OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY LEAGUE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2161, 25 July 1895, Page 27

OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY LEAGUE.

The third annual meeting of tha Otago Central Railway League was held on Thursday evening in the Chamber of Commerce. The Mayor (Mr H. S. Fish) presided, and there were also present—Messrs W. Barron, A. BAtbgate, W. Gow, J. Gore, K. Ramsay, G. L. Denniston, A. C. Stronach, J. Jolly jun., J. Robin, A. Sligo, W. Belcher, R. Slater. J. Carroll, R. Ferguson, C. Grater, J. Noil, J. Lee, and J. Nagle. Apolcgies wera expressed for the absence of Messrs C. S. Reeves, T. Brown, and A. Burt. ANNUAL REPORT. Your council regrets tbat in presenting its third annual report it should have to record the detth of the velued secretary of the le%gue, Mr R. H. Leary, whose services it hold* in grateful remembrance. It was found to be more convenient to members to hold regular monthly evening meetings of the council on fixed days, and suoh meetings have accordingly been held throughout the year. To these meetings Otftgo members of the House of Representatives have beea invited for consul' a 1 ion, and, although at first come misunderstanding of tho truo position ef the lesgue tended to interfere with their active and unanimous co-operation, many of them have latterly attended and given valuable assistance ; and it is hoped that the errone -us impression which caiwed the Premier to designate the league as "an irresponsible body of semipolitical character" has been permanently removed. In August last a deputation coraisting of the chairman of the executive, the secretary, and the chairman of the Maniototo C unty Council, with Otago members of the Hou3e of Representatives, interviewed Ministers in Wellington during the sitting of Parliament, with the object of Listening on the construction ot the railway, and of security more satisfactory and permanent financial provision for its progress. Although bhe deputation had no reason to be dissatisfied with the result; of the interview so far as the renewed progress of the work was concern td, it found Ministers to be very unfavourable to tbe proposals for definitely setting aside for the completion of the railway a fixed part of the revenues derived from Crown lands through which the line passes, as embodied in the bill submitted to Parliament by their predecersors. Your council has in consequence reluctantly abandoned any hope of obtaining favourable consideration at present for a scheme which, had it been possible to get the Government to approve of and the Parliament to give effect to, would have enabled the railway to proceed rapidly to its completion without depending a* now upon the annual vote of the House, the favour of Miuis'ers, the co-operation of members, or even upon the sustained efforts of the Otago Central Railway League. The vote of Parliament for work on tbe

Otago Central railway, for the financial year ending the 31st March lasb, was the same as that of the previous year -viz., £4-5.000, in addition to an authorisation of £15,000, making a total appropriation of £60,000. The net expenditure for the same period, including the liability of £11,405 7s 9d brought forward, appears from the appropriation account 1895 to have bsen £28,130 18s lid, and advances £2090 17s 3d, making a total of £30,221 16s 2d. The work has apparently been continued since then at a s'milar rate of expenditure, but jour council has not this year been able to obtain particulars of that expsnditure as hitherto. The amount thus spent does not in auy case affect the vote for the past financial year, as it must appear as a liability to be met out of the next appropriation. Your council regrets to have again thus to record that, as in the previous year, the actual expenditure has been considerably less than the amount available, and is at a loss to discover any valid reason for the Government keeping back so large a proportion of the money Parliament placed at their disposal for the work, and is of opinion that, in consideration of its great importance, more rapid progress might and should have heen en ado. It was hoped the railway would have been completed before the close of the yeir to the point at which it crosses the Taieri river, but unfortunately a considerable amount of work still remains to be done before that section can be opened. As important bridge works have to be constructed before the Taieri river can ba crossed, and chiefly of material which must necessarily be imported, the meaibers cf your council wtitod upon the Hon. Mr Cadraan when he recently visited Duuedin, and urged that if, as thoy were informed, such material could not ba placed on the ground within a shorter time than a year after it wa9 ordered, all necessary steps for obtaining it should be taken at once, so that it might be ready with the leant possible delay. Mr Cadman has since advised the chairman that the Minister for Public Works has given instructions to give eflxct to what the deputation asked For. It h gratifying to know that after the Taieri river has been croseed the principal work to be dene is n?ere surface forming of tha timjileet description, and that 20 or 30 miles of ib could be completed in a few mouths, and at such a trifling coat as to bs amply covered by votes equal to thoso of the past years. As the public were evidently not in possession of sufficient information relating to the great extent of Crown lands available for settlement in Central Otago, and the capabilities and resources of the district that would ba certain to be develops d by the construction ot the railway, your council has prepared and issued, in the name of the league, a p-mphlet, entitled "A Source of National Wealth," which it is hoped will have a good effecb, and bo of material assistance in helping on the work in which the league is engaged. A copy of the pamphlet was posted to each member of the LegMative Couucil and House of Representatives immediately after it was printed, and Mr Pinkerton, M.H R., haß'kiadly undertaken to place additional copies in their hands during; this cession of Pailiamant. A number of copies have also been sent to eaoh trades and labour organisation in Dunodin, aud to others who were iutereated in the subject. An edition of 2000 in all was printed, so that a nuuibar are still at the disposal of members of the league on application to the stcretary. A duly audited statement of receipts and expenditure for the year is appended, showing a balance in hand of £2 18s 6d after all liabilities have been discharged. The term for which the present members of the council wee elected having expired, it will be part of the business of the meeting to elect an executive council for the curieut year. Mr Barron, in moving the adoption of the report, said he could not help noticing again that the public seemed to take far less interest in the movement than they should. This business was the business of the whole of the citizens, and that was the annual meeting of the league they elected to look after the progress of the Otago Central railway. The league had e petit both time and money in the inti'reets of the citizens, and did not grudge them, and the least they could expect from the citizens was that the latter should respond to their invitation to the annual meeting. At the last anuuiil meeting of the league they had to record the death of Mr Pyke, the fonnder of the league and the first chairmau of the executive ; and that night the executive regretted having to . record the death of Mr Leary, who never grudged time or anything cUe by which he could possibly help on the league, and whoie work had been to him more a labour of love than anything else, his services being far above any price. Referring to the vote for the railway for the pasb year, he said they were unfortunately in a similar position to that which they occupied 12 month" ago. The vote had not been spent in the proportion he hoped it would have. Parliament had voted £45,000 and there was an authori-abion of £15,000, so that there was practically £60,000 to be expended ; but the accounts at the end of the financial year showed that the ret expenditure, including a liability of £11,405 17s 9d brought, forward, wa> £28,130 18i lid. Thtre were, however, advances in the hands of the officers of the department, but not converted into labour, to the amount of £2090 17s 3d ; making a total of £30,221 16a 2d. Strictly speaking, that £2090 ought not to be included ; but even if it were included, nob half the money available had been spent on the railway. They had had a difficulty in getting figures at all, aud had it nob been tor the kindness of Mr Earnshaw, who had sent them the appropriation accounts for 1895, they would nob have got bhem at all. He noticed in a telfgram which had been rec°ived that morning from Mr E*rnshaw a different view was taken oF the figures from that which he (the speaker) had taken. Mr E*rnshaw's telegram was : — "Pinkerton'e telegram totally incorrect. Liabilities table 20th June, appropriations 11th July. Meeting neither held nor arranged. Position : Total expenditure during financial year 1894-95, including £11,405 liabilities outstanding April 189*, £28,131; liabilities April 18S5, £12,616, which will be a charge against 1695-96 vote. Treasury has unissued vote by £16 869 during financial year. — Earnshaw, Wellington." The broad fact remained that out of £60,000 thnt was available a total of very little over £30,000 had been spent. He noticed in Hansard that Mr Seddon had said that arrangements had been made for putting on 29 additional men, making the total employed 288, and that the Government had as many men employed on the Otago Central as tho appropriation would permit. Evtn if they took the average of the year as 288 (and nothing like that number had been employed during the year) they would find that, as these, men could not have been earning more than £100 apiece, £28,000 was the expenditure. The league contended that, with so much money available, twice tbat numbsr ought to have been employed without exceeding the amount which had been placed at tbe disposal of the Government. In proof that it was not usual to keep back so large a proportion of the vote for expenditure after the close of tha financial year, he pointed oat

that the next item on tbe appropriation account of the Otago Central railway wao that of the Greymoubh-HokiMka railway, and of the total vote for it of £15,000 there was iesued £14 091. He was sure the Greymouth-Hokitika railway wee not of so much consequonoe to the colony as the Otago Central line. Mr Soddon could not have misgivings as to the prospects of the work, for lie found in Hansird that on Juue 26 Mr Saddon, in reply to Mr Larnach, stated that "if it [the Heriot-Roxburgh railway] paid as well as the Otago Central, and its prospects were a3 good, then there would be a necessity for making it." Ib was, however, of no use for the league to go on fighting for the railway unless the citizens backed thorn up. It waa very well for a few earnest men to meet together, but something more thau that was wanting. Behind members of Parliament they must have a public opinion. Unless the majority of the people showed they were earnestly anxious for this work to be completed the members of Parl'ament • would take very little interest, except such as their local knowledge canned theso to take. Unless the hands of tho league were strengthened by the public taking an interest in the railway, which was for the bent fit of the community, it was hopeless for them to go od fightiog their battles in this way. Of course the Government did not like this sort of thing, and the members did not like to bo continually nagged at. The Government especially did not like it because it had a disturbing influence on their settled line of policy, | but that was not tbe busiuesa of the league. To show that the Government did not like ii, ho quoted from the last number of Hansard to the effect that Mr Seddon reproached Mr Barnsbaw fer trotting out the Otago Central League needlersly, and said " there were other memboro from Otago, but they did not complain as Mr Eamjhaw did. There waa his worthy colleague aud member for the district, Mr Pinkerton— he had not heard a word of complaint from him, and he did not auppeso they were likely to hear one." He read that to show th;<t Ministers preferred members to be silent than to be always bringing the thing under their notice. Mr Carroll eecjudod the adoption of the report. He hoped the small attendance wan no indication of the feeling of the people on the matter, for he felt that to a great extent the preepcrity of the place depended on how this work was prosecuted. Mr Sligo regretted the comparative Bparseuess of the attendance, but expected nothing else, for the impression of the gereral public was that the annual meeting of the OUgo Central Railway League was for the transaction of formal bueine;s. He felt coi fident that it was not for want of sympathy with the efforts of the league that the public did cot attend in larger numbers. He was quite sure that throughout the length and breadth of Dunedin and of Otago there was a feeliog that tbe work was oue tbat ought to be aud must be gone on with. Mr Slater did not think the league had very much reason to be dissatisfied with the progress of the railway since its formation, for he believed that in the last three years the line h&d about doubled its length. He thought ib w*s hardly conect to cay that the Government had nob spent half of the vote for tho pit* t year, because £28,130 bad been spent to the 31st March out cf a vote of £45,000. If the league was to carry on its work effectively, he believed there must be a proper membtivhip with a minimum subscription fixed at a shilling. Mr Neil thought the league should pass a motion censuring the Government for their treatment of the line. It seemed to him that Bucceesive Governments had made the work a sort of asylum for the unemployed. He would like to know what the Government would have done on tho line if they had nob been continually spurred on and naggad at by the league, aud he thought the members of Parliament should be severely censured for not seeing that more justice was done to tha line. The Mayor thought the question was of so much importance to the whole of Otago that everyone who had an opinion on the subject should state it. His opinion was that the Government were to blame for the slow manner in which the line progressed and the real persons to blame outside the Government were tbe members for the district. If the Government had such a control over their followers in tho House representing a certain district as to be able to dictate to them, tbat district would not get rauch work done. It was only when the memberß for the district unitedly told the Government a work should and mast be done that the work was done. He asked the meeting to contrast the position of Otago with' that of Canterbury, where a united representation secured the Midland railway, which he regarded as being as big a swindle a 9 was ever perpetrated. — (Hear.) If a united representation wai efftctive in favour of a nefarious tcheme, how much more effective would a united representation be in favour of a zcheme that waa good and that was designed to open up a large area of fertile coun'ry. If this bad been in Canterbury, all the members for Canterbury, whether supporters of the Government or opponents, would have eunk their individual diff renccs and gone to the Government as one man, and s»id, "The Government last, and Canterbury first; you must do jußtice to Canterbury !" A short time ago the league determined to attempt to get from the Government a statement of the expenditure of money on the line, but ib got equivocal and,Jtio was justified in s'a>ing it, shuffling replies from the Prt-mier, which were framed for the pu> pose cf leading the public to believe that the Government had carried out their pledge. Now they had got a disMntt contradiction of that from what did not lie — the records of the colony, — but they had not got the returns to date, and their members either could not or would nob get it from the Government. Had it not been apparently for one member of the House the league would not have hid the information to enable it to compile the meagre report that wan submitted. He reminded the meeting that a short time ago the Hon. J. M'Kenzie addressed the electora in Dunedin, and was received with the utmost cordiality, but within one week,' when he (Mr M'Ker.zie) got on the top of his own particular dunghill, he taunted that league of self-sacrificing men with being nothing else but political highwaymen. Would any free and enlightened community but oue of Obago ever stand that ? What ought their members to have done ? They should have rieen as one man in protest against an unnecessary insult to men who were doing a work in the interests of their district. Ii they (the members of the league) were not the most miserable set of poltroons the world ever allowed to live they would not stand it — they would demand from the Government and from their representatives justice, and nothing but jui-tice. What did one of their members say the other day ? Mr Larnach told the members of Parliament that he thought quite enough had been done for the Otago Central. Could they wonder at supinenes3 on tbe part of the Government, and on the part of some of their mf mbers, when one who had an absolute knowledge of the requirements of the line talked like that in the House of Representatives. Surely if Mr Larnach thought so he might, by the policy which seemed to actuate

the Government supporters generally, have held his tongue. One member, representing a marine constituency, seemed to think its was of far more importance to increase tha size of the mesh in a fishing net than to attend to the interes's of the district as a whole through the construction of a railway. — (" No.") That was his opinion. Mr Lbb : You're doing no good to tbe cause in introducing so much perconality.—(Laughter.) The Mayor said the time was pasb for making mealy- mouthed speeches. If they wantsd & work of national import* nee to be pushed forward to a tolerably quick conclusion they must bring united pressure to bear on the Government, and he did not see how that was to bo done except by the uuitcd foroe of their members irrespective of their political opinions. The motion for the adoption of the report was then put and carried. Mr Ramsay moved the election of the following exocutive committee : — His Worfthip the Mayor, the Hon. T. Fergus, Messrs A. Batbg&ta, A. Burt, S. N. Brown, T. Brown, W Barron, C. R. Chapman, J. Carroll, R. Clark, G. L. Denniston, G. Ectber, GK Fenwick, J. F. M. Frasor, J. Gore, J. Jolly jun., J. T. Maokerrap, J. Mitche'l, J. Neil, C. S. Reeves, B. C. Reynolds, J. Rattray, J. R-bio, J. Roboitsp-L. 31. Shaw, A. Sligo, A. O. Sbronnch, P. Sargoari, R Slater, aud R. Wilson. In doiug so, ho said that he thcujhb tho present Ministry really oarna oat better than other Ministries in regard to work done on the Otago Central railway, but he knaw this was due to a large extent ho the eftoxU of the league, and to the pressure brought to bear by the leasuo. Mr Gork seconded the motion. The Mayor remarked that the chairman cf the executive (Mr Barron) had been unremitting in his attention to the business of the league, and had done the work not only cheer* fully but well and faithfully. The motion was oarried. Mr Jolly said he was very much dissatisfied with the amount which h»u been exysndled on the line for the last financial year. Ho moved— "That this meeting record* its emphatic protest against the action of the Government in withholding the statement of the expenditure of public funds to the 30th June, whisk by law they are entitled to, and also expresses its astonishmoct and indignation at the umall amount of net expenditure on the Otago Central railway during the lost financial year — namely. £16 728 11s 2d out of £60,000 voted and authorised by Parliament." Mr Bakron paid Mr Jolly had got a pet cf figures that were not accurate, for the £11,405 of liability had been *penb within the fin»noial year oub of the vote. Tho Mayor aho pointed out to Mr Jolly that the voto for tbe year was made to corer the liability brought forward. Mr Jolly said he would alter the figures in the motiou from £16,728 lls 2d to £28,130 18s lid. Mr Neil seconded the motion to allow it to be discussed. Mr Carroll expressed a hope that tbe resolution would be withdrawn, for fault-finding would not do any good. Mr Gore sympathised with the tenor of the motion, but trusted ib would be withdrawn, for it would nob do auy gocd. Mr Sr.iGO moved as an amendment — "That as this meeting desires to confine itself to the affairs of the Obago Central railway and leave to Parliament the matter of dealing with the non-presentation of the public accounts as provided by statute, it does not consider it necessary to do*inore than has been done by the report presented and otherwise." Mr Bathoatk seconded the amendment. ! Mr Robin expressed a hope that Mr Jolly would withdraw his somewhat violent motion. The Mayor said that the strongest argument for the withdrawal of the motion was thpt if it were carried the Government might ai»k what was the value of a motion carried by 25 or 30 people. He thoroughly endowed every word in the motion, but it should be carried by tweuty hundred people instead of hy 20, and ha would form one of a thousand to make such a demonstration as would riDg throughout Obago. Mr Slater hoped that, after the remarks that had fallen from tho mayor and Mr Jolly, the motion would be put to the meeting so that the feeling of those present might ba tested. Mr Jolly agreed to withdraw his motion. The motion was withdrawn, Mr Slater objecting. On the motion of Mr Gow, a vote of thanks was passed to the retiring committee; and a similar compliment to the mayor for presiding brought the meeting to a close.