OTAGO NEWSPAPER OPINION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 215, 11 September 1931, Page 9

OTAGO NEWSPAPER OPINION.

BOARD'S DECISION UPHELD.

SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

(By' Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

DUNEDIN, this day.

The "Otago Daily Times" says: "Public confidence in the Kailways Board would have been severely shaken if jts members had come" to any conclusion other.than that expressed by it regarding the unwisdom of the completion of the South Island Main Trunk. It is only by blinded political partisans, and by persons who hoped to derive private { advantage at public expense, that the proposal to build a railway over the gap between Parnassus and WhaTanui has been supported. "The original 'plan to continue the South Island line to Pictonwas justified at the time it was sanctioned. Circumstances were very different then, however, from those of the present day. The railway system was a public asset, and the cost of the construction, of lines was a fraction only it has now become, and railways were not subject to competition, by road whicliis now the cause of formidable lose of-traffic that was formerly enjoyed by them. "It would be the highest folly, especially in the existing circumstances, to proceed with, the construction of any lines that would not earn enough, to pay for the expenses of operating them."