THE EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 99, 28 April 1922, Page 4

THE EAST COAST RAILWAY.

The Minister of Public Works seems to have a happy way of sticking to his point and yet remaining popular with a clamorous putilic. It was .natural thm when lie visited the Tauranga district he should 4>e asked again to bridge the gap ■between Waihi ■ and Tauranga. ■ The people of Katiiati, like all other people in similar circumstances, want a railway. The settlement is nearly fifty, years old, and after passing through a long period of .poverty it has reached prosperity, in spite of the fact that it is a long way from its markets and that its communications are indifferent. It must have watched with growing impatience the amazing methods ofthe Government in constructing th» extension of the Auckland-Waihi railway to its own borders at Athcnree. The distance is only a few miles, yet after yeare of "work the construction consists of isolated embankments and formations. A more impressive illustration of tlie folly and wastefulness of our traditional policy of railway construction perljaps could not be found in all the Dominion. Mr. Coatca, however, sticks to Ms intention to complete what he Tegards as more important lines before he joins Waihi with Tauranga via Katikati. The Otira tunnel is due to be finished this year, and when this is done and the line to Whangarei completed, he will be able to ;»ivc more attention to the East Coast railway. In the meantime he holds to his decision, to push on the railway from Tauranga eastwards rather than hurry on construction between Waihi and Tauranga. His promise to the Katikati' people to bring the railway to the Tuapiro River within eighteen months reads rather like a reversal of hie decision, announced in the Public Worke Statement, to close down on the Waihi-Taura-nga line when the Athenree section has been completed, 'but the river is only a few miles beyond Athenree. and an extension to that point "would bring the railway well within the Katikati district. Besides, it is three months since the Statement was delivered. The needs of the settlers could largely be \ met in the meantime by giving them better roads, so that they could more easily reach Tauranga on the one side and the railhead on the other. When Mr.- Coates has -other- lines out of- the way he should concentrate on these East Coast gaps and push on construction with all speed. That it will be his inclination to do so we do not doubt, .but he is not entirely a. free agent in these matters.