TE ARO RAILWAY

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1609, 28 November 1912, Page 8

TE ARO RAILWAY

HARBOUR DOARD'S ATTITUDE. . WILT, NOT T.tfll' 'WITH LAND. A deputation from the Te Aro Eailway league waited upon the Harbour Board last night with the object of inducing the board to consent tu sell the Government a piece of land in the vicinity of Te Aro Kail way Station to enable the liailway Department to make possible contemplated extensions (here. Dr. A. IC. Newman, JI.I\, said the league hail placed- its views before the Minister, and showed him how useless the railway was, and how nece.-:rary it was to have a eiood'; service on it to Te Aro. The Minister said he would authorise the building of a goods shod there. Then it. had been found that there wa= not Mifiicient .'-jinc? available for a railway, yard, for trucks, and the Minister had written to the board asking whether tho board could sell a piece of land in the vicinity to the Government. If a poods service were established to Te Aro, it would , be a very great convenience to the people at that end of the town. The deputation, had come to ask whether the board would facilitate this in some way or other, and agree to sell land to tho Government or exchange some land near the station for some other land alonft the water-front. Mr. ,T. r. Lnko endorsed the Temarks made by Dr. Newman. ~Mr. E. Fletcher ..referred to the statement that the Government were prepared to offer land in exchange for land at Te Aro. Where was this land they proposed to offer? He Was under the impression that all the land along the water-frant belonged to the board. Mr. Luke suggested that there was land to spare near the Thorndon Esplanade. ■Mr. Fletcher said the Government had already taken some land there from the board for which they had not paid. '. The request of the deputation w;as considered by the board in committee, along with a letter fron the Minister for Kailr ways on tho subject. Afterwards, in open board, the chairman reported that the board hod, very carefully and fully considered the question of the sale or exchange of ten acres of land at Te Aro, Mind had unanimously come to the decision "that the Honourable the Minister be. courteously informed that the Wellington Harbour Board is strongly desirous of retaining possession of its land, in view of its paramount importance in the development of the port, and' emphatically protests against the land being used for'any other purpose than that for which the hoard ;s prepared to utilise -it." • The loard confirmed this decision.