TAUPO RAILWAY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 117, 13 November 1929, Page 12

TAUPO RAILWAY

REPORT OF COMMITTEE

MR. VAILE'S COMMENTS

«mMr- E- E- VaUe writes as follows to "The Post":—

'It is not difficult to understand the finding of the Parliamentary Committee, seeing that, long before it had sat, the Prime Minister, without consulting Parliament, or even his own party, had adopted a hostile attitude towards the railway. The Government, having on I a committee of ten, five members, including the chairman, who had a casting as well as a deliberate vote, from the very start it was quite plain that the verdict was a foregone conclusion. "There is a subtle peculiarity about the finding of the committee. "The potion was for the resumption of work on the railway. The finding does not say •whether or not the resumption is justified, but that the stoppage was justified. Government supporters should bear in mind the French proverb gui s'excuse s'aeeuse. ROAD OR RAILWAY? "The representative f or-Botorua has stated that the great majority of the people of that electorate are quite satisfied with the stoppage of the railway 'if the promise is carried out to give a firSt-class road between Eotorua and Taupo." True it is that many people, despairing of a railway, would accept a first-class road rather than get nothing. But, if a vote were taken between a railway and a road, I will undertake that the road would virtually have no support. I happen to know on the highest authority that the estimate of the Public Works Department for a first-class road showed that its cost would be equal'to that of a railway. But the Government declined to produce the estimate before the committee. There is absolutely no comparison between thg uses of a road and of a railway for "the purposes of developing a large agricultural area.

"But what is the Governmeat^doing in. fulfilment of its promise? It has placed £10,000 oa the Estimates for a work that will cost £750.000. With the paltry sum voted ao substantial im- j provement to the road caa be effected. I The money will simply be frittered away ia trivial ineffective works that will benefit no one except'the contractors. It would appear that the^doubts of the members are well justified. j PROVING WHAT HAS BEEN PROVED. v "With regard to the recommendation j to carry out an exhaustive tal test on an area of 10,000 acres of the better- class pumice land,' may ■ I ask to what purpose this great expendi- j ure and delay? There are many farms on pumice land which have been made j for many years—for instance, "Broadlands," upon which I have spent large sums during the past 22 years, carrying out many experiments which should have been made by the Government, j Here I can. show the officers of the ' Department of Agriculture, members of Parliament, or others interested, paddocks created out of virgin land within three years, and equal to any other paddocks that can be seen anywhere. These' are bold words, but I can justify them, and prove also that the cost has not exceeded. £7 per acre. I invited —I challenged—the committee to come and see the district for themselves, but they declined. Had they come, they would have been forced to a favourable finding. Would it not be vastly cheaper and better that these men should come and see what has actually been accomplished rather than advise the squandering of great sums of public moneys in proving again what has already been proved? I can show what has been done on my paddocks from the ' creation down to the present day, and the cost of each operation. What j more is wanted? And I have no faith in these Government 'expert ments. The Department of Agriculture and the Department of Lands have condemned the pumice lands. Ido not wish to go so far as to suggest that the officers of these Departments would aim at unfavourable results so as to confirm their declared opinions, but I do say that these people are unlikely to put into the experiments the enthusiasm that is necessary to make them the unqualified success that is certainly possible. And .one thing is quite certain—this experiment cannot be made a financial success without the railway."