The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1893.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10111, 9 August 1893, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1893.

Some weeks have elapsed since the amended proposals of the Midland Railway Company were formally submitted to the Government, and yet the only news we have of their fate is that the Cabinet has been too busy to consider them. We are well aware that have more than enough to do, and we ape not inclined to grow Impatient over any unavoidable dej lay; but if the proposals are to he I dealt with during this year it is quite time they were laid before the House. And we may point out that it is very desirable that the matter should be settled by the present Parliament. The members are, speaking generally, acquainted with all the details, and the Public Accounts Committee has made a thorough investigation of the dealings and negotiations between the Government and the Company, This special knowledge cannot be transferred in its entirety to a new House, and if the settlement should be held ■over until after the general election there will, we fear, he a further delay and possibly some additional complications. We referred some time ago to the proposals, and expressed our opinion that they might be made the "basis of an arrangement that would prove beneficial to the Colony and satisfactory to the Company ; but to enable our readers to judge for themselves we will recapitulate briefly their principal features. The Company now proposes: — 1. That the time for the completion of the railway from Brunnertoh to Springfield shall be extended for such time as may be necessary. 2. That the time for completing the extension of the Belgrove line shall be extended for two years. 8. That no time shall be fixed for the construction of the rest of the line from Belgrove to Beef ton. 4. That the Company shall before July 1, 1895, select all land earned by the construction of the line from Reefton to Jackson’s, in accordance with the contract of August 3,1588. 5. That the Government shall, if so required by the Company, work or maintain for 60 per cent of the gross receipts the line from Springfield to the eastern side of the incline line until the incline line shall be finished. 6. That the Company’s present rates shall not be affected by alterations in rates on Governmant railways. 7. That the Company shall forthwith indicate what land it requires reserved for selection under proposal No. 4, and subject to such reservation shall at once release to the Government all lands comprised in Map B, annexed to th 4 contract of August 3, 1888. Lands already selected and guaranteed are those to be reserved under this bead. 8. That in consideration of this release the Government shall pay to the Company a sum of >£850,000 by twenty half-yearly payments on Jan. 1 and July lin each year. 9. That the Company shall be relieved from local taxation.

10. That the Company shall be taxed on its net income for traffic and rentals, and not on the amount of capital expended. 11. That the Government shall purchase the line from Belgrove to Moiueka Valley for £IOO,OOO, within one year of its completion, and pending such purchase shall work and maintain the Bolgrove line for sixty per cent of its gross receipts. The leading proposal is, of course, that referring to the purchase of the land grants. It will be objected that the Colony is not in a position to deal with such a large scheme, requiring the provision of .£85,000 a year for ten years; but we may point out, without going into the question of ways and means, that the Colony ! would receive at once the release of land now valued at something like .£618,000, which would be made worth at least half as much again by the construction of the line. If the valuation of the land is correct, if the laud grants are neatly worth

Company—and that, of course, is merely a matter of figures—there can be no doubt about the fairness of the proposal. The purchase of the Belgrove extension—the other important feature of the scheme —is a rather different matter. No one residing beyond the pleasant valley of the Mofcueka would be likely to describe this as a good investment, and we shall expect G-overnment to demand some modification of the Company’s proposal. But altogether the proposals submitted by Mr Wilson on behalf of the Company give promise of a satisfactory settlement, and it is clearly the duty of the Government to place them, with its own recommendations, before the House of Representatives without a moment’s unnecessary delay.

The word “ surplus ” has been much, used in New Zealand during the past two or three months. The Government has used it to express the success of its finance, and the Opposition has used it to give point to its criticism. It is evidently a Word with which politicians may conjure. Sir John Hall, for instance, declares that Mr Ward’s surplus is a mere fiction, and he finds no difficulty in analysing it, after his own methods, out of existence. But Sir John is the last person in the world who should treat this year’s surplus in such a way. His own party never had a surplus that would stand examination half as well as the one which Mr Ward reported to the House of Representatives last month. But the true indication of our financial position is not the magnitude of the balance which we choose to call a surplus, but the magnitude of the additions we are making to our public debt and to our annual liability for interest. The annual charge is the best indication, because, by the operation known as conversion, we may greatly lighten the burden of interest by increasing the amount to be finally paid. This is what Mr Ballance did with some eight millions of our public debt. He increased the amount to be paid at the end of forty years by some JJ333,000, but he lessened the amount of annual interest by about .£53,000. The net result of this operation will be, that after providing for the increase in the debt, we shall save during the forty years about two millions in interest. And yet the Opposition, in speaking of recent movements in our public debt, makes no distinction between the results of conversion and the results of excessive expenditure. With an inconsistency which would be amusing if it were not designedly unfair, its leaders refer to these conversion operations in three distinctly different ways. First of all they say the conversions are part of a weak system of finance, and have disastrously increased our .public debt. Then they tell us—Sir John Hall gave the three versions in one speech —that the conversions were “ a comparatively automatic process ” which could have been followed just as well, if not rather better, under any other Government. Finally, we are assured that they are part of a very admirable arrangement which was made by Sir F. Dillon Bell, who had just about as much to do with this matter as he had to do with the repeal of the Corn Laws. The fact is the Conservatives have failed utterly to get rid of the surplus. They have tried every means, fair and foul, to demolish this monument to the selfreliant prudence of their opponents, and are now, in very desperation, falling back on their original plan of vigorously denying its existence.