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Observer, Volume 2, Issue 35, 14 May 1881, Page 376

To achieve this any temporary means would have been eagerly seized. One was often quietly mooted, and we see that Mr. Ormond has made special reference to it. Rather than put up with direct taxation he would throw the burden once more on the mass of the people either through the Custom-house or through school fees. But. failing these, he would sell to the highest bidder either the railways or the enormous area held as sheep-runs. Both of these are, properly speaking, securities for the money we have borrowed, and the proceeds should be applied, if sold at all, to diminish the public burdens through relief from general and not from direct taxation. But ought they to be sold ? The sale of the railways would mean only the creation of a gigantic monopoly Avith enormous political influence and with a power in trade that none could oppose. The forced sale of the sheep-runs would mean the abandonment, for many years, of all hope of settlement in vast districts. Experience shows that these runs, once formed on a large scale, are seldom broken up. Nothing but the utmost pressure of population will induce the holder to spoil the run by the introduction of people to disturb his sheep. Mr. Ormond lays stress on both these proposals. It is true he speaks of "leasing" the railways, but it is well understood that this is only the first approach to their sale. The management of companies is not so superior to that of the Government that any material profit to the public coxild be hoped for by merely leasing, while the risks attending a huge monopoly are neither problematical nor small.