RAILWAY POLICY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 135, 4 March 1929, Page 13

RAILWAY POLICY

UNFINISHED MAIN LINES COMPLETION INTENDED Dominion Special Service. Gisborne, March 3. "I am in dead earnest about the completion of our unfinished main lines railways,” the Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) declared at a social gathering here on Saturday night. “This court- -: try wants them finished so that in the ’ life of this generation they will give us back some of the money spent on their construction. One of the first things Parliament will be asked to do will be to show its determination to finish the few outstanding railways. Having been commenced they all ought to have been finished as soon as possible, to enable them to be of value to the people they were serving and of some use to the whole country. When our railways are finished this country will have; the greatest asset from the revenue point of view, so why tarry by the wayside?” . The Prime Minister said it was advisable to have, tenders called beforehand for such things as viaducts, so that they would be ready for the lines when constructed. That was the line the Government would proceed on. The parties in Parliament, he thought; did’ not want another election in a hurry and as a result Parliament had a fine chance for the next three years of allowing those who had been out of oflsce for the past sixteen years, to resume the threads of the work laid down then. He asked the country to judge the Government on results. z