EAST COAST LINE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 136, 5 March 1929, Page 10

EAST COAST LINE

TO FOLLOW COASTAL ROUTE MATTER QUITE DECIDED RAILWAYS MUST BE MADE TO PAY Dominion Special Service. Gisborne, March 4. The expected pronouncement that the route for the east coast railway will be a coastal one was made by the Prime Minister to-day when replying to a deputation. “We will settle on a coastal route,” said Sir Joseph Ward, “for the reason that it is the cheaper and that the railway through the interior is not now nearly so essential as it was in the past, owing to easier motor transport. The Government is bound (o give what is wanted and it is intended to do this in the most economical way. There is no use anyone talking now about an alteration in the route, because that simply means asking us to leave it as it stands without doing anything. We are settling the question upon the principle of doing the best for the country, and we want to give you your railway. (Applause.) If any opposition is to be advanced place it before our oponents not before us. We won’t take the other route. We will take the route I have, told you of. We will put the work in hand as soon! as we can, and we will push it ahead.” (-Applause.) Mr. G. Smith said he.could assure the Prime Minister that once the route had been definitely decided Upon there would be no further opposition from the district, which would bow to the decision of the Government and work with it to have the line completed as soon as possible. (Hear, hear.) The Prime Minister said it was a great pleasure to find that unity had taken the place of conflict. Continuing, he said the harbour would not stop the. Government going on, and if any person tried to stop the railway on account of the harbour.it would be very foolish and like a man cutting off his nose to spite his face. He hoped that in another two months there would be from 500 to 1000 men on the railway works. He intended to do ■ the best he could for the railways, and hoped to live politically long enough to see its completion,. , There had never been organised efforts in connection with the railway from Napier to Gisborne until now, he went on. The Government wished to complete the railways and get interest on those which were now paying nothing. Railways were required as an auxiliary and not as a crushing plant to crush the people off their feet. Some of the railways in this • country would never have been constructed, particularly some for short distances, had it not been for political pressure, and now many of them were not paying. He made it quite clear that the. present Government would not buil'l any political railways, He ■ believed the line from Gisborne to Napier would pay the average amount of interest and make Gisborne and the district and Napier and Hawke’s Bay much better as a'result. It was the radiating influence froih the terminal points that .’made the line pay.