EAST COAST RAILWAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 135, 4 March 1929, Page 10

EAST COAST RAILWAY

COASTAL OR INLAND ROUTE PRIME MINISTER’S HINT Dominion Special Service. Gisborne, March 3. A clear hint that the route for'the East Coast railway will be the coastal and not the inland one was given by the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, in the course of addresses at complimentary gatherings here to-night. “If you should ask me how I would feel in your shoes over the completion of this railway,” Said Sir Joseph, “I would say I felt very disgusted with the men who have been in Parliament. (Hear, hear.) Over'2o years ago I turned the first sod on this railway: The inaction since is enough to make those who have passed away since then come back from their graves and inquire whether we have all been asleep. In any other country that railway would have been completed ten years ago. (Applause.) Until it is finished it will be no good to the country. (Hear, hear.) “After 20 years you are wondering which route you are going to have. Let me tell you that within ten days from now I will undertake to settle that route question for all time.” This announcement was greeted with deafening cheering which lasted fully a minute. Absence of Communication. “The others who came after me,” Sir Joseph .added, “will not be able to alter it. (Renewed applause.) What you want is the railway. (Cheers.) What does it matter to you whether it is the inner or the outer route so long as it is a route. (Applause.) Through this absence of communication we know you are not sufficiently in the world. This link should be finished without delay. (Loud applause.) “It will be finished in four years at the outside —probably three. (Renewed applause.) Parliament is going to be asked to do it. (Hear, hear.) We are going to knock one of the routes out of the question. We are going to settle the route which costs the least money.” Voices: That means the coastal route. Produce From Interior. The Prime Minister said the need of the districts concerned was to have the whole of the territory linked up. To spend an additional £700,000 on a line, when the results desired could be obtained without that expenditure, would not be warranted. Produce from the interior could be conveyed to the rail by motor lorries as had been done in other parts of the country. The sooner the railway was finished and earning money, the better it would be for the prosperity of the district. It would open up avenues for fresh employment and pave the way for new settlement. There was only one way to complete the work, and that was by fixing a time limit and doing it within the time limit. (Applause.)