THE TAUPO RAILWAY SCHEME.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1259, 16 October 1911, Page 3

THE TAUPO RAILWAY SCHEME.

Sir,—lt is strange that with all the proclaimed reformers there are in the House, and all the shrill anxiety there is on the part' of somo of our little legislators to prevent the public being robbed by being forced t'o occasionally pay admittance to tho Newtown Zoo, no notice is being taken of. the .attempt; wjiieh is being made to collar'a valuable concession and to grab an additional 200,000 acres of land at Taupo. The thing is being cleverly engineered, and the tread of the log-roller is soft and low in the Parliamentary lobbies. The Government is sitting tight, the. Opposition seems not unkindly disposed, nnd the one representative of Labour has got his blind eye to the. telescope while the game is going on. When the scheme is through and the syndicate have secured an option by means of an Act rushed through at the dead-end Of the session, quite a lot of people will jump up to declare that the whole thing is wrong, and in the worst public interest, and that it should never have been allowed. We may expect much virtuous indignation from the press when tho thing has gone beyond recall. When railway-hungry districts like tho Wairarapa offer to build a railway or, to guarantee cost of construction, the Ministerial reply invariably is that it is against public policy. By what policy then is this Taupo project being engineered? What influence is it that produces Government officials to give evidence in favour of a schema which will mean exploiting largo areas of lands and forests by private individuals, and shutting the legitimate settler out for years and years? If the land can be turned to immediate and profitable use, as these officials say, why does the Government not interest itself in the matter instead of feebly crying becauso tho squatter blocks the way to settlement ? Perhaps you newspaper men will bo a'/.o to throw a little light on the subject. To mo the whole thing seems to be a bold attempt to filch from the community a valuable franchise in order tliat_ the increment may fall into a* few private purses. If I am wrong, and - the people who are inspiring this legislation are really philanthropists in. disguise, I shall be glad to be absolved of my error—l am, etc., SUSPICIOUS. Wellington, October 13.