The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, NOVEMBER 12, 1901.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 260, 12 November 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, NOVEMBER 12, 1901.

THE MIDLAND MUDDLE. For cool impertinence it would bo hard to find an equal to the resolution of the comipittee of the debentureholders of the Midland Railway, as reported in our cablegrams yesterday ! morning. The resolution declared that tiro committee was surprised and disappointed at the Government’s offer ; also that it would not submit the proposal to the debenture-holders till the committee was iuformod by what process tho Government had arrived at its conclusion that tho offer was fair and reasonable. The proposal, irnleod, was nothing short of a scheme to make a gift of tho people’s money to those who were in no way entitled to it. This was so strongly felt that the Government did not press the matter upon Parliament, and fortunately the colony has thus been saved this nasty snub. Our Manawatu namesake explains the position of affairs very lucidly. Originally tho schome to build a railway across tire Southern Alps and through the heart of the wild West Coast was one of Canterbury’s enterprising dreams, conceived at a time when Sir Julius Vogel had just returned to take his last stand in New Zealand politics, and with such a statesman at the head of the provincial contingent, and every man pledged to support his Ministry until the necessary railway legislation had been passed, it is

little wonder that before long an innocent little Bill was put through authorising tho construction of the railway, but in deference to the opposition of members from other parts of the colony, the responsibility of constructing the line was not to he borne by the colony but by any private company who might be captivated by the speculation. This condition was agreed to by an unwilling House under the impression that no company could be found venturesome enough to risk its capital in so doubtful a 'concern, but such an assumjffion proved to be incorrect, for under the beguiling iniluonce of the promoters sufficient moneyed magnates ivere found, in 1888, in London, to float the company whose tribulations have been the source of so much litigation and enquiry. The capital with which this company started was nominally a

6um of £500,000, but of this only £250,000 has been paid up by tin shareholders, and their funds have been further augmented by £7-15,001 laised by debentures, but it is estimated that considerably over £1,000,000 more would be required to complete the line. This it was hoped to raise from a land grant of 0,000,000 acres, valued at something like £3,150,000, but those expectations were far from realised, and for years the company has been in a state of desperate financial famine, with the 1 result that it has not been able to carry out this condition of the contract, and to protect the interests of the colony the Government have been compelled to seize the railway and throw the lands reserved for tho Company open for settlement. This action has been hotly resented and desperately contested by the company’s officials. But the soundness of the colony’s position may be gauged by the fact that they won in every tribunal into which they have been forced—from the Arbitration Court to the Privy Council. Having thus exhausted their legal remedy the shareholders and debenture holders throw themselves upon the generosity of the colony, and ask by petition to Parliament that some consideration

should bo shown them now that they have lost their railway and the money invested in it. In this sense their case is perhaps a hard one, but at the same time it must be remembered that they cannot be regarded in any other light than as speculators. They were not patriots offering to build the railway for the good of the colony, but they imagined it to be a good dividend-producing concsrp, and it is not very likely that had their anticipations been realised to the full

they would have come to the colony and refunded the surplus profit. The wealthy promoters have done their best to throw the odium of the failure on the colony, thus diverting attention from the part they have themselves played in the matter. They have endeavored to injure New

Zealand’s financial position, but fortunately have not been able to do an y harm in that direction. The unfortunate part of the whole affair is that many people who could ill spare the money were tempted into investing in the scheme, and on this account there I has always been a disposition on the pari of the colony to act generously. After the latest Gr.amplo of insolence threats or pleadings are not likely to be heeded. ' i