dvise you to withhold your assent to the Bill
confirming the contract.

3. I have now received your despatches as noted in the margin,
giving full information as to the terms of the contract, and
the grounds upon which your Government have supported it, as
well as the reasons for which it was opposed by the Leader and
some members of the Opposition.

4. I do not propose to enter upon a discussion of the details
of the contract, or of the various arguments for and against
it, but I cannot refrain from expressing my views as to the
serious consequences which may result from this extraordinary
measure.

5. Under this contract, and the earlier one of 1893, for the
construction of the railway, practically all the Crown lands
of any value become, with full rights to all minerals, the
freehold property of a single individual: the whole of the
railways are transferred to him, the telegraphs, the postal
service, and the local sea communications, as well as the
property in the dock at St. John's. Such an abdication by a
Government of some of its most important functions is without
parallel.

6. The colony is divested for ever of any control over or
power of influencing its own development, and of any direct
interest in or direct benefit from that development. It will
not even have the guarantee for efficiency and improvement
afforded by competition, which would tend to minimize the
danger of leaving such services in the hands of private
individuals.

7. Of the energy, capacity, and character of Mr Reid, in whose
hands the future of the colony is thus placed, both yourself
and your predecessor have always spoken in the highest terms,
and his interests in the colony are already so enormous that
he has every motive to work for and to stimulate its
development; but he is already, I believe, advanced in years,
and though the contract requires that he shall not assign or
sublet it to any person or corporation without the consent of
the Government, the risk of its passing into the hands of
people less capable and possessing less interest in the
development of the colony is by no means remote.

8. All this has been fully pointed out to your Ministers and
the Legislature, and I can only conclude that they have
satisfied themselves that the danger and evils resulting f