THE MIDLAND RAILWAY BILL.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11394, 3 October 1902, Page 4

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY BILL.

Wβ arc glad to see that the Bill brought down by iibe Government to settle tihe longstanding Midland Railway difficulty, has passed both Houses of Parliament, so that we are ■within viey of the close of an incident -which has not been altogether to the colony's credit. The Bill proposes to pay £150,000— £20,000 to the shareholders and £130,000 to the debenture-holders—and the parties interested bare intimated that with this settlement they will be content. A long course of litigation has established the fact beyond question that neither t-he shareholders nor the debenture-holders ihad any legal claim against the colony. The Company never carried out its contract, and a clause in the Act, which the de-benture-holders may very (well ba excused for not having properly understood, gave tie Government the right to seize the lice, thereby squeezing out the debenture-holders, who fully believed they had a first charge on the work. But if theie was no legal claim ngainst the colony there was certainly a moral claim. English investors were induced to expend upwards of a million and a quarter sterling on an undertaking wfcich was understood to be for the colony's benefit. It would not have been an honourable thing on the part of the colony to take advantage of the law to eeiae the line without returning any proportion of the cost. The debenture-bolderß, who arc in the worst case, advanced some £764,000 to the Company for fcbe construction of tiie line, in the full belief that they had a valid security over £he undertaking. There is due to them about £207,000 for interest, and while fighting fcr what they believed to be their rigi/ts. they advanced some £57,876 for the construction of the line to ke?p tbe Company aliw under the contract. Altogether it may be said they are a round million o}

money cut of pocket ow-ng to their connection with this ill-iateij concern. It is true <ihat tie line was very extravagsua.lv constructed, and much money was -wasted Still th« colony has obtained possession of 85 miles of substantially constructed tail-

way, and it cannot be said that £150,000 is an excessive price to pay for it. When the expenses of the litigation foave been taken into account the return to tbe de-benture-holders will represent a very small proportion of their out-lay. It is a pity that the Government did not meet Che de-benture-holders a little more generously at an earlier period. It was not until they experienced a difficulty in floating their loans on the Stock Exchange, where these gentlemen happen to have great influence, that they showed much disposition to do tbe right thing. We can hardly be surprised, therefore, if it is said that tihey have done under a certain amount of compulsion what they ought to Ibave done spontaneously out of a regard for the colony's good naane.