I hope you will allow me to send you a few lines privately upon the conclusion of the contract with the New Zealand Midland Railway. I beg to express appreciation of the trouble and care with which you have dealt with this somewhat difficult matter, and to express a hope that in the end your page 13 expectations may be most fully realised with respect to the benefits to be derived by the country of New Zealand through the making of the railway. I very much wish that during these negotiations, and especially in the autumn of last year, when we were so singularly fortunate as to obtain for a time an offer of the whole of the money for the building of the railway, I could have had a personal interview with yourself and other ministers. I think that I could have smoothed many difficulties and removed many doubts. I have always taken an interest in colonial matters, and have been for some years possessed of a small property in Queensland. Some two years ago I lost my seat in Parliament, and was occupying my leisure in considering how some scheme of emigration could be devised which would be based upon the introduction of both men and capital into a country fit for development. Just at that moment the scheme of the New Zealand Midland Railway presented itself to me, and I took it up with some enthusiasm as a means by which apparently very great benefits could be bestowed both upon an old and upon a new country. If in the first instance I had entered upon the matter merely as a commercial undertaking, I probably should never have dealt with it in the way that I have done, or more probably still, I should never have touched it at all. I confess, too, that I never expected the excessive delay and the harrowing negotiations which have taken place and possibly are not even yet concluded.

Having, however, entered upon the scheme, possibly with too much of a philanthropic and page 14 enthusiastic spirit, I certainly intend to do my utmost to carry it through, and hope that in the end the undertaking will not only be a public benefit but also a commercial success.

I was very much disappointed when last autumn the offer of an expenditure of £2,500,000 was practically refused. The terms were fair, and what was of the greatest importance, they were intelligible to the London financial people, and drawn in language which they could understand, I had always been led to expect that upon a definite offer of the money any reasonable terms would be warmly welcomed by the New Zealand people. However, that is past, and having now by your capacity and firmness arrived at a settlement, we shall do our best to raise the money that is necessary to proceed vigorously with the work. Of course the original offer £2,500,000 made last autumn has passed away, as we at the time distinctly indicated would be the case. I hope you will pardon me for troubling you with this letter. I have been anxious for some time to express to you in confidence our true views and position, which have, I think, been a good deal mistaken, though not perhaps unnaturally so. I hope that you will allow me to communicate with you again as to our general scheme and progress as soon as the money necessary to make some advance with the line has been obtained. We are rather hindered by the fact that the long delay in completing the negotiations has driven us into the holiday time, so that some weeks, or even months, may elapse before we can get on a satisfactory page 15 footing. It will give me intense satisfaction to be able to report to you privately that everything is progressing well.

Politics in England are in a troubled condition, and like the rest of the world, those of us who are quiet business people hate party politics, and wish for calm and common sense.