1040 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [parTYV 
serious consequences which may result from this extra- 
ordinary 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 im- 
provement afforded by competition, which would tend to 
minimize the danger of leaving such services in the hands of 
private individuals. 
7. Of the energy and 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 sub-let it to any person or corporation 
without the consent of the Government, the risk of its 
passing into the hands of persons 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 from 
the corruption which, according to the statement of the 
Receiver-General, has attended the administration of these 
services by the Government, are more serious than any evils 
that can result from those services being transferred un- 
reservedly to the hands of a private individual or corporation; 
and that, in fact, they consider that it is beyond the means 
and capacity of the Colony to provide for the honest and 
efficient maintenance of these services, and that they must 
therefore be got rid of at whatever cost. 
9. That they have acted thus in what they believe to be 
the best interests of the Colony I have no reason to doubt, 
but whether or not it is the case, as they allege, that the