CATLIR'S RIVER RAILWAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2503, 12 March 1902, Page 56

CATLIR'S RIVER RAILWAY.

DEPUTATION TO THE PREMIER. , A deputation from the Catlin's Railway (League waited on the Right Hon. Mr Seddon, Premier, at the Grand Hotel on Mon'd»y afternoon, being introduced to the hon. gentleman by Mr T. Mackenzie, M.H-R-, •on behalf of Mr J. W. Thomson, M.H.R. Sor the Clutha district. Mr J. F. Arnold aifc Mr T. K. Sideyi M.H.R.'s, were also h ipreaent, and the other gentlemen in attendance were Messrs R. Chisholm (president), >«J. J. Ramsay (secretary), M. Cohen, H. F. i'Moss, W. Brown, D. M. Fea, W. B. M. KFe*. J. B. Waters, C. W. Rattray, W. [Wright, W. Taylor, W. Brown, and J. T. '{Mackerras. f, Mr Mackenzie, in introducing the deputation, said that Mr Thomson, the member for' the district,, would have been present if he had had the opportunity, but the fact ,w«s that the deputation had been hurried, and there bad been no time to get Mr Thomson into town. He (Mr Mackenzie) had -therefore been asked to introduce the deputation. A number of the member^ of the league and others had recently v^ited '• Ahe- Gatlins- district, and it was realised by : -'them all that there were considerable pros- ' nects for the railway if pushed into the busii country. A matter of 15 or 20 miles would 4ske.it into the heart of a magnificent forest. Speaking from his own . knowledge of the district, he could say that settlement would never be successful until "the timber was removed. If it were porsible to construct say, 15 miles of the line, he for one would willingly support the raising of a special loan for the- purpose. Mr Chisholm said the members of the league were much impressed with the country on their visit "to the district. It was one that required, and ought to receive, consideration. The league could not expect anything unreasonable, and they did not ask for anything unreasonable, and if works could not be prosecuted as vigorously as the community would like, all they desired to urge was that the Catlins line should receive fair consideration along with similar lines elsewhere. It was considered that in the pas* the line had not received that consideration it "deserved. The sums voted for similar works had been .voted to a much greater proportion than had the votes for the Catlins line, and, recognising .the importance of the work, they asked and uiged upon the Premier to see that the Catlins line should receive equal consideration with other similar works. At present there was a tremendous waste of timber going on in the district in consequence of the inability of the settlers to get it taken to market. The peonle said distinctly that there was no help for" it co far as they were concerned. They must need 3 destroy the timber to dear the land, and so make a living for •themselves. He had been connected with the timber trade for the past 30 years, and -s>e -had > never seen a. district where the ,t.imber was richer or better fitted for build--ing icad other purposes than the timber of the Catlins district, yet, as there was no railway, the timber could not be taken out of the district/ . 1 "Mr :W.: W. Btowh urgefi that settlers in the. district should be given the opportunity of making . a living in the construction, of the railway " Many of them were heavily handicapped,' having not only bush, to contend with, but in some cases poor soil after the bu3h was" cleared off, and it would provide work for them if the totara'and black pine on the snot could be ueed for sleeper 3. Mr D." M. Fea also urged that the line should be pushed on as fart as possible. There was some ground in the district that •was equal in every respect to the best on the Taieri Plain. ' The Premier, in reply, said it would be his duty -to place tne matter before the Minister of Public "Works so that \-.e could take it into consideration when framing his Public Works Estimates. He would like to «sy that there was a question of policy involved in the matter— one of a grave chaiacter, — which must be looked at 'from two points. One was >n extension of the borrowing policy and the other was the borrowing for a given public work. In respect to the general policy of borrowing, he said that New Zealand was a country witli a limited population and with limited resources, although the natural expansion of the resources were very great, especially when compared with the population. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that the ' credit of the colony must at all times be upheld, and .to enter upon a large borrowing and. equaudering policy would certainly injure the credit of the country. That, of course, would mean depreciation of property all over the country, and was* bound to end in disaster, and he had eaid before that he would prefer -to leave, office to-morrow and hand over the responsibility to somebody else than revert to a policy that did lead to disaster in yeara gone by. Works must gn on at a moderate rate, however, and he had iixed a million sterling a year as a- fair limit for tke, colony to borrow, and with a population aich as there was in New Zealand he thought that to increase the in.debtedness for publio works at more than £1 per head per annum would b© to do something that the circumstances did not warrant. Of course, it was the duty to spread the money fairly over the colony. With regard to the destruction of timber which had been mentioned, he would tell the Minister of Lands and the Minister of Public Works not to dispose of another acre of the timber land, but to keep it until the railway could be pushed on sufficiently to take it away from the district. — (Hear, hear.) In his opinion, the crop on the land now was the best crop it would ever bear and the most valuable to the country at large. — (Hear, hear.) If railways were put into a district first and helped to take the timber aw»y, it would mean that ready money was ■being given to the settlers, and when they came to put in their crops, they would find themselves, in many cases, in a different position than gome of them occupied under present conditions. — (Hear, hear.) Regarding expendituro on public works, he would like to Bay a word or two in 'a general way to show what the Government had tb put up with, iast year the vote for ways and means was increased from one million to one million and a-quarfer, and during 10 months there had actually been spent . on public works in the colony what should have been spent over 12 months. As a matter of course, the Government would not go beyond the appropriations, "and it was" then said in some quarters that the colony was on the verge of bankruptcy— that -it was in financial .trouble. Well, if men who wrpte such things or made such wild statements would only remember that those assertions went Home, and so damaged the credit of the • colony, it would be much better for them and for the colony of New Zealand.— fHear,

hear.) He had a communication from the Agent-general, who said that every article that was written in the colony damaging its finances was specially marked ond sent Home, and the Investors' Review and other papers got hold of them, and held them until the colony wanted to raise money in the London market, when it was all paraded out against the credit of the colony, with the result that the success of any operation was not so great as it might be under failconditions. While New Zealanders were doing tnis sort of thing they were injuring the country and prejudicing the Government going in, perhaps, for a little more in the way of progression in respect to public work.c. — (Hear, hear.) Then, on coming to Dunedin, ho was surprised to hear it said in the streets and to see it hinted at in> the press that the Government had sent out a circular to it 3 officers, telling them not to 6end in the expenditure for March, so that the Government might have a year's revenue and only 11 months' expenditure. What, lie asked, was the country coming to when they found jrtich statements being made? Here was the mysterious circular that had been issued by the Treasury: — "I am directed by the Colonial Treasurer to forward to heads of departments the following instructions of the Cabinet: Heads of departments are asked to exercise the strictest economy to prevent appropriations being exceeded before the 31st March, and heads of departments are required to mform Ministers of •any votes that are likely to be exceeded." Thai was the circular and where was the foundation in it for the statements that had been made? With respect to public works, he anticipated that at the 31st March there would be a sum of £400,000 unexpended out of the ways and means provided by the Publio Works Statement and the Financial Statement, and there would be about £276,000 of loan money to receive, making a total of £676,000. That would have to carry them on until further ways and means were provided. It had, in roality, to carry them on for 6ix months, because it was generally October before other ways and means had been provided by Parliament. At the rate expenditure had been going on they were spending about two millions sterling a year, and when things were stopped it was just about time to put one's foot down, and say that where votes had been actually exceeded they were to stop. On the Helensville northwards lino there was an ovcr-expenditui-G of £3000, on the WaihiPaeroa line it was £3000, on the TokoStratford line £3000, and on the BlenheimWaipaia line £5000. The fact was that Ministers were simply doing what Parliament had authorised them to do : they had spent the money voted and then stopped, and as far as he was concerned the pin- ! pricks that he had received over the matter had not affected him much. He anticipated that there would be a surplus this year. In the consolidated fund there would be a surplus of between £200,000 and £250,000, and, putting that to the amount already stated (£676.000) and borrowing a. million, there would be, roughly, a sum of £1,850,000 for public works. "That, he considered, was quite enough for .New Zealand. Coming back to the question of the Catlins railway, he said he was sorry to hear that totara and black pine had been burned, bect-uso there no doubt both made- good sleepers, and ought to have been used for that purpose. If it was correct that j sleepers had been imported into the district -from other districts, and the Iccal totara and black pine had buen destroyed, it was a grave reflection, upon someone. He regretted to say that tire time was not far distant when sleepers would be very difficult to obtain in the colony, and therefore any timber that was suitable for the purpose should be conserved. He was quite opposed to New Zealand importing sleepers from Australia, especially when totara and black pine could be obtained in the colony ; and, his attention having been drawn to the matter, ho would bring it under the notice of the Minister of Public Works and the Minister of Railways. He would like to see the settlers themselves preparing the sleepers for the railway, and he was willing to give them a fair price for the work. — (Hear, hear.) This extens ; on of the Catlins line would bo remembered when the Cabinet discussed the Public Works Statement and Estimates, and he hoped to see fair provision, made for it. The first thing to do now, he thought, was to obtain from the Chief Commissioner of Lands for the district a report upon the timber, and if things were as they were stated to be steps should be taken at once to see that the timber was conserved until such time as the railway was within reasonable' distance of it, co that it could be taken away. Ho would sec that that matter was attended to at once. As to the second point which they must consider, he could not countenance a special loan for the work. The North Island members had repeatedly asked tho Government to support a special loan for the^ North Island JtJain Trunk Jine, but the Government had all along refused, and said that all lailways must be kept on the same footing. There mifst be one loan, which would be applied fairly to work? that were in the interests of settlement and otherwise in the interests of tho colony. In reply to Mr Chisholm, the Premier said he thought it would be found that the expenditure on the Catlins line tins year was reasonable and consistent witli the amounts spent oil other line?. The deputation thanked the Pi-pimpr for his courteous reception, and witlid'-ew.