THE NORTH AUCKLAND RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 212, 6 September 1911, Page 4

THE NORTH AUCKLAND RAILWAY.

The report of the North Auckland Railway Commission has now been laid before Parliament, and it marks an important stage in the progress of thi? great national enterprise. The Commissioners made a careful inspection of the country along the proposed course of the line, and the various altarnative routes, and the conclusions at which they have arrived are thus based upon" accurate personal knowledge of the districts and carefully formed estimates o\ their productive powers. On the general question of the importance of the line and the prospective value of the country through which it is to run, the report emphatically confirms the views that have been so often expressed by tho3t best qualified to bold opinions on these subjects—that the railway will rendeT a large area of rich land available for cultivation and settlement, nnd that the highest interest* of the Dominion wnl be promoted by the energetic prosecution and the speedy completion of thds great commercial highway, for lack of which the development of the North has been so long delayed.

It will be observed that the total length of line still to be constructed to complete the Main Trunk is only a little over 60* mile s; and the estimated cost by any of the three rival routes is about £700,000. This is no small sum; but when we consider that the line when finished will bring more than 1,000,000 acres of good land into close connection with Auckland City and the South, we can well bo!' ve that the Commissioners have good ground for their expectation that within a very few years the revenue will largely exceed the interest on the cost of construction, and the North Auckland railway will prove a highly profitable investment for public money. But as this is a national undertaking, and the line is being built by the State, it is surely equitable and desirable that the country as a whole, ami not private individuals, should benefit most largely from it. Therefore we heartily endorse the suggestion with which the report closes, that all large blocks of land, whether owned by Europeans or natives, ly ngon the route of the railway and likeJy to he affected in value by the construction of the line, 'be acquired by the Crown without delay for closer settlement. This is a simple and obvious application of the Betterment principle, which seems to us to have been far too generally neglected in this country in the past. Tt was emphasised by the Premier two years ago when he refused to push on the South Island Main Trunk line without making some provision to secure for the country a substantial share of the enhanced values that would otherwise accrue to the owners of land through which the line wonJd pass; and we hope that Parliament will act promptly upon this suggestion now.

As to the controversy over the rival routes which the Commission was originally set up to decide, the report, as was generally anticipated, declares for the western route. North of McCarroll's Gap there were three possible lines of country through which the railway could be taken; and the Commission has confirmed the decision already reached by the Minister for Lands that the most w*»terly of the three routes is the best,

I became It will open up the largest area of valuable land. This decision will not meet with unanimous approval, and we i presume that it is the principal reason for the advene criticism of the report in which Mr. Massey has already indulged. The Leader of the Opposition natnrally finds it impossible to agree with anything that Government does; but "Els suggestion that the Commissioners should have been "men from outside the Auckland province" strikes us as singularly absurd. Some of them were Southerners; but naturally if the Commission was to achieve the best possible results it had also to include men familiar with the peculiarities of North Auckland land, and experienced in the possibilities of its development. As to the insinuation that Mr. Reed and Mr. Stallworthy ought to have been disqualified for service on the Commission, because they were members of Parliament, this is only another proof of Mr. Massey's obstinate determination to see no good in any proposal that emanates from Government. The Liberal party has no special interest in running the railway along the western rather than the eastern route; mid most rational people will come to the conclusion that tho report is a fair and impartial statement of the case, and that the Commission has taken what it honestly believes to he the course most consistent with the interests of the whole country. The only other point in the report to which we need draw attention is the suggestion that the Main Trunk Jine should be pushed on at once, and completed before any branch lines are undertaken. This we believe to be the wisest policy that can be adopted, and we trust that Govapjnment will see its way to adhere steadfastly to this recommendation, in spite of any local pressure that may be applied in any other direction.