Daniel come to judgment to try and persuade us that that is so. The Manawatu Bail way is in an entirely different position. It runs from Wellington, which is the distributing centre for the North Island, and it serves a district of rich land which is settled all along the line, and which is of an entirely different character from that which would have been served by the Midland Eailway. Consequently any attempt to draw a comparison between the results to the colony of the two is utterly fallacious. Then, with respect to the timber, the loss on which is estimated by Mr. Mueller at £546.000, the Eoyal Commission report—E.-3, 1880—states that when timber was carried a distance exceeding seventy-five miles it is carried at a loss of £2 10s. for every £1 received by the Government. Mr. Gordon gives the rate at one-third; and if it be true, as suggested by the Commissioners and by Mr. Gordon, that you cannot carry timber by railway in competition with sea - carriage, what becomes of this huge claim for loss in respect to timber ? I do not think it is necessary to go into more of the details in following out the utterly unreliable and fallacious methods taken to compute the loss suffered by the Crown in this respect. There is no doubt there has been a loss. It is idle either to attempt to estimate or attempt to deny the loss to this colony consequent on the non-completion of this entire line. You might almost as well attempt to estimate the difference to the colony between a good and a bad Government. That there is a difference—in fact, a great difference —I believe even the Premier will admit ; but what that difference in figures is perhaps not even the Premier could say. You have heard the evidence, and you must have seen that much of what Westland may have lost in population other parts of the colony have gained—people leaving there have settled elsewhere. It is said that population has gone away to the Australian Colonies, but a complete answer to that is that the incoming population has exceeded the outgoing ever since we ceased the construction of this railway. Is it reasonable to say that people were going out of the colony when so many more have been coming in ? No; but if the incoming population has exceeded the outgoing, then that incoming population has been paying to the Customs, and doing something to add to our national wealth and prevent the building-up of this claim, based, as it is, on the assumption that this blue patch has driven thousands from our colony. I say that a great fallacy underlies the whole of that argument on the part of the Crown. Then, again, much that Christchurch has lost Wellington has gained. If you divert to the railway that which goes by boat it is only a change of the means of transit, and what the railway has lost in this case the boats have gained. It is the same with the New Zealand railways —what they have lost our steamer service has gained. The maxim holds true very widely that loss is seldom absolute, and that what is one man's loss is commonly another man's gain. This is left entirely out of consideration in the argument by the other side. It is assumed by Mr. Bell that all these people were idle, or have left this colony, because this land was not settled; but one way of testing the question is by asking, Is this colony to-day in a worse position through the existence of the Midland Eailway contract ? Look at all we have done —the construction of ninety miles of line, the spending of three-quarters of a million in this colony, the opening up timber, coal, and pastoral land. Look, I say, at all we have done, and also, if you will, at any loss we have caused you, and ask yourselves whether the Midland Eailway Company has, in the final balance, been a blessing and a boon to this colony. No man can say that the colony is worse off from the existence of that constructed portion of the line; but every impartial judge will admit that it reaped incalculable advantages from it. But lam not concerned to deny that there has been some loss to the colony—perhaps considerable loss, although insignificant as compared with the advantages referred to. I am concerned to urge upon you that that loss cannot fairly be wholly charged against the company, and that it cannot be charged against the debenture-holders at all. The Real and Final Question is, What is the Value to the Colony of the Railway taken from the Debenture-holders ? Now let me deal with the question of what this line, as far as it is constructed, is fairly worth to the colony. We have constructed ourselves, out of our own money, some ninety miles of line— a longer and, I believe, a better constructed line than the whole of the Manawatu Eailway. Mr. Bell heaped Pelion upon Ossa in building up the injury the company has done to this colony, but we got no credit for the boon this railway has been to the West Coast. It is said that we began the cheapest and most remunerative portion of the line with no intention of finishing the rest. We did nothing of the kind. We began as honest contractors should do, in the proper and most reasonable way, by the construction of that portion of the line which would be of most service to the colony. And you have heard whether the line is the cheaply and easily built thing Mr. Bell suggests—a mere fragment of a line, beginning at no proper starting-place and ending at no proper terminus—a kind of railway patch upon what already existed. That is the tone in which it is spoken of, all to belittle its value and minimise the real extent of the property of the debenture-holders which the Government has confiscated. Ido not propose to weary you by going through all the figures given by Mr. Dalston, showing the traffic that there has been on this constructed portion of the line.. Those figures show that there has been an enormous growth of traffic. In passengers, from 22,333 in 1890 it increased to 34,103 in 1895 ; parcels, from 1,287 to 4,757 ; cattle and sheep, from 156 to 3,443; wool, from 44 bales to 273 bales; timber, from 539,800 ft. to 5,413,400 ft.; grain, from 416 tons to 1,728 tons. On merchandise there has been a-falling off, owing to the special reason mentioned by Mr. Bell; but in minerals there has been an increase from 1,351 tons to 31,592 tons. The growth there is something stupendous, and shows the enormous service this line was performing to the country. And yet Mr. Bell in his address tells us, " The line is at present useless unless some one will construct the connection and provide the machinery to enable it to be worked at a profit." Useless ! Is it? Well, give it back to us, the debenture-holders, and we shall be more than content. We have spent threequarters of a million on the construction of that line. You say it is not worth more than £135,000. Well, give it to.us. We want no more. We have always said so, and we say so again. Surely