A PROMISE OF MILLIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 116, 12 November 1935, Page 10

A PROMISE OF MILLIONS

An incident of the Gisborne election campaign, according to published report, is a statement by the sitting Labour member that the English capital spoken of by Mr. Lysnar (also a candidate for Gisborne) will not materialise and that not a penny of London money will be forthcoming for completion of.the NapierGisborne railway. But Mr. Coleman himself offered the electors of Gisborne a pledge on behalf of the Labour Party that if that party were returned in sufficient power to secure the reins of government the Gisborne railway would be one of the first major works to be undertaken. Does this mean that the Labour Party, if in office in the next Parliament, will complete this railway— and, if this one, the South Island Main Trunk and ihe Buller Valley lines? A policy of public works expenditure on additional railways would be of such basic importance to national finance, employment, and transport that it ought to be a feature of the Labour leader's policy speeches if it is indeed part of the programme of the Labour Party. Even if finance were the only problem, no party should go to the country without explaining fully to the people a plan to spend millions on transport undertakings that years ago were abandoned as uneconomic. The position likely to arise between the Railways Board and the additional milage to be built also calls for elucidation. These matters should come before the public as a detailed statement of general policy made by the Labour Party to the people of New Zealand, not as mere implications hanging on to a Labour member's party-backed bid for Gisborne votes.