The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1910. LAND AND RAILWAYS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 125, 3 June 1910, Page 4

The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1910. LAND AND RAILWAYS.

To use an American phrase, the Marlborough. Land and Railway League seems to be "up against it, as regards both land and railways. The Government will not purchase any more estates in the Province for closer settlement at present, neither will it push on with the construction of the Main Trunk railway, which would link up Blenheim and Christchureh. and complete the great arterial system from Auckland to Invercargill, with Cook :Strait, as the only gap. The unfortunate position in which the League—and, indeed, the Province of Marlborough as a whole—finds itself was well explained by the president of the League "at the!annual meeting oi: that body on Wednesday afternoon. The Government's policy is that railway construction must follow land settlement;- but by virtue of section 31 of the' Land 'for Settlement Act a landowner, /when' selling, is* allowed tp £ut hisl own^jkfice on his estate, the result being that in nearly every case (and there are plenty of these cases in Marlborough) the land is over-valued, anjd the Government will not purchase. The owner, of cdurSe, suffers, as he is taxed, on this fictitious "value" of his holding; but he pays up somehow, hoping that the^Government will buy in the near future, and that he will come out with aVsubstantial dividend. This is a most vicious system of land speculation, and., must- inevitably block the progress of, closer settlement; blocking also thereby the development of the country. A few weeks ago we published a lists of estates in Marlborough which, v; we considered, were suitable for acquisition by the Government for subdivision. An officer of the Lands Purchase Board, is to be sent over from Wellington shortly to inspect and report on one of these estates. It is to be hoped that the owner will meet him in a reasonable spirit, in order • that, jff suitable for the Government's purpose, the property may be acquired. There is admittedly a dearth of suitable Crown land in Marlborough, but there is private land in abundance, if only the owners could, ,be((jinduced to sell at a reasonable figure; and we would urge the Government to,endeavour to come to terms with some of these owners. As we have shown on previous occasions, Marlborough has been almost totally neglected1 m the matter of expenditure upon ; railways, roads, and other important works; and ais far as we can judge at present there seems little hope of; any..!improvement. We have always earnestly advocated the completion of the Main Trunk line, and; we see no reason to change our views on this question in the slightest degree, despite the fact that the Minister for Public Works favors the extension of the railway from Blenheim via Tophouse to connect with the Nelson-Buller line instead of completing the East Coast line to Christchurch. .. The Government is under an obligation to the settlers to finish the latter line-^-an obligation which should have been discharged long before this, and long before branch lines in other parts of the Dominion were commenced. There should be no talk of setting the Main Trunk against the suggested Tophouse line. The former is part of the recognised arterial system, while the latter, which would ultimately connect with the West Coast railway, would open up a vast area of fertile country, and (provided that owners met the Government in a fair-and-square manner) promote closer settlement, which is one of Marlborough's— as indeed it' is one of. New Zealand's—greatest needs. Until recently this Province has had to "play a lone hand" in the matter of agitating for railway construction; but Christchurcn sees that the question of completing the South Island Trunk line is more than a merely provincial one, and the newspapers of the Cathedral City* have supported our claims regarding the necessity of pushing on the construction work until the gap between the present ends of the line is filled.) 'The Marlborough Land and Railway-League, we consider, should not "throw up the sponge" just because it has met with another reverse, but should continue to agitate, and let the Christchureh press and Chamber of Commerce know that it is agitating. Let it agitate, too, for the Tophouse-West Coast line, and enlist the sympathy and secure the practical assistance of the people of Nelson and the West Coast. The North Island has agitated, is agitating, and intends to agitate. Why should the South be silent?