RAILWAY WANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 167, 17 July 1931, Page 5

RAILWAY WANTED.

NORTH AUCKLAND'S CLAIM. INTER-COASTAL TRADE. LINE TO DARGAVILLE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WHANGAREI, this day. In view of the possibilitiee of intercoastal trade in North Auckland, the Whangarei Harbour Board is urging completion of the Kirikopuni-Dargaville railway. The following letter was dispatched on July S to Mr. H. H. Sterling, general manager of the Railway Department: — "In reference to soliciting the views of the people interested in this matter, I am directed by the Whangarei Harbour Board to submit the followingstatement:—The board had never associated itself with the question as to whether or not the above named railway should have been constructed. It ie decidedly of opinion, however, that tho loop line from the Woiroa River to Kirikopuni and back to the river again should not have been built. Seeing that tho line has been completed to Tangowahino and construction work is well advanced from that point towards Dargavillc, which latter section lies across comparatively easy country, the board believes that the completion of the line is warranted. "in placing it* views in this matter before the Railways Board, the Harbour Board is not concerned with district boundaries or other parochial considerations; it rather considered the position from a national viewpoint. "Tho Harbour Board submits that Whangarei harbour, with its deep and safe entrance, and channel navigable by ships drawing up to 23ft, ie the most economical port for the principal portion of the North Auckland peninsula, including tho town and district of Dargaville. "Already by means of the. railway from Whangarci to Tango\vahine, the people of Dargaville are obtaining their South Island goods through the port of Whangarei. "A considerable sum of public money has been expended in deepening the upper portion of Whangarei harbour to a point known Kioreroa, which is already connected with the railways, and this expenditure would not have been undertaken had the board not depended largely on the railway system of the peninsula as the means of conveying goods to and from the port. "Recently a company leased from the board an area of reclaimed land on the waterfront at Kioreroa as a site for the establishment of an industry designed to supply, at the lowest possible cost, the increasing needs of the North in fertilisers, and it was due to the fact of the railway system branching north-west and south from the site of the proposed works that the promoters of this industry were attracted to Whangarei. "As soon as wharf accommodation is available at Kioreroa, where reclamation Works arc in progress, it is confidently anticipated that other industries requiring railway facilities will come into existence. "The Harbour Board feels assured that the Railways Board, in making its decision in thie important matter, will not be guided entirely by the trade or returns of the present day, but will realise that the North is only partially developed and is capable of and destined to produce enormous wealth, in connection with which the railways must play a, prominent part."