THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12934, 30 September 1902, Page 4

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

It is satisfactory'to learn* that there is :ome prospect of the long-standing controversy between the Government and the Midland Railway debenture-holders being 'jnal'ly settled during the present session of Parliament. There is really no excuse for further delay. The facts have been stated and restated until they ought to be familiar to every newspaper reader in the colony. The legal aspect of the question is no longer in dispute; that was decided long ago in favour of the Government. .; If it were a!

mere matter of dry law the Government might snap its fingers at the debentureholders and refuse to pay tihem a single penny. But the Government and the House of Representatives, and, most emphatically of all, the people, have recognised tthat it is not a mere matter of dry law. They have admitted.that there is a, moral obligation as well. The good name and the credit of the colony are involved in the dispute, and they must be vindicated by a just and generous settlement. The fact that some of the representatives of tihe debenture-holders have been foolish enough to talk of retaliatory measures of a more or less ridiculous kind ought not to effect the position at all. The clear dxity of the Government is to place the debenture-holders as nearly as possible in the position they would have occupied if the law bad been what it apptared to be at the time they advanced their money. They must, of course, bear whatever loss is due to their own fault or their own obstinacy, but they must not, by o> legal technicality, be deprived of any equitablei interest they hold in. the railway. Last session the House of Representatives, by some process we were unable to follow, assessed this interest at £130,000, ■. and this year, we understand, the Government is prepared to add £30,000 or £40,000 to cover a further sum expended on the work of construction. We do not pretend to know whether this amount is adequate or not, but we trust that the members of tike House, with all the particulars before them, will be able to arrive at a settlement that will at least relieve the colony of tihe reproach of having treated the diebentureholders with some unfairness.