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$oo,ooo from the Government upon the security of the property 

 and of a mortgage embracing 2,400,000 acres. The mortgage 

 provides that the Government shall have power to foreclose in event 

 of the company falling in arrears in the payment of interest to the 

 extent of ^20,000. There has been some dissatisfaction on the part 

 of the colony, owing to the lands granted to the company 

 not having been settled. Since the company executed its 

 mortgage to th<> Government there has been no disposition 

 to sell the grants, and it has become a matter of complaint that far- 

 mers cannot enlarge their holdings, nor pastoralists obtain any 

 security of tenure for their leaseholds under the jurisdiction of the 

 company. The reason the company is not anxious to dispose of 

 the estate is explained by one of its representatives as follows : 

 " If we sell the land \ve shall have to pay the proceeds into the 

 Treasury ; people only want to buy the best spots, and, while our 

 affairs are pending re-construction, we do not want to be left with 

 only the inferior residue of our lands." The matter was brought 

 before the Legislative Assembly by Mr. H. B. Lefroy, member for 

 the Moore, who has since accepted the portfolio of Minister of the 

 Post office department and of Education. Mr. Lefroy moved that 

 the Government should foreclose as soon as they were in aposition to 

 do so, and that fair consideration should be paid for the interests of 

 the company. He said : " My reason for bringing forward the 

 motion is that a large quantity of land between Perth and Gerald- 

 ton is locked up from settlement through being in the hands of the 

 Midland railway company. I have no other reason for the motion 

 than to see the land thrown open for selection. . . . In the 

 year 1886, when this concession was granted, it was understood that 

 it was granted for opening up the lands of the Midland district. It 

 was granted for no other purpose but that of encouraging settle- 

 ment to improve the national estate ; but, up to the present time, 

 the company has done nothing whatever in the direction of sett- 

 ling those lands. The whole belt of 80 miles, stretching from Perth 

 to Geraldton, has been virtually locked up for n years. . . . 

 Here we have a company having in its possession 2,400,000 acres of 

 what is undoubtedly the best land between Perth and Geraldton, 

 and the company will not do anything with it. ... It was 

 generally understood when the scheme for this railway was 

 approved by Parliament, that the building of the railway was going 

 to open the country for settlement. . . . We are needing 

 people to settle on our lands, in 'order that the agricultural population 

 shall, as nearly as possible, keep pace with the mining population. 

 . . . It will not pay to purchase land from the company at from 

 2 to 3 per acre for the growing of cereals, when similar land can 

 be obtained from the Government on the other side of the line for 

 nothing. . . . It is in the interests of the people, not only in 

 the district I represent, but of the whole colony, that something 

 should be done to open up the land between Perth and Geraldton. 



