THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1847, 15 April 1887, Page 22

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

/ "A STARTLING, DENUNCIATION. ' (Fbom Oun Own Correspondent.) - .'.' " ' - . . Wellington, April 13. Mr Travers, one of the Te Arb candidates, excited, considerable sensation at jhis meeting last night by making -some very, sweeping, and damaging assertions relative to the land granted to the Midland Railway Company. Speaking as one of the earliest and thorough explorers of that part of the country, he said that with regard to -t.he.land from the south of Cook .Strait | and extending 200 miles to the Hurunui river, and on the West Coast to the Teremakau river, he had explored' all this country, visited every valley, ; named the- mountains and rivers, Jand there was not 5000 acres fit for agricultural purposes. 1 The whole of the- hillsides were covered with black' birch ; the tract of land given to the Midland, railway (from Springfield to Nelson) * was. not. worth a red, cent, and, he -characterised the inducements held out by the promoters as one of the 'biggest swindles ever perpetrated in ; the colony. Within the whole area of the 12,000,000 acres of land there was not, he could assure, them, more thas 5000 acres fit . for the , plough. What land was ' there in that - area, he asked, fit to be taken up under the nationalisation of land bcheme? If they did not believe his statement he, was. prepared to' pay any person his passage over in the Wajhi for theiiurpose of inspecting the country, and if, after he had done so, he would 'say he fcould find any land that he would like to settle down on, he (Mr Travers) would forfeit all expenses incurred. He next gave a sketch of the country, lying on either side of the' Canterbury Plains, giving a most dismal account of the land stretching towards Hokitika, the' 1 Grey Valley, and the' Buller, saying that there were hot 10,000 acres .of land that would feeda goat.- <<ft/fr^- ~th>iAJL \ ■