WHOSE MOVE?

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 128, 3 June 1927, Page 8

WHOSE MOVE?

A DEADLOCK

THE NEW BATTLE OF

WATERLOO

TAITA RAILWAY AND, LAND

PRICES

What is to bo the next move in. connection with the railway to Waterloo! Beyond thb present terminus of the railway near Waterloo road, Lower Hutt, lie tlie districts of Nainai and Taita, and The' Gorge, with. Stokes IValley as «\n important side-show. ,'Jhen, north of Tho Gorge, which may be regarded as. the waist of. theHutt yalley, you enter the Upper Valley ■with its Silverstream, Heretaunga, Trentham, Wallaeevillc, and Upper Hutt. ;•■' The. immediate problem is how to get the railway from Waterloo to Nainaf, and to Taita. And the immediate difficulty is the. price of the land, much of Trrhich is market garden land. From its deviation point on the existing . west-of-river railway, the new Hutt-to-Waterloo line has travelled for a. considerable ' portion of its length through lands which the Government had acquired in advance, by the-op-tion process, on such terms as to probably .yield, on subdivision and realisation, a substantial subsidy, by way of. tetterrneht towards the cost of the line. But north of Waterloo road there, are no Government-acquired options-of-pur-chase, or, if there N are, no word of them has been published. Certain it is that many of the market gardeners and other landowners who lie athwart the road to Taita have not come down to the Government's idea of values. There is no immediate prospect that the Government will be able to acquire any considerable block of profitably subdivisible land, or even a strip of land sufficient to carry the railway and road itself, at prices that the Government might consider equitable. LITIGATE,-OR WAIT? ~lf the landowners are not prepared to do business on equitable terms; or on •what the Government considers to be equitable terms,, what ought the Government to do? Or, to put the case in the opening words of this article, what is the next move? The Government can do two things. It can take compiilsorily under the Public Works Act such, land as it requires, ni, it can wait. It is considered, however, that any valuation, 'under the Public Works Act would give the landowner the benefit of the market situation created by the Government's own expenditure on the Hutt-Waterloo. railway and development scheme—in other words, would penalise the Crown as Jajid-purchaser, because of the Crown's own. expenditure as railway-builder, town-planner, and industrial: architect. Someone may interject: Even if the hew, values are largely Governmentcreated, the Government should still pay them, * provided;... .that they are real v values. -. ■ ...' ■ ■,■;,' ',•'•., - ' But are they real values? Is it possible that the anticipation of increment has run ahead of itself 'and has created temporarily false values! On such a question of valuation experts may argue for honrs or days or weeks, and to try that issue is no part of the purpose of thin article. It is sufficient, to say that" there is no indication of any intention, of the Government to. apply-the Public Works, Act. . THE TIMS FACTOR. Now for the alternative course; — waiting. Three posir .t reasons may be urged for delay on tho Government's side: . (1) A lapse of time would test the reality of values and the validity of prices now being anked for land from Petone beach to Taita.\ . (2) A period of reflection would test the resolution of t'ae landowner and would help to clear away any top hamper in. the shape of time-limited options of purchase. (3) A halt of the railway at Waterloo would help, the Government to realise its' own saleable land, and would lessen the competition from, private subdivisions contemplated along '' o northward line of advance. ( The. above reasons are., of course, framed from a land-buyer's standpoint. The seller's point of view is necessarily different. The public point of view ■wouM best be served by a fair compromise. If the letterment principle as applied to new.public communications is sound, it, carries with itu own tactical weapons. One of these, in certain circumstances, may be delay, and that may be'why so little is said concerning the extending of the railway beyond Waterloo road. " ' ' This new Battlo of Waterloo .began jt-t least a year ago. Wher. will it end.?' NOT TOR YEAESI. Some small light may be thrown on that question by the-publicly reported statement of a member of the City and Suburban Highways Board that the board has received from the Department o' Railways an undertaking that the Department will not disturb, the Hutt Gorge road (section north" of Stokes Valley) "for three years or so." . . . There is a Kathleen Mavourneen 'ring about this remark that is not very encouraging, . but perhaps some lino of compromise may yet be found.