The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1885.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3386, 4 August 1885, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1885.

In the tnipjst oi tbo mad agitation m favor of the Meiggs contract carried on m the neighborhood of Christolnirch by people who are anxious merely for the local expenditure of the money, and don't oare a straw for the ultimate vosuits, it is gratifying to find n meeting of country Bettlers looking at tho matter from a clear-headed and dispassionate* ]

point of view. The gathering m question took place at Ambedey, and was convened by the Chairmen of the Amberley Town Board and the Kowai Town Board respectively. The speakers showed a very commendable acquaint- ' ance with the facts of the case, and disposed of a large number of fallacies ' with which the Meiggsites have been endeavoring to blind the public. Instead of the £97,000 a year being such a tritfing matter as was represented, it was shown, for instance, that m the course of 20 years it would amount, with interest, to about £3,000,000, thus 1 raising the total cost of the railway to about £7,000,000, whereas the Government estimate of the cost of its construction only amounts to about £3,000,000. This £7,000,000, of course, is quite independent of the 2i milliou acres of land which is proposed to hand over to Messrs Meiggs and Co. In regard to this concession we have been told that the land along the line is valueless m its present condition, that anybody ought to be glad to give it away to get the railway constructed, and so forth. People who talk m this way forget, for the moment, what a weapon they are placing m the hands of opponents of the line. It is, m fact, the queerest ai-guuient that probably was ever heard of, to urge m favor of constructing a railway, that the land which it is proposed to open up is so bud tbab we ought to be glad to give it away. Nevertheless, whatever we may Bay ; as to tho application of the argument, we believe the fact as to the worthless nature of the land to be correctly stated. All that it is ever likely to yield is timber, and possibly minerals, and its value m these respects is purely speculative. As to its capacity for settlement, the matter was put very forcibly the other day. by a correspondent of the Timaru Herald who said that, although he often heard people talking m a vague way about the land that will be opened up by the railway, be has never yet met with a man who could " lay him on. " to a section worth keeping an eye upon. Is it for a moment to be supposed, however, that the astute and enterprising Meiggs is not also aware of the quality of the land lying along the line of the proposed route ? Whatever may be the failings of the gentleman m question, he is certainly not a fool, and it so happens that he is wellprotected even m the Act itself. The latter provides that if there is not sufficient Crown land adjoining the line of railway to make up the stipulated endowment then other Crown lands which, m the opinion of the Governorin- Council, is or will be specially benefited by the construction of the railway is to be set aside. The practical meaning of this provision was very well brought out at the Amberley meeting. I Taking the Canterbury-West Coast part of the line, and excluding the Nelson Branch for the moment, the contractors are entitled to Crown lands of the value of £750,000, it being provided that no land is to be valued at less than 10s per acre. Mr G. F. Richardson, speaking m the House last year, and showing what lands really were available along the proposed line, said that there were 192,000 acres of bush land, at £1 per acre, value £192,000 ; there were 230,400 acres of barren mountains, at 10s per acre, £115,200 ; 49,280 acres on one side only, and none within a mile of the railway, which was set down at 10s per acre, £94,000 ; and there were also 76,800 acres of pastoral land, valued at 12s 6d, giving £48,000, So that Mr Richardson estimated that of the land taken to thelimits prescribed, namely, fifteen miles on each Bide of the line, there would be only available 548,480 acres, of a value not exceeding £379, 840. Mr Richardson also held that the Company was not compelled, nor likely, to take the land to the maximum distance, and the probable area they would take was only 240,000 acres. The rest of the land, it was pointed out at the Amberley meeting, would have jto come from the choicer parts of Canterbury, and lands which the' public hope to see m the hands of farmers would be found some fine day locked up m tbe hands of Messrs Meiggs and .Co. until these gentlemen could get the price they chose to impose upon them. One speaker trenchantly remarked— " Tho manner m which Meiggs and Co. had dictated terms to a solvont, go-ahead country was suggestive of the way m which the firm of Moiggs and Co. conducted their business with iriHolveut plooos, each as Pern, Bolivia, and other parts of South America, whoro tho vast tracts of laud wero of little or no valuo, and whero anyone might have sovoral acros if ho could only bo induood to pitch a tout on them." After full discussion the meeting passed a resolution to the effect that " the proposals now before the Government are recklessly extravagant." Another motion was carried to the effect that it would be better to sell the lands proposed to be given as an endowment and commence the line with proceeds of the sales. Fortunately the House as well as the public appear to have seen pretty cleajrly through the , nature of the proposals, and there is, therefore, reason to hope that, m spite of the desperate efforts of tbe Government to smuggle them through m aome way, they will be uncompromisingly rejected, and Meiggs and Co, will be left lamenting.