THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Feilding Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 30, 29 August 1905, Page 3

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Telegraph Press Association Copyright Wellington, August 28. A large and thoroughly representative deputation from Canterbury and the West Coast waited on the Premier this afternoon to urge upon the Government the necessity for pushing on with the completion of the Midland Railway, and in particular the advisablenoss of letting a contract for the construction of the Summit tunnel. In his reply, Mr Seddon said it was a misfortune that the Midland line had been given into the hands of a private company, for if it had been kept under the Public Works policy initiated by Sir Julius Yogel, it would have been constructed years ago. He admitted that the arguments in favor of completing the line were overwhelming, and agreed that the work ought to be gone on with more expeditiously. Preparations had been made for calling for tenders for the tunnel, which would be about five miles in length, and the Government thought it was a class of work tbat should be let as a whole by contract. Taking into consideration the small expenditiue on the Midland line in the patt, compared with the outlay on the Otago Central and North Island Main Trunk lines, he did not think the most fastidious could complain if there was a little more for the Midland line this year. If the tunnel was finished within the next six years it would be about as much as Could be done. He believed when the line was completed it would be One of the best paying sections in the colony.