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Evening Star, Issue 7237, 13 June 1887, Page 2

It is pretty plain that we have not yet heard the last and worst of the Midland Railway scheme. Ministers avow, with charming candor, that there were some things which they could not divulge to the House, and it may be accepted as certain that these things are not of such a nature as to increase parliamentary confidence in Government management. Then the peculiar code of dealing with the land on the West Coast must be remembered. First, the Government reserve all the level land, but when the syndicate resented this procedure the reservation was withdrawn ; but the reservation was not made public, because to have done so would have provoked the hostility of the Westland members. So the revoking proclamation was quietly pigeon-holed, and when the subject was broached in the House the guileless member for Hokitika actually got up and lauded the withdrawal of the lands. Great must have been his astonishment when he was informed that this nice arrangement had been upset by a second proclamation dated in March last. It is now asserted that a new device has been resorted to, and that by a side wind accomplishment of the object desired has been attained. An amended Mining Bill, to all appearances a harmless but necessary measure, was forced through Parliament in the last hours of its existence; and by the operation of one clause in this Bill the public chest is threatened, it is said, with ravage. As the law stood, when freehold land was resumed for mining purposes, the local bodies within whose limits the land was were to pay the requisite compensation ; but, as the law has now been altered, one moiety of such compensation is to bo paid by the Colonial Treasurer. This seems fair enough, but how will it work ? Whatever land the Midland Railway Company may select on the West Coast will be declared to be auriferous, and be resumed at the cost of the State. It is estimated by those who understand such matters that this pretty little clause will certainly cost the country half a million of money, and perhaps a great deal more.