SOUTH ISLAND RAILWAY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21710, 18 February 1936, Page 12

SOUTH ISLAND RAILWAY

j ♦ . ; COMPLETION OP MAIN

UNEMPLOYMENT COMMITTEES INTEREST

That the completion of the South Island main trunk would save some of the interest, amounting to £140,000, incurred on expenditure on the uncompleted portion, was claimed by Mr E. Hi Andrews, chairman of the Christchurch Unemployment ■ Committee* when advocating the completion of the line at the meeting of the committee

ycsterdsy After a short discussion the committee carried a motion by Mr J. S. Barnett urging the - Government to complete the line. When members were discussing means of settling the dispute between the advocates of the

estuary port and the tunnel road, Mr Barnett said that if the committee were going to take part in such a discussion it should add the completion of the line to the list. It was an essential work, essential in the interests of New Zealand as well as Canterbury and the South Island.

Mr J. W. Crampton supported the motion.

Mr F. W. J. Belton suggested that the construction of an adequate main highway into Marlborough would serve the needs of the area better than the completion of the line, in view of the severe competition of modem road transport with railways.

Mr J. W. Beanland expressed a similar view. He said that the only way the railway could pay would be to squash road traffic entirely. The chairman, Mr E. H. Andrews, had more favourable views about the line. “I do not believe it will pay. But I really believe it will save some of that money we are paying for interest,” he said. “I do not think that everyone who talks about the line knows the type of country through which it will pass. I believe the day

of the long-distance railway 'is not past. I also agree that this line will not get a lot of passenger traffic. But I do belthve that we can save'quite a lot of that £140,000 in . interest we are meeting annually, and at the same time give the people in the country through which it will pass" greatly improved access."