The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1887.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 254, 29 October 1887, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1887.

Por the «ause that lacks aßsistance, For tho -mans that needs resistance, For tho future in tho distance, And the good that w> can do.

When shall \vW hear the last of the demands of that Midland Eailway Company ? The concession of 2,304,000 acres of the lancfe of the colony was considered a pretty big bid for the construction of a rtuHway of questionable value to the colony ; but inch by inch the promoters, trusting apparently to the powerful influenco which they appeared to possess over: the Govem_ ment of the colony, liave steadily ad. vanced their claims. Their latest demand amounts to a cool request that the land guarantee shall be turned into a mtoney guarantee of a million and a quarter sterling, so that if they choose to sell the two million odd acres of land for half-a-million of montey they may go on wasting the public estate until they have realised sovereigns It was also proposed that power should be given them to sell sections of land

from time to time beforehand in order to raise the capital necessary to construct the line. These extraordinary demands even staggered the late Government, and they apparently thought it was about time to put in the peg and remind the Company of the strict letter of their bond. If the Company fare any better at the hands of the new Government, we shall be very much astonished. But if the Government should manifest any inclination to yield, Parliament must step in and put a final end to the intrigue. Rather than part with its lands in this reckless way, it would be better for the colony to construct sections of this railway as funds are available. The proposal that the entire Crown estate of the colony should be mortgaged for to be realised as a number of English speculators may for the purpose of constructing a line which is then to become private property, is one of the most monstrous proposals we have ever heard. These negotiations are a significant commentary upon the claims of this line to construction at all in the present condition of the colony. If a free grant of half the mineral and agricultural lands opened up by the railway is not bait enough to tempt practical men to build a railway for the purpose of opening up the vast (!) trade between Christchurch and the West Coast goldfields, the prospect of making the line pay when completed is not a very lively one. It is perhaps fortunate for the colony that the Canterbury members, who have made this railway a condition of their support of any Government, are now all in Opposition, and the Executive is able to consider it without regard to their votes. No doubt the Government are bound to carry out honestly and to its full intent the agreement already entered into with the promoters of this Company and ratified by Parliament, but if the Company have over - estimated their power to complete the work on these terms they must accept the consequences. The colony can suffer no Joss through the project being abandoned. With the improved harbours on the West Coast the work of developing the rich mineral areas of that part of the colony can proceed vigorously, and when the lands along the route of this railway are actually required for honafide settlement, there will be no trouble in selling them for a sum sufficient to build the railway on behalf of the Government of the colony.