RAILWAY PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 21, 25 January 1913, Page 11

RAILWAY PROBLEM

TAUPO WANTS MOKAI ROUTE MAORIS WELCOME MR. MASSEY. (•T TBtfGBAPH— SPECIAL TO THE, POST.) TAUPO, This Day. Yesterday the Prime Minister and party visited Karapiti Blowhole and. the thermal, springs of Wairiki, then motored back to 'i'aupo and received deputations. A large assemblage of Maoria £aye a dance of welcome and Hoko Paterta, chief of the Ngatituwharetoa, delivered a Bpeech which was followed by an address. In the latter the Maoris pronounced in favour of the Taupo Totara Timber Company's railway extension scheme bringing the PuUruru- Mokai railway to Taupo, and they offered to give out of their own lands a line one chain wide and ail acre at each railway station. They asked for a > continuous sitting at Taupo of the Native Land Court' for partitioning arid individualising purposes, fo* a Native Land Court Ofljee, and for & special commissioner to deal with land under timber rights. They also asked, with regard to lands under the Maori Land Board, that, where owners did not wish to* sell or lease, their lands should be cut out of the board's operations. Another point emphasised by the Maoris was that whereas land in the vicinity of Taupo township used to sell at 10s an acre, it now sold at £40 a quarter acre, and they wanted to sell their lands, not on the past but on the present value. Replying, Mr. Massey said he was not yet ready to express an opinion on the railway question. He would submit their requests to Mr. Berries, Native Minister/ and personally he agreed that they should receive the present value of their lands. Every facility would be given to the Maoris to individualise and to place every family in the position df owning its own lands. He emphasised the powers which last session's Act provided for this purpose, and the facilities for Maoris becoming Europeantsed. WHY TAtfPO WANTS MOKAI LINE. After, the Maoris had further 'acclaimed the Prime ' Minister, the White residents of Taupo and district deputatioriised him and, like', the Natives, declared themselves unanimously in favour of the extension of tße'.Tau'po Totara Timber Company's railway to,Taupo. Mr., A. 3. Graham, of Wairakei, was the first spokesman. He said that on the one hand 'they had a railway only twenty miles away and on the other hand they had Rotoru&'d' fantastic dream of, ah entirely' new" railway covering' the sixty miles dividing Rotorua'from Taupo. The Mokai railway extension also had the itupport. of tlie Railway League and Chamber of Commerce in Auckland. The argument of the deputation was that whereas the Rotorua line Would cost the Government about JD300.000, the extension of the company's line from Mokai would cost the Government nothing, Mr. Roto Graham was referring 'to the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee that the company should be allowed to extend the line, with a Government guarantee of the cost up to £50,000, when the Prime Ministef interjected that if the scheme was unprofitable the Government would be liable under the guarantee. Mr. Roto Qrah*in j argued that the security tfettfeaented by the increased value of the land was ' ample. Mr, Crowther, who came to Taupo in the early days as a sdldier, and reh»iHed 7 as. a. coach ■ proprietor, spokir* of. the-, great timber and land resources of the Mokai scheme. In this deliberation the members of the Kotwoa 'Chamber of Commerce took no part, bttt it is- understood that they will have the final word when the Prime Minister returns to Rotorua, A COUNTRY IN THE MAKING. Replying to the Taupo deputation, Mr. Massey again reserved his views as to the railway. Referring to the pumice lands, he- said they now saw a country in the making, and it would take a number of years to maite it, but he said" that in no disparaging sense, as he fully understood the possibilities. Commenting on a. suggestion by Captain Ryan, a member of the deputation, that a per* centage of the proceeds of Government land sales in Taupo township should be set apart .for" street purposes and the improvement, of Taupo, Mr. MaßSey said this wias not unreasonable, and he wduld ask his colleagues to agree that a proportion be reserved for street improvements. There would be' . "no unnecessary interference with existing reserves. Later 'the Prime Minister laid the foundation of a Presbyterian Church, arid left for Mokai, where he and his party spent the night. . A , DOG-IN-THE-MANGER ARGUMENT. The feature of the proceedings yesterday is- that Taupo has declared itoelf strongly in favour of the Mokai extension and against Rotorua's ideas. Taupo is' concerned about Rotorua. It chiefly wants railway connection 'a* quickly as it can, and it has no faith in the Government's capacity to build a railway ffom Rotorua to Taupo within a reasonable period. A strong point in its case is that the Government is. not being asked for money, and that the Government can still go on with the Rotorua line if it wants to, Taupo feels that if the Government refuses to allow the company to extend its line, and at the same time does not proceed with the expensive Rotorua line, the Government will be acting like the dog in the hianger, to- quote' a recent phrase used by Mr. Kraeer, Minister for Public Works, in the sawe connection. AT MOKAI (iJi TFXEOaAPM— SPECIAL 10 TBS POST.) MOKAI, This Bay. Late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Manaey and party arrived at Mokai, the ter- { minud of the Tauptf-Totara TitnberXio.'s railway. En route, he received a, remarkably cordial welconje from the Maoris at Oruanui. ' ' At Mokal last night ho was deputationised on local wants, and Mr. F. G. Dalaiell, Chairman of directors of the T.T.T. Company, stated the company's position.* Ho «aid that the company, before spending .a * further £50,000' fo extend its railways to Taupo, would be assured that it would be recouped the value of theline not exceeding the cost of construction, and it wanted to be able to charge such rate* as would pro^ duce a reasonable rate of interest on the value of the lines. The company would be willing to give the Government ttcceafl to it« books, and if the j working showed that the rates fixed provided more than A reasonable rate of interest, then the Government could inwst cither on a reduction of the rate* or on the company giving the public further facilities. Mr. Maseey eai'd ho ww going to expe<*& the opinion * that this was a particidarly fertile district, that, ac a prac- i ttcal farmer, he saw that the lands were capable of gwat improvcuneni, and would ono day carry an enormous population, but ho would like to utter ono note of warning. Tlr's wui not Iho cki*s of country that could be settled by a man without a certain amount of capital, in thu Wu! of *&t*Mt PL &s&• Tile time i

of the email settler might come, but it was not yet, and they should go carefully. With regard to requests by Mr. Manning on behalf of Mokai residents that the company should have a license to carry passengers, so as to improve the conditions , under which they are now illegally carried, Mr. Massey said that, if the company applied for such a license, so far as he knew no objections would be raised, but that was a matter for the Minister for , Railway*. With, regard to another suggestion by Mr. Manning, that the sawmillers " should be brought under the same law as coalmiriers with regard to medical subsidies—that is, that deductions should be made from wages— Mr. Massey said that if sawmillers desired this alteration of the law the Government would be perfectly willing.