TARANAKI IRONSAND BILL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3504, 4 August 1880, Page 2

TARANAKI IRON SAND BILL.

The House went into committee ou the Taranaki Iron Smelting Works Land Act, 1874, Amendment Bill. Majo : Atkinson protested against the Bill as a giving away of the public estate, but as the House had decided upon carrying the Bill he "would not further oppose it. He showed that the company had not fulfilled the conditions of the grant, they had not raised the requisite capital, and to make good the deficiency they had granted a certain number of shares to a man named Smith on account of a patent said to belong to him. On asking the chairman if, iv the event of the company being wound up, they were prepared to pay Smith's amount of these shares, the reply was "Oh, no ; he (Smith) would have no claim at all." The coi ipany had never acted in good faith, and no effort had ever been made to smelt the iron. It was simply a giving away of 5,000 acres of the public estate. Messrs. Macaxdkew and JBat.lantk denied that no effort had been made to smelt iron, the former stating that he was present and witnessed tho smelting experiment, and the latter that cGG,ooo had boon spentin the appliances. The matter had been before several committees, and they had all decided in recommending the proposal now made. Mr. Murray said that he had ascertained that the shares had been bought up by speculators iv the hope of this Bill passing, 'and thereby making something out of them. The complexion of the transaction had changed materially in his estimation. Mr. Turnuult, said a goodly number of shares where held by residents in the South Island, and that the land was promised at the time the company was formed and the shares subscribed. In that case, he considered that it would be a hardship to with-hold the land simply because the affair had turned out unsuccessful. Mr. IvELLY'said there was no intention of making up a capital to work the lavd — they had bimply made it up to secure the land. Tho affair had not,

many sense of the word, been &honajide one. He contended that the company had neither complied with the letter nor the spirit of the conditions on which the grant was promised. The Bill passed through committee, and was reported without amendment.