A QUESTIONABLE PIECE OF LEGISLATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6814, 19 September 1883, Page 5

A QUESTIONABLE PIECE OF LEGISLATION.

[BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] ChristCuu.rcH, Tuseday, A μ-ely fight is going on about the Methven Railway, which belongs to a private com-, pany. It does not pay the amount guaranteed, and the company want to ievy on the district, as authorised by th£ Act, to make up the deficiency. They tried, to get the ashburton County Conncil to do this for them, but the Council refused, and the compaDy, apparently being unable to do it the.nrHelVee, have never got their money. The contention of the landholders is that the. company have never fulfilled their original contract, having stopped the line tome ten miles, short of the terminus at first proposed, and every preparation was made to fight the matter out in the Court, lawyers being already enr gaged on both sides. Suddenly it is found that in the last days of the session an amending Act was rapidly and secretly passed through the House, by which a revaluation of the district can be fliad?, and other important cliaciges effected, to the benefit of the company All the fat is now in the lire, and Mr. E. G. Wright, M.H.R., who openly avows the responsibility of this measure, i'o running a very stiff game for his action in the matter. The residents aff-cted, led by Mr. Mason, ex-M.H,R., are very bitter at what they call this unwarrantable interference with a matter already in the hands of the Snpreme Court Mr. Wright defends himself by saying that hie action was dictated, not With ref-.renc? to the Methven Company alone, but for the sake of the many other companies who may very likely find themsel7ea in the same predicament unless the Act is made more workable. Mr. Mason replies this morning, " Mr. Wright takes credit to himself for having introduced clauses in the District Railways Act by which a re-valuation may be made. How far it is fair to allow a. railway company, after having saddled a district with a railway, to allow themselves and friends to escape the rate', is a matter of opinion about which I should have thought there j would be little difference. • But. that is a trifle compared with the extent Of the exertions ef Mr. Wright and the Government in another matter, and that is the allocation of the whole basis of taxation upon which the permission of the ratepayers .was obtained for the rate and the construction, of tho line. Land has been purchased, townshipasurveyed and sold, and now, thanks ;o Mr, Wright and the Government, the taxation in nuny cases will be a hundred fold that gazetted by the company as the value of the land. The company (a number of whom are Mr. Wright's constituents) present a petition to the Hpuse through Mr. Wright. Qther ratepayers (equally Mr. Wright's constituents) send him a petition for presentation representing our views, and making the simple prayer that we may be heard before the fresh "legislation asked for by theViompany is assented to. We see by the paper the company's petition is duly presented by Mr, Wright. The receipt of the second one is never even acknowledged, although it is duly registered by post and attention attracted to it by circular, and on the very last days of the session, after many important party Bills of the Government have beendropped,aftermanymembers, according to Mr. Dargaville, have left, the Government at the bidding of their master or their masters lendthecrushingv/eight of their iiifiueuce to rush an important Bill through the House, to interfere in a matter which in no way coneerne thetn, to interfere with the rights of a large and important district;, to interfere with their ex post facto legislation,; with'the actual course of justice." ~„,,. v