MIDLAND RAILWAY LITIGATION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 52

MIDLAND RAILWAY LITIGATION.

It is not considered likely that the Midland Railway appeal can come before the Privy Council till near the end of the year at the earliest. The question of colonial counsel being engaged to go to London to argue the case for the Crown has not yet been decided, although, as was indicated in these columns some time ago, there is a probability that either the first or the second counsel engaged when the case was before the Court of Appeal here may appear before the Judicial Committee. The case has been very freely discussed in the English press during the past few months. The various press comments have been collected by the Agent-General. At first they were nearly all in favour of the debentureholders. Since the publication of Mr Reeves’s letter in the “Times,” however, there has been a change in the tone of the English newspapers. The latest batch of extracts received by the New Zealand Government were about equally divided, in opinion, the writers upholding the Government being nearly as many as those whose criticisms were conuemnatory of its position. In numerous instances the writers whose attitude was hostile to the Government were palpably either ill-in-formed or insufficiently informed.