POLITICAL NOTES.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9137, 22 June 1895, Page 9

POLITICAL NOTES.

(Bt Telegraph.) (kbom ocr special corbespoxoekt.) WELLINGTON, June2l. A RUMOURED RAILWAY LOAN. Major Steward has given notice of a question whether, with a view to mitigate the distress among the unemployed throughout the colony, and at tbe same time to further the prosecution of important and necessary public works, the Premier will on an early day invite this House to sanction the putting in band forthwith of a section or sections on each of the three undermentioned lines of railway, viz., the Canterbury Midland, the Otago Central, and the North Island. Main Trunk.

Tliia question has been considered by many as a premonition of a movement for a large railway loan, it having been reported that the Canterbury and West Coast membera have came up prepared to unite with the Auckland and Otago representatives to demand the borrowing of a sufficient sum to complete tbe three lines mentioned. However, during the Address-in-Reply debate, Mr Maslin and the Minister of Education, both Canterbury members, expressly repudiated any such intention. Mr Reeves, alluding to the suggestion that the construction of the Midland Railway should be completed with the proceeds of a national loan, aaid that ardently as he desired, as a Canterbury member, that the railway should be completed, he would prefer that for years to come the coach only should continue to traverse Arthur's Pass rather than have the railway constructed by a loan.