RIMUTAKA LINE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 110, 10 May 1923, Page 8

RIMUTAKA LINE

THE PROPOSED DEVIATION

BETTER THAN MR. MAXWELL'S SUGGESTION.

Speaking to a representative of "The Post" to-day the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. J. G. Coates, said that the engineers' proposal for the deviation of the Wairarapa railway line, which he hinted at the other day, was not based in any way upon the suggestion made by Mr. J. P. Maxwell in 1919. "We have absolutely no record of the plan proposed by Mr. Maxwell," he said,

"and if the public based its opinion on the figures quoted by Mr., Maxwell it would be under a serious misapprehension. Mr. Maxwell mentioned a grade not greater than one in 35. The Public "Works engineers would never have considered a scheme which provided for such a grade. Their proposal means a route one-fourth as steep as that proposed by Mr. Maxwell. Again, Mr. Maxwell's scheme shortens the distance by three or four miles, whereas the Department's scheme will lessen the distance by about eight miles. The summit of the new line would, of course, be considerably lower than the summit on the line, proposed by Mr. Maxwell. It is. also of interest to note that there would be no curves in the deviation if €he scheme I hinted at is filially adopted. "It should be made clear," said Mr. Coates, "that the scheme I mentioned the other day has not yet been adopted by either myself or the Government. It is the scheme that the engineers will recommend, and, as I said before, it is pretty obvious that it is the best of all the schemes. I will require to be completely satisfied on this point. The whole of the data gathered is now being assembled, and I will consider the reports at an early date."