OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY LEAGUE

Otago Witness, Issue 2490, 4 December 1901, Page 59

OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY LEAGUE

MR T. MACKENZIE'S STATEMENTS

The monthly meeting of the Otago Central Railway League was held in the office of the secretary (Mr H. C. Campbell), Agricultural Buildings on Monday night ; present —Messrs W. Burnett (in the chair), T. W. Kempthorne, W. Barron, G. Howden, T. Brown, and J. Jolly. Apologies for nonattendance were received from Messrs A. C. Stronach, J. J. Ramsay, C. Macandrew, L. Gards, and J. F. Arnold, M.H.R. The Secretary read Mr J. A. Millar's reply to a telegram forwarded to him with regard to bridges prior to the close of Parliament. It ran as follows: — "Minister states he will make provision for bridges when work sufficiently advanced." Mr Barrron said he was reading Hansard the other day, when he came upon a statement made by Mr T. Mackenzie, M.H.R., that he did not think was at all correct, and he thought they ought to tell him about it. On the 28th October he said : " We should take individual lines and prosecute to a successful issue. — (An Hon. Member : ' The Otago Central"? ')— No, I do not speak of the Otago Central. I never thought much of the methods in connection with the Otago Central; it has bepn badly managed, taken from the wrong point, faultily constructed, and a great deal of the country it travels through is extremely poor." When they had that sort of thing said in Parliament by members representing the district through which the railway passed it was extremely wrong. The league should communicate with the local authorities in the districts represented by Mr W. Fraser. Mr T. Mackenzie, and Mr J. Bennet, and direct their attention to the fact that the assistance their representatives could give the league would be very •valuable — their active and not their tacii assistance. He would therefore move — "That the secretary be instructed to write to the County Councils of Lake, Vincent, and Maniototo and to the Borough Councils of Alexandra and Cromwell, asking them to communicate with their representatives in Parliament wi^h the object of securing more active support from them for the quicker progress of the railway." Mr Brown considered that Mr Mac kenzie's remark was quite unnecessary. The motion was carried.

TKe tender of Messrs Briscoe and Co. (Limited) has been accepted by the Railway Department for the supply of 12,000 gallons of castor oil for the New Zealand railways. The price for delivery at Wellington, Auckland, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers is 2s 4gd £er gallon,