EXTRACTS FROM HANSARD

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume IV, Issue 705, 24 August 1882, Page 2

EXTRACTS FROM HANSARD

THE RAILWAY ROUTE. Colonel Trimble : Then the honorable gentleman (Mr Montgomery), says he cannot at all stomach the lino from Blenheim southward. Mr Montgomery : No. Colonel Trimble : I do not know what the honorable gentleman’s objections are, but I know this : that the country as a whole objects to the honorable gentleman’s alternative. He says that instead of the line going from Blenheim southwards it should go from Canterbury to the West Coast. Mr Montgomery : I did not say that. I said the line from Blenheim might be an excellent one, but I objected to its being scheduled when we knew nothing about its course, whether it ought to go east or west. I did not express any opinion beyond this : that the route spoken of rjum , through a great deal of private per t v.

Colonel Trimble : I am quite certain that what I say is correct, no matter what the honorable gentleman may have intended to say. No doubt he has had an explanation with a certain honorable gentleman who comes f rom that district. I clearly remember him saying that he objected to that lino being scheduled. He objected to £90,000 being spent on a line of railway from Blenheim southwards.

Mr Montgomery: I objected to our not knowing the route; I did not object to the railway being extended.

Colonel Trimble: The honorable gentleman objected to the line going southwards from Blenheim, and he gave an alternative route immediately in connection with that. If it was not an alternative it was a most extraordinary way of dealing with the subject. He said the Ministry had not put anything in the schedule for this line, which lie considered a much better one.

Mr Sutton : I think I understood the honorable member for Akaroa to object to that line altogether, and to give it as his opinion that it would have been much better if something had been put down in the Loan Bill for connecting Canterbury with the West Coast. I am aware that the honorable gentleman, after he said that, seemed to think that he had made a mistake. We know that a good deal of catching of votes goes on on occasions like this, and I think the honorable gentleman felt ho had said

a little too much, and so tried to retract somewhat, and then wanted to make out that his objection to the line depended upon whether it went in one direction or another. At all events it did not strike me that he supported it at aU strongly.