PROVINCIAL POLITICAL RAILWAYS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 375, 19 May 1876, Page 3

PROVINCIAL POLITICAL RAILWAYS.

; Jtmay be.'of interest to place on record, tfhe.act 'ion taken by the Goldfields membersjn. the Provincial Council upon the various railway proposals submitted by his Honor's tiovernments. Iu 1!573 the Tolmie - Bastings Government brought down the proposals which passed the Council in'the form'quoted by the Superintendent in his letter of remonstrance to the Waste Lands Board. During the debate upon these proposals Mr. Reid proposed an excellent amendment, the spirit of which he has apparently long ago abandoned:

1 That the whole of the unsold agricultural lands through which the lines are to be constructed, and such areas of pastoral contiguous thereto, as may be calculated to yield sufficient revenues to repay the cost of constructing the works, be set apart, and that the revenues to be derived from the sale and occupation of such lands be placed to a fund for repayment of principal and interest on any sums which this Council may sanction for the construction of the said railways. ■

2. That the whole of the agricultural lands included in the areas so set apart shall be alienated on the system of deferred payments only. 3 That the pastoral lands (in the event of any being sold) shall be exposed in blocks of not more than 2,500 acres, due. care being taken to reserve auriferous lands.

The amendment, was negatived on the voices without division. • A further amendment was substituted by Mr. Sumpter without success. The original resolutions were then carried, very much in the shape submitted. Mr. Hazlett, Mr. MacKellnr, and Mr. Ireland supported the resolutions as proposed to be amended; Messrs/Oliver, de Lautour, G. F. C. Browne, and J. C. Brown opposed the amendments and 'he resolutions; Mr. Bastings and Mr. R. Clarke supported the resolutions. , ,

In 1874 the railway proposals were again submitted by the Turnbull Government, which Mr. Keid had then joined, to the disgust of his own party, as Provincial Secretary. These , proposals included an application for a loan upon the security of over two millions ftcrcs of Crown lands. Immediately before the Council met the Turnbull Government had let a number of railway contracts for cash, in defiance of the restrictive resolutions of IS 3, quoted by his Honor. It is these irregularly-let contracts which we are now suffering for as a Province. The Council never authorised them. A majority of Councillors would,however, not. repudiate them, and the offending Executive avoided the tempest by resigning. Mr. Fish, however, proposed :

That, seeing the tenders for the construction of railways referred to in Resolution No. 3, and accepted by the late Government, far exceed in amount the sum appropriated by this Council for that purpose, it i 3 of opinion that it is desirable that such contracts, except the Green Island one, be not recognised by this Council, and that if the proposed loan is obtained from the Assembly then fresh tenders be called for the same. -

For this amendment their voted : Messrs. J. C. Brown, G. F. C. Browne, de Lautour, Fish, M'Dermid, i/avie, Tesehemaker; against it: —Messrs Hazlett, It Clarke, MacKellar, Daniel, Oliver, ).<eid, Stout, and twe'h'y-one others. Mr. Gillies then tried to make further railway construction a liability upon loan only, and not, revenue. For this amendment, which would have stopped the whole extravagance, there voted Messrs. Bastings, J. C. Brown,' G. F. C. Brown, R. Clarke, de Lautoiirj Ireland, Hazlett, and sis others; against it—Messrs. Daniel,MacKellar, Oliver, and nineteen others. Mr. de Lautour also proposed a? an amendment, without success : That no special blocks of Crowm land defined in the Bill for the puipose of securing any works contemplated under the above loan be allocated as special securities for any other works other than those in connection with the railways that are to open them up; but that all payments for any such other works proposed to be undertaken under the loan be secured either by mortgage on the Ptovincial land revenues, or on the joint security of rates raised iii the district or corporation to be benefitted, and any tolls or dues accruing from the construction of any such works. .; . Mr. Ireland, with the Mpa Flat and Teviot sales, in memory, also proposed unsuccessfully:— '.'..; That in no case shall any of the lands herein proposed to he set apart he sold under the 150 th clause of the Act 6f 1872. . Tn 1875 the railway proposals submitted. by.Mr. Heid's Government were very large and extravagant. Mr; M'Demiid proposed, as an amendment upon^Mr:. Keid's address in reply, sanctioning the proposals :•—-. That this Council regrets that it cannot concur in'his Honor's proposals to construct certain 'ines of railway and other works out of revenue, but are willing to 'entertain the question of constructing the railway arid other works out of loan, or from the revenue derived from' the sale of the Bluff'to Winton Railway to the General Government.

F)r the amendment there voted Messrs. Armstrong, J. C. Brown, G. % C. Browne, do Ltiutour, U.lazlelt, Bastings, and six others.,.. Against;— Messrs., Daniel, Ilallenstein, Ireland, Manders, M'Kellar,, and nineteen others. Members supporting Mr: M'Derrnid's idea of prudence succeeded in beating down thei proposals, item by. item, by no Jess a sum than over £IOO,OOO, and finally in saddling £IOO,OOO more of extravagance upon loan only. The -Mosgiel hue Would nave certainly been condemned but for the riinholder-B arid'a'few. others who ♦(ad an axe to grind and would not oppose Mr. iteid in his own pet scheme. Accordingly we find Messrs. Driver, Tolmie, Kogerp, Beeves', Sumpter, Moody, and others, refrained from voting; Mr., Manders and Mr. MacKellar voted for it (the former being well paid back by the loss of,.his Wakatipu Commonage to help pay for it) aW. Messrs Htiflensteiu, Ireland, M'JCenzip (of AVaihemo), and' 14 others ; A rinntrong, Bastings, Hazlett, Gj F, C. Browne, deLatitbur,

and three others. On. the whole, with two notable exception?, the: Goldrields Members have steadily fought the railway proposals, inade «;n •« 1873 without any apparent 1 aim or principle except to fatten the few at the expense of the many. Among the number,, and conspicuously so, we always find Mr. Bastings. . ■'•.:.'.