WHAT IT COSTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 68, 17 September 1925, Page 6

WHAT IT COSTS

; ;-'--' ';■ ' -' ■ .'I '■• ■ '••:-'■ TO REACH CHRISTCHURCH

FIGURES AGAINST PICTON

ROUTE.

, ; When aj large number of South Island members of Parliament raised' with the Prime Minister a* number of questions .generally, affecting the South.lsland they did not.refer to the completion of the South Island Main Trunk as the matter j has been recently! the subject of representations, . but Mr. Coates at the end of a deputation to-day volunteered a state- '■ •.. went.-. ■ .■;. ■■ '.'■. ■ ;'•.'■ . ■ ~ '■'■",;'■■ ; ' '"I want" ybu\ to remember," he »_aid, "that it,is 100 miles more by sea and train via Picton- to Christchurch "than by sea to Lyttelton, and it would cost , for first-class, passage, ; without sleepr ing accommodation, j 17s Id more, or, with sleeping berth, £1 12s Id more Via Picton. These axe ascertained figures." . .■■'.■'. ■ :■". '' .':.,-■■ -.':.- ■ The Prime Minister added that he had had the Progress League's figures investigated, but the figures he had quoted could not be denied in regard to pas- , fiengera. When, they came to goods it ran into about £2 per > ton. ■'■.!' Mr. H. T.Armstrong: (Christchurch East) . suggested that the Government ,liad to; consider people who had no means of transit on. the present railway '.'■• EaP- ••:• •.' :• •■ . ■ '■'• ' '■'■•■ Mr. Coates replied that if one.had half a dozen settlers, say, at Kawhia, would they'te justified in asking . for half a million on a railway to give them an outlet? "This might be an .exaggeration, but it was the point." .i ". Mr. T. K. Sidey (Dnnedin South) remarked that, the deputation had not raised this question as a previous deputation had done bo, but members were £lad that the Prime Minister was 100k- ,., ing into the matter. . ;';- Mr. .Coates. said- that the Government •was :■ certainly - considering the ' whole ■ question 7 It was a matter of great mb- ■ ment, when certain big railway works > were finished what should be gone ,on 'with next, s; They were getting but figures in regard to projected works, so i that the public could see them and judge (Of the relative importance of what rei. mained to be done. '[■ ,'.-'..."