LYTTELTON NEWS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24022, 10 August 1943, Page 3

LYTTELTON NEWS

TUNNEL ROAD SCHEME The need for vigorous support for the tunnel. road scheme was emphasised bj speakers at the meeting of the Lyttelton Borough Council last night, and it was agreed to take every opportunity of putting forward the need for the tunnel. Cr. W. T. Lindsay, who introduced the matter, said that the council should endeavour to bring together the different bodies interested in the tunnel road. A meeting should be arranged of South Island members of Parliament, or at least, those of Canterbury. At; present money and population from the ■ South Island were going to the North Island. Cr. R. E. Cairns said he had the doubtful pleasure recently of listening to the advocates of an alternative scheme. If the advocates of that scheme had no better arguments to advance than on that occasion, then the supporters of the tunnel had no 'cause to be alarmed. It was practically unanimous now among the bodies interested that the tunnel rodd scheme was the one to support. The tunnel was past the rehabilitation stage, it was now recognised as a necessity. "We are the only people who can stop the drift to the north," said Cr. Cairns. "We are being retarded by the stranglehold which the railway has on our port.” The bogy had been raised that, as the tunnel would take away the revenue of the railways, no Government would support it. But the heavy traffic would still continue to goby rail. He believed that some finality had now been reached by those concerned. They should try to interest members of Parliament and should make a point of ascertaining the views of candidates at the coming election regarding the scheme. The South Island, he said, was at one time the granary and the industrial centre of New Zealand. It was in danger of slipping back into rusticity. The drift to the north was due largely to strategical necessity, said Cr. T. L. Young. They should strive for unanimity among the various ■ local bodies and present a united front to Parliament, a front which Parliament could hardly ignore. The IVlayor (Mr F. E. Sutton) said that already a move had been made in regard to the scheme and the council should not start a separate movement, ft should back up the movement already started. The parrot cry of “Drift to the North’’ was largely a bogy, said Cr. W. T Foster. The South Island had to feed the North ilsland and the result of the last Liberty Loan showed that the finances of the South Island were sound.