DEVIATIONS AND NEW LINES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 73, 23 September 1922, Page 6

DEVIATIONS AND NEW LINES

The Prime Minister's statement that one of the routes' proposed for the Rimutaka deviation would cost a million is the, subject of comment by the " Auckland Star." " This," states our Northern contemporary, "is a large cum, and, while we sympathise with our Wellington friends' desire for this improvement, we must remark that there seems to bs a danger that the work, may be undertaken be'fove Hi? due time."" The Auckland paper, urges concentration of effort

upon bridging the gap between Auckland and the Opotiki. district, and complains that, the Government has not yet evolved completely the promised clear-cut policy of railway construction.^ With the desire for a clear-cut policy " The Post" can readily associate itself. Absence of such a policy merely invites delay and enables the Government to take all advantage of local disputes. But the suggestion that the Eimutaka deviation may be undertaken before its due time displays a lamentable lack of knowledge of the urgency of the work. The due time is long past. The " Star's " fear that the work may now be put in hand promptly reveals a simple faith in the -Government's intentions which we cannot but admire., We should like to be convinced that it is well based; but we fear that there is more likelihood of the. Northern advocacy being used as an argument for further delay. Advocates of the deviation must therefore continue their efforts to make plain the loss caused by the mountain-route, and especially its throttling effect upon main-line traffic.