THE MIDLAND RAILWAY LITIGATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10836, 20 August 1898, Page 5

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY LITIGATION.

THE GOVERNMENT DEFENCES. [by, telegraph.— ASSOBIATION.] Wellington, Friday. A defence has been filed by the Crown to the action of Mr. Coates, receiver of the Midland railway. It is contended that the interest and debentures are subject to the rights of the Crown, under the Railways Construction Act of 1881, and all other rights of the Crown, that the property lias not become vested in Mr. Coates, that the debenture holders had a knowledge that their security was subject to the rights of the Crown, and that the seizure was specially authorised by law. The defendant denies that any of the notices complained of were wrongly made, and states that both the company and the debenture holders had agreed to waive any irregularity in order to avoid the statutory alternative, namely, tho retention by the Government of the property. As to the complaint that the company had not being allowed to complete their selection of land, the respondent says that this point was pending at the time of the Arbitration, and that the company had then committed a wilful breach of contract. It is further alleged that a provisional title to the proceeds of certain land sales has for some time been ready for issue, but it has never been made clear who was entitled to them. Other defences are raised, the main one being practically that the company had never attempted to carryout their contract, as after 10 years, only 76 miles, out of 235, had been constructed, and that those were the easiest to make; that the contraot was wilfully broken, and that neither the company nor the petitioner has any claim. The whole of Mr. Blake's arbitration award is inserted as a schedule to the pleadings.