THE WAIUKU RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 23, 28 January 1922, Page 13

THE WAIUKU RAILWAY.

(To the Editori j Sir.—To read your a-ccoiint i>l ihe ; opening of the Waiuku railway "lie j would think that another of our much: need**! railway* had been finished. But. sir. from what 1 have hoard from n'-j liable authority, tile railway is entirely | a political job. An elderly man who! takes little interest ill party political told mc that he was present at the opening ceremony and he had no hesita - 1 tion in sa>in<j ithat it woe the worst bit of political jobbery lie has ever seen in New Zealand. The lines, he say*. will be pulled up again before many year? and u~eil elsewhere. Waiuku is, served with a boat service and railways! cannot compote with a water service. i (particularly the New Zealand Rail-! 1 ways). All who know Waiuku. except]' those who have property interests there, i say the. railway oa quke unnecessary. T The coat, £lt>,uUO per mile, is just eight times as much as what all railway construction cost in Now Zealand up tn the time of the war, and the country to Waiuku is nearly level. It cannot pay two per cent, on the capital invented, to say nothing of working expenses and j the great thing to remember in all our I' railways is the many million.* of pounds( in permanent ways and rolling stock. The interest on this is going on all the p time whether there are many trains or , few, and the present policy of cut tins , down efficiency to make up the heavy , loss now amounting to £4,000 a day, [a , sheer madness. Political rail-ways like ■ the Waiuku railway will not help the ' position and the sooner the country wakes up to the seriousness of our misgovernment the better. — I am. etc., ! E. STEVKNSO.V