EAST COAST DEVELOPMENT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 128, 1 June 1914, Page 6

EAST COAST DEVELOPMENT

Dealing with the route question in connection with railway development of tho East Coast, the Pongaroa Chamber of Commerce has emphatically declared in favour of what is generally called the loop line, to run between Masterton and Waipukurau. The Chamber claims to represent "the whole of the East Coast district," and it declares that " there is ■ lio diversity of opinion through this East Coast district as to the route the ploposed railway should take." If this is true, a great deal of disxftission will bo saved. The East Goasl settlers will . probably fare much better at the hands of the Government if they are agreed as to what they want than if they are disunited; and their reported unanimity will be as welcome as it is unexpected. But can the Ponga* roa. Chamber of Commerce rightly claim to speak for "the whole of the East Coast district"? No doubt it represents its own section east of tho Puketois, but does it reflect the views of all the country to be served by the proposed line, from Wairarapa to Hawkes Bay? For its own part, The Post is still of opinion that the best course would have been to secure last year the appointment of a small expert commission, which could have taken representative evidence in all districts and have submitted an independent report thereon. By that moans the route question would have been simplified ; but now it is left, as before, to be a subject of assertion and counter-assertion. Akitio's adoption of the Masterton-Waipukurau project, as against the feeder lines connecting at several points with the WellingtonNapier railway, is a factor that must impress the Government; but it would have been better if tho evidence had all been weighed last year, instead of leaving the definite organisation of the movement to this late stage in the lifetime of Parliament. An unsatisfactory feature is the suspicion existing between the railway towns that propose the feeder lines and the trans-Puketoi settlers who speak through the TPongaroa Evidence of other than a friendly rivalry is contained in the Chamber's resolution, and it would appear that the forthcoming Wellington conference will have to be wisely guided if it is to really further the development of the neglected East Coast. Problems like the Rimutaka deviation and the East Coast (Wairarapa-Hawkes Bay) railway are of a magnitude that calls for united support, and the aim should be to ally the metropolitan, provincial, and backblocks ' interests solidly behind one programme. Apart from this, and yet parallel in a way, is the scheme to create a seaport for Akitio County, to which The Post referred at length last year, and again on the occasion of the recent .visit of the Minister for Marine, the Hon. F. M. B. Fisher. The port would, of course, be a lesser undertaking than the railway, and we see no reason why they should be treated as competitive or why either one should be held up to make room- for the other. Nothing is more certain than that time will bring both; and if an improved sea-outlet at Akitio leads to estatebreaking and closer settlement, new support will be created for a more comprehensive system of land transport. We would like, however, to again remind the Government of its own proposal, in its first Financial Statement in 1912, to buy land in advance of railways, and thus secure the increment. All public works in the way of improved access add to the value of big estates, and if the principle of purchase-in-advance is good in the case of railways, why not also of seaports? Mr. Fisher promised a large amount of public money to build a wharf and do other work at Akitio, round which spot cluster various big estates. Here is a. good chance to practise the policy preached in the Financial Statement of 1912.