Mosure 4
202
and the thon value debited to Railway Accounts.
As the Railway does not intend to make any immediate use of these areas, and may conceivably never require them, and as the Railway Administration is not a separate one from the Colonial Government, and therefore should not hold lands and acquire rentals separately from the Government, the latter method would appear to be the more logical, and it appears to me hardly correct to show as part of the initial outlay upon the Railway, land acquired for possible future extensions. On the other hand, the actual cost of the Railway is being decreased by a sum of $270,000 owing to the postponement of the Permanent Station Buildings. I need, however, hardly point out that in the present condition of the Finances of the Colony, the ordinary Revenue of the Colony is entirely unable to bear the cost of these resumptions, and the debit thus incurred will in point of fact be met from the Reserves. The question therefore is whether the sum in question ($155,167) should be met from the proceeds of the Railway Loan, or from the Colonial Reserves.
5.
The latter course is the one recommended by the Treasurer whose minute is attached. If it is adopted, the sum available for land resumption (under