The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1907. LAS NIGHT'S MEETING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 175, 26 July 1907, Page 4

The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1907. LAS NIGHT'S MEETING.

The public meeting, convened by the Marlborough Land and Railway League, at the Town Hall last night, was of a representative character, and the proceedings on the whole were marked by moderation and good .sense. The President of the League, with every desire to shine, was constrained by circumstances to subordinate his egotism somewhat to the general good\ and though he made no contribution of the slightest value to the discussion, he wisely refrained from embarrassing those who went to the meeting for business and spoke to the point. It may be admitted that the President supplied the necessary touch of humour, .though it was humour of the unconscious sort, like that manufactured by the philosopher in "A Window in Thrums." An almost audible smile rippled over the faces of the company when it was gravely suggested, that we in Marlborough should play the game of log-rolling with Canterbury and Otago ! " Let us," said the egregious orator, in effect—" let us help Canterbury with its Midland Railway and Otago with its Central, and they will help us with the extension from Seddon to Domett!" Might it not have been just as well, and just as jocose, to add, "and let us help the people in the far North with their railway, and the people of Gisborne with theirs, and the people of Timbuctoo with theirs; and they will help us also " ? Fortunately the meeting was in too earnest and too sensible a mood to follow out a suggestion which it was quite willing to smile at.

The right note was struck by Mr Penny, and the purpose to which the meeting practically confined itself was in terms of the proposition frequently laid down in this column, namely, that of the absolute wisdom, from all points of view, the commercial no less than the moral, of completing the line to Flaxbourne with the least justifiable delay. The resolution to this effect (and which of necessity iiicluded in its scope the Picton wharf) is likely to receive consideration. We are riot crying for the moon, nor are we (in spite of the President's,' unconscious' jocosity) bent upon conspiring with the people of Canterbury and Otago, or otherwhere, to rob the country of the money required to build our railway. We are putting a business proposition before the Cabinet. We say, virtually: Here is a country that deserves to be ..connected with the railway system, which will pay handsomely for the concession, and to which, moreover, | under the terms of settlement, a railway was expressly promised. That is as far as we need go, and by confining attention ...to this point in the meanwhile we shall be earning success. The extension to Cheviot, like the proposed branch up the Wairau Valley, is a subject for to-morrow. Many things will happen, and many politicians, professional and amateur, may go md come before a locomotive runs from the Awatere to the Waiau; but the construction of the line to Flaxbourne, and the erection of a real wharf at Picton are affairs of the present hour.

Perhaps the strongest point made during the discussion was that contained iii th^ speech of Mr Thompson, secretary of the Flaxbourne Settlers' Association. He set forth the case of

the struggling settlers very explicitly, pointing out that, owing to the proclaimed promise of the Government that the railway would be extended to Ward immediately the compensation proceedings had ended, the estate had been sub-divided in smaller sections than would otherwise have been the case, and applicants for these had undertaken to reside upon them, as re-

quired by regulations under the Land Act of 1892. But what had happened? Besides paying a fairly high price for the land in the shape of rents, the settlers had been obliged to purchase stock at high prices; and the experience of most of them had been that three half-yearly instalments of rent had had to be paid before any return was forthcoming. Besides, as he pointed out, the cost of the timber required for residences and sheds was made 4s per hundred feet dearer because of the delay in pushing through with the line. He made the practical suggestion that : straightforward, banking and filling work at the Ward end of the Seddon railway extension should be let hy the Department to settlers with teams. If this were done, the line would be expedited, and at the same time the settlers would be enabled to make a living sufficient to warrant them in holding on to their sections against the day of completing the extension to Ward.