" LINE WILL NOT PAY."

EX-RAILWAY MAN'S OPINION.

"As fur us passenger 1 traffic is concerned, in my opinion the proposed Roto-rua-Taupo railway will not pay—people will still travel by motor car," said an .ex-railway official this morning. '-Who is going to pay the greatest freight on the line?" he asked. "Why, the Government themselves. And where does the Government get the money to. do that? From the taxpayers as a whole. The argument put forward by Mr. Coates that in about five year6'-. it would be i necessary for the. Forestry Department to have access by rail for the transport of timber to the markets sounds well, but I would like to ask, is it a fact? It is known that the Railway Department has, during recent years, purchased large blocks of standing timber, for its own use, in the vicinity of Orunnui and elsewhere between there and Waiotapu. One block of 1000 acres was purchased at a figure, which would enable the seller to buy a considerable quantity of unimproved land a few miles away, with the possibility that, in the near future, the Government would desire to construct a line from Rotorua to Taupo, and that it- would run pretty close to his newly .acquired property. As a matter of fact to my mind the line is as unjustified today as it was when the- Commission of 1922 reported - agafritft" itß ¥ "Wh'Stttlitti<Jfi. ,<