The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY. AUGUST 29, 1905. THE RIVAL RAILWAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 206, 29 August 1905, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY. AUGUST 29, 1905. THE RIVAL RAILWAYS.

—■ —•— For the cause that lack*'assistance. For the wrung that needs resmtamct. For the future in the distance, Aud the aood that ice can do.

There does not seem to be much doubt j about two important facts in connection ( with the Midland railway at the pres- j ent time—that work upon the line is being pushed forward with great energy, i and that the Premier is strongly impressed with the necessity for getting | the line completed at the earliest prac ticable date. We have eerta inly no desire to force the claims of Auckland to the front at the expense of all other parts of the colony. But we think that Auckland is fully justified in protesLing against the policy so long followed by cer tain politicians of subordinating the permanent interests of the North Island to I the temporary convenience or profit of j favoured districts in the South. The | Midland railway we regard as a work that should not have been commenced at so early a stage of the colony's growth, while the most valuable portions of the I North Island are still undeveloped and I isolated. The only excuse for completing it is the argument that the money j already expended upon it ought not be j wasted. But this is not sufficient ground j for hurrying on this line, while Wellington and Auckland are still uncon- [ nected by land, while the Auckland Tara.- ! uaki railroad is still in the disf.nl future, and while North Auckland, with its vast potential wealth, is still as remote from the great centres of population as Stewart Island. But we fear that no considerations of public interest are likely to outweigh political expediency just now; and the enthusiastic speech made by Mr. Seddon to lbs Midland railway deputation yesterday appears to us to augur ill for the prospect, of other more important public works which do not seem to produce so profound an imprc-Fion upon the imagination of the Premier and his colleagues, j If anyone desires to be convinced of the absolute futility of the arguments advanced in support of the immediate completion of the Midland line, he need only examine in detail the case made out for it by the deputation that waited on the Premier yesterday. There was, of course, nothing new in the pleas, and noihing that has not been proved to be fallacious. The assertion that there would be '"an extensive area of valuable land" on the West Coast if all the bush were cleared is simply ludicrous when we remember the geographical nature of Westland—a narrow strip of shingle-bed at the foot of precipitous mountains; and more especially when we think of the splendid couniry ready for agriculture or pasture in the deserted North. A letter recently published in the Christchurch "Press" ridicules the notion that the Midland line when finished would be the natural route for timber and coal export from Westland to Canterbury. Creymouth and Hokitika have shipping facilities ample for all Westland's needs in this respect; and it does not need much knowledge of freights and transit business to show that, as the "Press"' correspondent declares, "water carnage will always be cheaper than the railway." As to tourists, it is simply absurd to suggest that they will ever prefer the railway with its five mile tunnel to the beauties of the coach road. There are less than ! 15,000 people in Westland to-day, and neither the population, nor the products, nor the prospects of the district can in any sense justify the determination of tde political representatives of Westland and Canterbury to lay the railway at all costs. The description of the Midland railway works which appeared in our yesterday's issue shows thai the line is being pushed ou literally night and day. Mr Hall-Jones has lately assured a Southern paper that he intends to enable visitors very shortly to get through from Christchurch to Hokitika in a day. Meantime, the "'Evening Post" describes the Main Trunk line as "a monument of delay,"' the Christchurch "Press" warns Auckland not to attach any importance to Mr Hall-Jones' promise to finish the Main Trunk in three years, and even in Otago strong representations have lately been made in favour of subordinating the Otago Cen ral on public grounds to the Main Trunk line. A recent letter in the "Otago Daily Times" points out that Otago has 780 miles of railway, while Auckland, with about the same area and the same population, has only 440 miles, and urges that the Otago Central might well be kept in the background at least till the Main Trunk lintis completed. These signs of sympathy from the South may perhaps encouraji« our representatives to make a bold stand against the aggressive policy of ihe Midland Railway League; for it is absolutely certain that if Canterbury and Westland get all they expect and demand just now, the Main Trunk line —to say nothing of the East Coast line, the Auckland-Taranaki connection, and ;he Northern district railway—will be relegated to comparative obscurity for many years to come.