27

I.—la.

. ARMSTEAD.

109. There is no distinct understanding that the public will benefit by the lessened price of coal at Wairio, is there ( —No, certainly not. 110. Suppose these people were prepared themselves to extend your line on so as to fulfil their requirements: do you think thai yom company would be prepared to grant them running-powers over your line ? —Certainly, provided they pay for them. 111. Provided they pay for depreciation and use and wear-and-tear i>l the line I — Yes There are people who work these things out, and if i( is worked out on thai basis that is all we ask for. 112. That is to say that so far as your line is concerned it would serve the pits along it, and then they would extend it to Ohai, and have running-powers over their extension and over your line into Wairio ?—Yes. 113. Do you think that More and .Sons would be prepared to grani them '. —I dare say they would. 1 cannot speak for them, but Isi l<l think they would, provided they were paid for it. I 14. Do you pay for the use of the Government trucks I Oh, yes. 115. You pay McKenzie 7s. a ton for his coal, and it is suggested that McMillan is going to sell to you at 7s. a ton. Do 1 understand that if there are any areas opened up between those two points you are quite willing to carry the coal at schedule rates ?—Certainly. That is what we are common carriers. 116. And this matter of paying the owners 80-much a ton is purely tor their convenience '. Yes. 117. Now, with regard to an Order in Council giving power to extend your line, do you anticipate any difficulty in connection with that?— None whatever: in fact, alter this has come before us there ought to be no difficulty whatever. The Government ought to give every assistance. It is a very difnculi thing to get these matters through, with one thing and another. It took us four years to build a line which we had thought would take not more than two. 118. Would your company be prepared to extend the line '. If we goi encouragement. 119. If you were guaranteed a revenue from , your expenditure your company could go on with it right away, could they not ?- Yes, and they would be prepared to do that ; but they cannot do that sort of thing if they are going to be subjected next year to this same treatment. 120. It has been suggested that you are not prepared to extend, and that the public have to wait indefinitely before this further area of coal is tapped. Do you give us to understand that your company are prepared to make an extension, so long as you are guaranteed a fair return and something like security of tenure ?—Certainly, provided we gel security of tenure and some sort of guarantee that the produce up there will come down the line. 121. It was suggested in your evidence yesterday that your company had not the money and that the public would have to wait ? —That is so —without something definite. In the face of what we have had to meet you could not ask us to go on. 122. But suppose you were guaranteed ?—Then we would be prepared to go on at once. 123. And the area would be as well served by your line as the other line, so far as facility is concerned ?—Certainly. The only difference is possibly a small one in cost. 124. What you maintain now is that inasmuch as you have only just opened the line you should be given a fair chance to get a fair return out of it before you come into competition with a State line '. —That is so : you have hit it exactly. 125. Could you make your line serve the purposes of the settlers as well as a State line so far as taking wool, butter, &c, is concerned i It would tap the same country as the other line is intended to do?— Exactly. Mr. McGregor says in his letter thai a route can be taken light down into the Morley Valley; but I do not know whether that is correct. 126. So long as your company can see a fair return they are prepared to meet the wants of the dist rict ? —Yes. 127. Mr. Webb.} A statement was made to the effect that .McKenzie is managing a concern for your company —that he is absolutely at your mercy and must agree to practically whatever rate you like to pay for his coal ; would that statement be true '. It would be absolutely false, and the man who said it is not prepared to say it outside here. It has no truth in it, in any .shape or form. The Wairio Railway Company have not in any way whatever, as far as I know and I am a director of-it —nor has any member of_ it, as far as I know, advanced McKenzie one threepenny-piece, or had any interest in any shape or form in McKenzie's pit. 128. The Chairman.] Is it not a fact that the proposal in the petition is to supply coal at a lower rate than is at present charged and to haul it at a lower rate than the present rate on your line V — Obviously Mores' line cannot carry the coal to Wairio at the same rate as a Government line. 129. Then, as a public proposition this other is the better?- If you are goingto put it so baldly as that I say that as a public proposition it is not. because there is no guarantee that the public are going to get the difference ; but as a proposition for Mr. McGregor and the coalowners it certainly is. Unless there is some proof that the public are going to get the difference, then it cannot be to the public advantage. 130. You told Mr. Payne just now that you are prepared to do with your line all that these people Lave offered to do Have you gone into the question of how you are going to finance it '. These petitioners have already prepared a scheme of financing the whole thing. You are making an offer now. Have you gone into the question of finance ?—No. 131. You have stated that you are now in difficulties and are winking on an overdraft ?—No, 1 did not say that we were in difficulties. 1 said we had invested all our money. 132. And that you have no more capital for further extension ?—I did not say that we cannot get it. 133. But you have not gone into the question yet ?—No. We certainly have not got the money in our pockets at the present moment.