THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

New Zealand Graphic, 27 June 1906, Page 33

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

After this extraordinary scries of legislative achievements, all accomplished within the spa-re of four months by a man who had had only one year's previous experience of the position of Premier, it was only natural that Parliament should be content for a short period with the ordinary duties of administrative government. The next two sessions produced chiefly amending and consolidating Acts; for Mr. Seddon was too wise to prejudice the future of bis work by hurrying restlessly on

new experiments before the foundations of hw policy had time to settle firmly into their place. The amendment of the Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act, and the Government Valuation of I-and Act, are among the more important measures put through in 1895 98. In 1895. the Midland Railway question came under the notice of the House, and gave Mr. Seddon another opportunity for proving his possession of an unusual endowment of resolution and moral courage. The Premier had always been a firm friend of Hie project, but lie had from the first objected to the unsatisfactory way in which the Company were carrying out the undertaking. In the speech which Mr. Seddon delivered at Hokitika in October, 1904, on the occasion of his Parliamentary jubilee, he told his audience that the course he had resolutely followed with respect to the Midland Railway had almost brought about his political extinction. In 1891, when he made his first stand against popular feeling on this subject, he was informed that the people demanded his retirement from the Ministry, and even some of his own colleagues had appeared to believe that they could get on without him. lie was burned in efiigy at Christchurch, and even at Reefton. on his own beloved "Coast.” But he had seen clearly that the Midland Railway Company would never find the capital to complete their work, and that they were merely piling up a huge bill of costs against the colony: and so he took his own way regardless of popular disapproval, and content to know that the country at some future date would endorse his action. Even his bitterest opponents eventually found themselves compelled to admit that his views as to the legal and practical aspects of the position were absolutely sound. And though there may be still differences of opinion as to the importance of the Midland Railway, or the necessity for its immediate completion, there can be none as to the ability and the courage that the Premier displayed in using ‘‘the strong hand” to solve this difficult problem.