MANAWATU RAILWAY COMPANY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4322, 3 April 1901, Page 5

MANAWATU RAILWAY COMPANY.

NEGOTIATIONS FOR SELLING THE LINE.

RESOLUTION TO BE DISCUSSED TO-DAY.

The question of submitting proposals for the sale of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company’s lino to the Government will be a subject for discussion at the annual meeting of the company to-day. A large number of shareholders hold very pronounced ■opinions that such proposals are mi error of judgment, s.s tending to lower the value of the company’s stock, and; that Parliament has provided the most ample safeguards in the law and contract which now exists between the Government and: the company. Tho fob lowing resolution dealing with the subject has been given notice of by Mr Kennedy Macdonald, and will come before the meeting: ‘‘That the shareholders of tho Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company in annual mooting assembled desire to place upon record the following facts in connection with the proposals to transfer tho railway to the Government;—

“ 1. That the railway was built as a protest against the neglect by the Government of the Jay of the commercial interests of Wellington, and of the failure of the Government to open out for settlement, great areas of valuable land in the provincial district of Wellington, the cost of building and equipment to date being over £950,000.

“2. That the contract between the Government and the company recognised the fact that the company’s line of railway would bo the main connecting link for eighty-four miles bstwceu the Government railway lines and the city of Wellington, and provision was therefore made in the'contract that the conn pany could be called upon at any time to transfer to the Government at a small percentage over the cost price to the company. “ 3. That this provision virtually made the company merely the trustees from year to year of the Government in the owning and working of the railway, and rendered it almost impossible for the company, without loss to its shareholders, to make the special concessions required to immediately develop the sub. urban and country traffic, as the large cost of such, concessions would be immediate and the future profits could only come in over,, a period of years, during which, time the . Government might have entered into possession of the railway, and the shareholders would have incurred a largo expenditure without any adequate return. “4. That the policy pursued by the Government towards the company since its inception has not been of the character expected, and has undoubtedly hampered not only the earning power of the company, but the comfort convenience and trade facilities of the users of the company's railway.

“5. Thr.t recognising those facts, and ihe specie! advantages accruing to the colony by the .companyls railway being transferred to tho Government and incorporated as part cf the railway system of the colony, the company has on more than one occasion approached the Government with a- view to the Litter exercising at an early date their powers under ihe contract, or failing the exercise of. that power, giving the company such a- definite tenure for a period of years as would justify them in greatly enlarging the facilities afforded by tho company’s railway.

"G. That tho company’s suggestion* have been ignored and its offers declined, the Government appearing to regard tho company rather as a rival in trade than as citizens practically compelled by Government indifference to band together to provide the capital for the creation and carrying on of a great pnlv lie undertaking—an undertaking which admittedly has added several millions of pounds sterling to the national e» iat-:, and .settled and made prosperous many hundred* of settlers on the waste lands of the colony. ;

“That, reviewing ihe whole circumstance's, the shareholder:? are of opinion

that no further overtures should bo made to the Government in .reference to the purchase of the railway, and that the directors should pursue • their work of administration, sc as to settle the remainder of the company's lands, give increased railage facilities to the submban and country settler, and take such steps as may be necessary for securing to the company that justice and fair play necessary alike in the interests of the general public and of the large capita! at stake.”