THE WEST COAST RAILWAY.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1490, 31 December 1884, Page 2

THE WEST COAST RAILWAY.

(Kehon Mail.) A irfluential meeting, at which; thirty were present. \ v as he.M in the County Chamber yesterday afternoon to receive th« report of the recent delegation to Wellington. His Worship the Mayor who was in the chair said, Mr Sclanders and 1 desire to report to the Inland Communication Committee the result of our recent visit to Wellington. I arrived there on Saturday and Mr Sclanders followed on Sunday. Mr Scett arrived on Saturday afternoon, and he and I waited upon Mr Richardson, the Minister for Public Works, and here I may My that both Mr Sclanders and myself found in Mr Scott a gentleman who dealt with us in the most open and cordial manner and with whom we were able to work in perfect accord. I think I may divide the ohject of our mission into two parts, the first being to ascertain whether Canterbury would join us in forming one Company, and the other to learn what concessions the Govern, merit would be prepared to make. Mr Scott told us that the Canterbury people knew so little about our scheml that he could not say whether they would join with us or not. Together with him we saw Julius Yogel, and h* ftptaifted to ;]V& Scott what our view* were, >ndjn. jt jraft forcible language than wh could use, and speaking of course more authoritatively than we could he urged upon Mr Scott the desirability of the two districts working together and the disadvantages of attempting, to float two Companies in London. This evidently impressed Mr Scott, and thus we saw that one great point had been gained. Mr Scott left for Christckurch rather hurriedly, and we were uncertain whether we should have to follow, him, but after an exchange of telegrams he told u« that it would be uneceHsary for us t* <ro as he thought our point would he carried without our presence. The meeting of the Christchurch Committee was held yesterday, but the consideration of the question was further postponed until Monday next- The attitude we were able to take up owing to our being so thoroughly backed up by people of Nelson, ir.ade itself fell, and we succeeded in convincing Mr Scott what we know ourselves to be the ease that in this matter Nelion was thoroughly in earnest, and determined if Committee would not accept her as an ally, to float a Company of her own. The more I lookat it the more convinced I am that our line is far superior to theirs, and this we impressed upon Mr Scott, until he, though of course he did not go se far in this direction as we, assured us that he should strongly recommend his friends to work iwitk us. Now with regard to the part taken by the Government in the matter. We had long interviews with Ministers md the officers both of the Law and Public Works Depart raentff, -chiefly in connection with the concession* which w« saw were required, as the Act itself hears evidence of having been hurriedly passed, or at least amended, and we found it not so definite on many points as it ought to be. Mr O'Connor produced estimates of the available land on the Springfield Brunnerton line, based upon the assumption that the contractors were to exhaust the limit of 15 miles tn depth off either side of the line, and these were centainly startling, being as follows : — Agricultural ... ... nil Pastoral (Acres 170,000 Forest 20,000 Barren ... ... 580,000 This includes the. whole of the avail, able land fora width of thirty rail«i — fifteen on each side— along the whole route from Springfield to Brunnerton, and the total value is estimated at £63,000. This made it quite plain that if the land was- to be takin up strictly as defined by the Act, the best thing to c "do was to throw the whole thing up .at once and take no more trouble iv the matter. Mr Sclanders, Mr Scott, and myself were of course at one in endavoring to obtain alterations and concessions here, ai.d we found that iv the Government we had our best allies aud the result of many interviews and deliberations was that the following resolutions were passed in Cabinet :— ■( 1 ) Tn4 Governor admit* that the* provisions of Clause 7 Harf

and West Coast Bail way Act requires that the blocks surveyed there under shall have a frontage to the line. (2) the Mocks under Clause 7 shall not be surveyed to have such a depth as will carry them into a different watershed. The reasons why this latter resolution was necessary I think I can best explain by stating that in the luai»--gahua and Grey Valleys the whole of, the land immediately bordering on the line is takeu up, and if the Company had to accept the land outside that for a. depth of 15 miles their blocks would be absolutely valueelsa. This is bad enough in the valleys named hut along the Canterbury linn it is far worse as the railway would pass through large aducation reserves. Extensive blocks of land in other parts have now been withdraw from sale and from these the Company will be enabled to take their land instead of being confined to the barren hills at the back of the settled country on the borders of tinrailway. This is a concession which, I think, goes as far as it is rea- | aonable to expect, and in ottaiuing it I think we may congratjlat* ourselves upon our success in impressing upon the Canterbury delegate tin* desirability of unification in the contract. .One further change has been made. Instead, of starting with a Company* an agr«e ment will be made with individuals who will be exonerated from all liability for ten months, within which j time they will have to arrange for the formation of a Company. Untnim raelled as these individuals will b« with articles of association and so on, they will hava a much freer scope for action than would a Companr, and in many ways, I think the change will prove advantageous. Objections have been raised to this method of obtaining a railway, but ifc s«ems to me perfectly i fair, as the colony is giving up to tin* ! Company certain areas of land which at present are altogether valueless and must remain so unless moans of communication ar« provided. These the Company finds and thus improves its property and gives a value to land that was previously utterly useless. I may add that I have adet.p conviction that we shall never again have such a chance of getting the railway and the only way of securing it is for Canterbury and Nelson to work together, as otherwise the success of both lines will be endangered, for unless th«re is a unification of the scheme ww »re not going to submit to have our land taken to provide a railway for Canterbury, and that is what they wish the laud to be reserved for them as far as the Lyell. Mr F«U then read the letter adressed by himself and Mr Sclanders to Mr Scott, which we published yesterday. Replying to Mr Sn\ the, the Chairman said that the Canterbury people had quite made up their minds with regard to the Arthur's Pass route. They regarded the proposed railway as a terminal line between Christchurch and Greymouth, and as the Arthur's Pass route was considerably shorter than that by Cannibal Gorge it suited them far better both for a coal )iu« and for establishing communication between Australia and Christchurch via Greymouth. This, however, would in no way injure Nelson provided that th« whole through line was included in one scheme. Mr Sclanders said that Mr Fell had reported all that had to to be told. With regard to the matter of route, however, he might say that although at one time, before cooperation was talked of, th« route of the Canterbury line was deemed a matter of consequence to Nelson, yet if both lines were constructed it mattered little to us which way the Canterbury line went. In any case in was no use talking about it, as the people there had finally settled it and itwould have looked very much like inpertinence had we dictated the route their part of the linn should go while negotiating with them to make one scheme of the whole. MrLtvestam thought the line should be commenced at both ends at once, to which the Chairman replied that that, of course, would be for the contractor to decide upon. In reply to Mr Pitt, the Chairman said lie was not prepared to make any suggestions to the meeting until he had heard the result of the deliberation of the Christchurch Committee. Mr Sclanders said that the Canterbury delegates were not going Home till January by the Tongariro. They must go then so as to arrive in March. If they did not do that their going would have to be put off for six months. John Bull's money seemed to be available twioe a year, The company would have to be promoted within ten months of the time the contract was signed, or it would laps*. He made these remarks to explain why everything had to be hurried on. Mr J. H. Cock said he thought it important that the collection of subscriptions or guarantees should be gone on with. The Committee appointed for the purpose had canvassed the town and obtained promises of about £900} but something rndre. he thought, ought to be done both in town and punter. After some further discussiop lj&hd course of which the Hon J. C.ijflck mond spoke of the immense important i to the district of the proposed Company; and the necessity fordoing all in their power to obtain the line, and Me Ji Graham said he was obout to£vMt^ Beefton and would do what he could there to obtain the assistance of the residents. I Mr Pitt said that ha would like to take the earl mat opportunity of thanking Messrs Fell and Sclandert for th* work they had so will dona in W«l|^agl (on *H« looked upon the adj»urn.m4n^ of the Christchurch Committee iai 4 hopeful* sign, as it showed ft diipoßttk>& to take the Nelson proposals, whicfc ■ had no doubt taken' them ' fey iiurpri jA into, consideration, fie mpved a bearj

vote of thanks t6 the gentleman named. This was carried by acclamation, and having been acfenowled, the Chair, man said he would call them together again ai soon as he was ia receipt of definite information from Christ' church.