LAST NIGHT'S NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9171, 13 June 1901, Page 1

LAST NIGHT'S NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night. At the Midland Railway Commission to-day the addresses of counsel were heard. Mr Bell, summing up the evidence on behalf of the Crown; said that the gross earnings during the Company's period ought to be .reduced by the further annual sum which ought to have been expended m maintenance, and he suggested that the increase m the earnings during the last year but one of the Company's period might possibly be accounted for by vhe exigencies of tie Company, which demanded extreme economy of even necessary expenditure. The normal earnings of the railway, averaged over a period of 11 years, were considerably less than £3000 per annum. - Dr Findlay, for the receiver afld deben-ture-holders, urged the Commission to give the debenture-holders a benevolent and fair consideration of the evidence, to give them the advantage of any reasonable doubt when evidence was secured that was equal or uncertain, and m particular m determining the future prospects of the railway, to make every ■ fair assumption that could be* made m their favor, so- that, as far as was consistent with substantial justice, the Commission should be generous- rather than restrictive.. The present position of the railway was, he urged, not due to anything for which the Company or deben-ture-holders were responsible. DUNEDIN, last night. The City Council to-night adopted the whole of the Tramway Committee's report to take Taieri and Lee streams fori .generating electricity, carrying the .pre- j sent King street lin6 along George street, | and taking the Castle street line through the Botanic Gardens, thus completing the circuit. A motion, referring the question of the necessity of workmen's homes m the city to the Finance Committee, was j carried. • !