The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1906. THE EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 71, 23 March 1906, Page 4

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

FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1906. THE EAST COAST RAILWAY.

•- • ■ ■ .»..- For the cause that lacks atsistance. For the wrong that needs retiitonce, Tor the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Few men who know anything about the needs and the possibilities of Auckland will be found to deny that wfiat

this district requires most urgently for its speedy development is better internal communication. No other part of the colony is so poorly provided with roads and railways: and the inevitable

consequence is that large areas of rich and valuable land are now lying absolutely useless, while, our isolated settlers arc struggling on. hoping against hope for the long-delayed fulfilment of the promises lavished so plenteously on us in the past. While other districts have been able to secure

for themselves a reasonable amount of recognition in the matter of public works. Auckland has had to be content with far less than her rightful

share. It is true that of late our posi

tion has been greaih- improved in this respect; and the Seddon Administration

has done more, for us than any Government that previously held office. Bui chiefly owing to the lack of union and

co-operation among our representatives, I Auckland's just claims have been allowed in past years to fall, comparatively speaking, into the background. Nuthing but unanimity and concerted action among the members whom >.ye send to Wellington can secure for us all that we hare good right to expect, from the allocation of the public funds. It is therefore with great satisfaction that we observe the efforts now being made by the Auckland Railway Leagues to co-operate with railway leagues in other parts of the district, and the interest displayed in this matter both by our members and by .Ministers on tour through the East Coast country and our detached and isolated "backblocks." The energies of our railway leagues have hitherto been chiefly devoted to the promotion of the. Mum Trunk and North Auckland lines. But the East Coast Railway League has a work to

perform which is scarcely second in importance even to these great projects. When it was suggested at a recent meet-

ing of the Chamber of Commerce that the East Coast line meant quite an much to Auckland as the Main Trunk, the speaker was hardly guilty of exaggeration. So far a.s Auckland itseJf is con-

cerned the great stretches of first-class land between Gisborne and the Hay of Plenty and so onward toward Tanranga and Rotorua would bring, when opened up. far more wealth to Auckland than the country through which the Main Trunk line will pass. The connection with Gisborne alone is well worth the trouble of preserving; and (Jishnrne trade of late had been setting sti?adi]y toward Wellington. But in the inter-

vening country, alonn- the Motu and between Tauraaiga and Opotiki. there are immense possibilities of wealth. The Level strip between the Bay of Plenty and the low hills behind the coast is extremely fertile, and there is an immense amount of swamp, which when drained, will become as valuable for agricultural and pastoral purposes as any land in the colony. Tlie natural resources of Auckland are still almost undeveloped; and cv.?n if there is nothing behind tlie many indications of mineral wealth in that part of the island, the importance of this section of the district (o our extractive industries, still in thi?ir infancy, can hardly be overestimated. As it happen*, most opportunely, the Minister for Public Works is now makl ing a tour of investigation through the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua disj tricts, and is seeing with his own eyes and evidently to bis great, astonishj ment the vast possibilities of this neglected and almost unknown portion of the island, ilr Hall Jones is clearly i much impressed by what he has seen, and in tbe speech which he made last ! night at, Te Puke he assured tbe settlers that he intended to take practical .steps to show bis confidence in tbe district. The Minister for Public Works proposes to arrange at once for a trial survey so as to discover the best route to be folio-wed in connecting the Taul ranga country on the one hand with Gisborne. and on the other with Rotorua. It is held, by those who know ithe country well, that a line could be run with comparatively little trouble or expense from Tauranga.via Te Puke to meet the Hotorua line at Mamaku. Mr Herries, whose opinion on this point is especially valuable, tbir" that the line should proceed from R rua by Te Teko round Ohiwa Harbour to Opotiki, and thence to join the extension of the Gisborne-Karaka railway along the Motu. But whatever route 'be ultimately chosen it is vastly ; important to the whole of Auckland district that active steps should be taken at once to push on the Bast Coast railway. The Hon. J. Carroll, who- feels naturally a strong interest in East Coast affairs, has recently communicated with the Auckland Railways League to the effect that the precise choice of routes at the present moment is a matter ot. secondary importance. The great point to be gained in the opinion of the Native Minister is to secure tiw,co-operation of the Bay of Plenty and Auckland Railway

Leagues, with- the East. Coast League; and this done,,the...united di these powerful" organisataoni " should give the East Coast line a stronger impetus, than. it has ever jet. received.. We need not enter just now into the question raised by Mr HalKFones- as to the jnecessity for native land-holders paying their quota- for the purposes of local taxation. 'But the iNative Land problem can never be finally solved till proper communication is established throughout the district; and nothing will assist Auckland toward a settlement of this vexed question more expeditiously and more profitably than the completion of that system of railways, of which the East Coast line is by no means the least important section. .. .