POVERTY BAY'S RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 10, 13 January 1931, Page 6

POVERTY BAY'S RAILWAY.

Naturally the people of Gisborne arid thereabouts are annoyed, and more than annoyed, at the suspension of the railway works that were designed to link' up their district with the outside world. They adduced eloquent figures in support of their claims for the speedy completion of the Napier-Cisborne line, Unfortunately, they can give no guarantee that the estimated profits on paper will be translated into actual fact and hard canh when —or if—the railway is built. And how can a sub-province that continues, in epite of all its wealth, to parade the absurd name of Poverty Bay expect to have its claims for an expensive rail connection seriously considered? It is a perpetual puzzle to many besides New Zealanders, the complacent contentment with Avhich those East Coasters nse Captain Cook's unflattering place name, even in the titles of large and prosperous business concerns. Other places in the Dominion have displayed dissatisfaction with ill-fitting named; and even in some cases have gone to the other extreme and have adopted over-pretentious ones. One of Tasman's names down on the Nelson coast, while historically correct, has been discarded for one more pleasing to the people of those parts. Cook's names were usually apt and acceptable, apart 'from their historical value; Poverty Bay is about the one unhappy exception. Before our Gisborne friends can expect that railway, let a well-wisher humbly suggest that they should (1) sweep "Poverty Bay" into the sea whence it came and substitute for it, say, "Endeavour Bay," after Cook's ship; and (2) give a guarantee on behalf of the population of 35,000 that they will give all their carrying business, passenger and freight, to the Government train,?. At any rate, they can make a start with (1). " —TANGIWAL