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that is a proof of our view of its worth. We have spent three-quarters of a million on it, and if you give us the line back we consider that we shall have security for our money. We are ready to work it and make it pay. We know that a company can be now formed to take it off our hands on terms which would give us nearly 20s. in the pound. Useless ! Gould any man on the West Coast say honestly that it is useless ? You have heard Mr. Dalston's evidence. Pull Up this line and see what the difference would be to the West Coast—aye, and even to Canterbury, and indirectly to the rest of the colony. It is idle to talk of this line as useless, when in the next breath we are told that we constructed this portion first because it paid best. I say that if not another mile be added to it, this line has been a great and growing boon to the whole of the West Coast. In the mountain of loss which has been piled up to smother our claim nothing has been said of the immense gain and boon this line has been to the West Coast for the last ten years. Surely even-handed justice would put something in the scale in our favour. But no; our line is a useless fragment, and one would almost infer barely worth the while of a prosperous Government to confiscate.. I asked one or two of the Crown witnesses as to the gain the line had been to the West Coast, and they reluctantly admitted that it had been of some advantage. When there was an array of witnesses from Greymouth here who were not called—and I have reason to believe, if they had been called Mr. Bell: I object to that statement being made. The Chairman: Ido not think, Dr. Findlay, that you can assume that witnesses who were not called would have said something in your favour. Dr. Findlay : Very well. I will not pursue that line. I will merely say that the witnesses were here, and they were not called. However, I will let Mr. Dalston's figures speak for themselves, and I say that that line is justly and fairly worth to the colony, or to any one else, every shilling we spent upon its construction. We have put in statements, in the utmost detail, showing that we spent £763,732 on this line. Take off the £12,500 which we paid to get rid of certain contractors, and you have £751,232 as the amount which we expended in the construction of this line. The Crown says, " Oh, but our engineers estimated its probable cost at £605,685." Mr. Bell: It was not our engineers. Mr. Napier Bell was your engineer. Dr. Findlay : Well, I acknowledge that one was our engineer, and one the engineer of the Crown ; but engineers' estimates, like architects' estimates, have an unhappy genius for being below the actual cost. As a matter of fact, Mr. Bell and Mr. Blair differed by £150,000 in their estimates of the cost of this whole line. I say that the proof of actual experience is more valuable than mere paper calculations, however careful may be your engineers ; and we aver that the real and actual cost of that line is £751,232, to which has to be added £46,394 which we have since paid, making a total of £797,626. And in this there is not one penny added for interest during construction. Ido not know whether any one doubts that it is right to make a charge for interest. I understand that it is the universal practice in England to add a reasonable sum for interest on capital during construction, and obviously it is only reasonable that it should be so. I appeal to the contract itself in support of that contention. You will find in the contract that this colony provided that a sum of £400,000 should be added to the cost of construction for interest. Does any one mean to say that if a million pounds must be sunk unproductively for several years in a great enterprise part of the cost of construction is not the interest upon the money you are employing, I say, then, that we are fairly entitled to some interest, and, if you take this £400,000 as a guide, I think about £100,000 should be added for interest. That would make the total actual cost to us £897,626. But take the Government figures. Their estimate is £605,685. To that has to be added £46,394, which we have since paid, and which Mr. Bell in his estimates carefully forgets altogether. This makes a total of £652,079. Add to that half my suggested proportion of interest,.say, £50,000, and you have £702,079. But this is on the Crown's own figures. Surely if you will not accept the cost as shown by our actual expenditure, you will agree to half the difference between the actual cost and the Crown's estimate of probable cost. This works out as follows :— £ Crown's estimate ... ... ... ... ... ... 605,685 Add amount paid since seizure ... ... ... ... ... 46,394 Add half proportion of interest ... ... ... ... ... 50,000 Add half difference estimate probable cost and actual cost ... ... 72,773 Total ... ... ... ... ... £774,852 Then, it has been suggested that the measure of the value should be based on a computation of the capitalisation of income. That method of computing value is quite absurd. I submit that such a method has never been heard of in any part of the world in dealing with a railway which is still in course of construction. Why, supposing the whole of the railway had been completed, and the Government had seized it for a breach of the Act of 1881. Could they say, as Mr. Gordon said before the Committee in 1892, "Your line is not paying working-expenses, therefore it is worth nothing" ? Or, suppose the whole line completed and running a year or two, and it did better than Mr. Gordon and his colleagues expected—suppose in these first years it earned a net profit of £10,000 —could you, if you had seized it for a failure to run a certain train for twentyone days, as it seems now you could do, have said to the company or debenture-holders, "It is true your line cost you £3,000,000, but as during the few years it has been running it has averaged a net profit of only £10,000 we will capitalise that at 4 per cent., and give you £250,000 for it—that is, one-twelfth of what it cost." You have seen in the five years we were running the line the enormous growth in the traffic, and you must recognise that we could look forward to greatly increased prosperity until the railway had reached its normal earning-powers. Bt. Hon. Mr. Seddon: That is if the Government spent a million on the Springfield-Jackson end; but, if nothing spent, what then ?