The Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1925. THE SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK.

Evening Star, Issue 19025, 21 August 1925, Page 6

The Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1925. THE SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK.

The completion of the South Island Main Trunk Railway is now taking an undeniably prominent place in the list of national developmental enterprises. Various Governments have in more recent years followed a policy of concentration on outstanding construction works, not devoting serious attention to one before the preceding one in the schedule lias been accomplished. On the whole there has been a fair balance preserved between the two islands, there being turn about in tho matter of concentration of expenditure. Once tho North Island Trunk line was finished tho Public Works Department devoted all its energies to tho Midland line, connecting tho East and West Coasts of the South Island. Tho North Island showed some impatience over the length of time and amount of money spent on this, duo to exceptional engineering difficulties. Believing its turn to have come again, the North Island sought to push tho claims of its East Coast Railway, particularly the connection between Napier and Gisborno. But enthusiasm for that project has hardly been contributed to by tho Government, and it appears to be decidedly on tho wane. Again the Sonih Island is pressing claims, and a variety of circumstances suggests that the present concerted call for tho bridging of the eighty-mile gap between Parnassus, in North Canterbury, and Wharanui, in Marlborough (a few miles beyond Ward), will henceforth be persistent, and not intermittent as heretofore.

The original idea for a South Island Main Trunk line is sixty years old. Sir Julius Vogel recognised its existence in his public works policy of 1870, his route being from Canterbury across the Southern Alps to Westland and Nelson. In 1878 a line along tho East Coast, from Pictoir through Muninui, had mention in tho Estimates, and in 1882 the then Minister of Public Works (Mr W. W. Johnston) spoke of an expenditure of £1,200,000 to complete the Pic-ton-Invercargill line, his Estimates even giving details of the proposed expenditure in tho still unrailed section through Marlborough and North Canterbury. In those days tho project seemed far nearer than it subsequently did. The relatively undeveloped North Island had not begun to present claims for expenditure which were considered comparable with those of tho South. But when that development began it proceeded wtih remarkable vigor and an insatiable appetite for public money, and with tho steady trend of population northward there has been no flagging ever since. But at length tho time has come for this old project in tho South Island to ho revived in earnest and kept in tho very forefront until the railheads join and there is through railway communication from Invercargill to Picton, to be followed some time later —how long later it is not for us to hazard—by a train ferry between Picton and Wellington, thus making the two islands one as far as railway transport is concerned. There can he no doubt that those public or semSpublic bodies and organisations advocating the completion of tho South Island Main Trunk line have received a great stimulus from the reference made to it in the Fay-Vinccnt Koyal Commission report. This is worth reproducing in full:

The location and order of construction of new linos for developmental purposes are questions upon which we do not feel competent to express a decided opinion; only those who know tho country and its possibilities are competent to offer suggestions on these subjects. There is, however, one important link in the chain of railway communication upon which we think it desirable to express an opinion—viz., that of the gap between Ward and Parnassus. It is not so much in the local advan-

tage of such a lino that wc view its completion as of greater importance than some other railways upon which considerable sums have boon spent; it is because of tho possibilities offered by its construction of making a complete railway transport system between all parts of the North and South Islands without change of carriage of passengers or break of hulk or delay in the incidence of goods traffic that we advocate its construction.

With this line in being a train

ferry between Picton and Wellington (or, if possible, a with sheltered water and easily available by a short railway nearer the South Island) would give all the advantages of throughout rail transit between the two islands. Some day, no doubt, tins form of communication will bo established. The sooner it is done, looked at from the railway administration point of view only, the earlier will he the time when it will be possible to operate the system as a whole as economically and efficiently as in countries where lines are not disE' ed. The public aspect needs hut demonstration. . . . The cost of landing stations and ferry boats capable of conveying upwards of fifty ordinary goods voliicles need not entail very great expenditure in proportion to the advantages foreshadowed and the prospects of 'revenue to be obtained. Probably £500,000 would be found sufficient. Wherever train ferries have been provided they have developed travel and traffic to a very much greater extent than obtained under former shipping conditions.

Thus the expert advice sought by the Government has pointed out the outstanding flaw in our system, and has emphasised the need of remedying it, primarily in the interests of the economical and efficient working and administration of the New Zealand railway system as a whole. This should appeal particularly to Mr Coates, who is understood to be the Minister primarily responsible for the recourse to a commission for advice, impelled by the belief that some radical alterations were needed in the system or its administration. In earlier departmental reports he had himself stressed the disadvantages of administering the New Zealand railways as compared with those of other countries owing to its severance into two. Here is the precise prescription for his particular complaint. Yet in answer to yesterday’s impressive deputation he seemed to be at pains to raise difficulties and objections—which really told against rather than supported his undoubted plea for consideration and delay. Thus he said the North Island lines were paying better than the South Island lines; yet his expert advisers explicitly point out that the South Island system’s financial results are handicapped by the existence of the Ward-Parnassns gap, and that its bridging, especially with the corollary of the train ferry, would

greatly benefit the finances of the New Zealand system as a whole. Dir Coates said that there was not enough money to do at once all tho lines wanted, and it became a question of sound judgment as to tho works that should be prosecuted vigorously and completed; but ho has already called in consultation tho soundest judgment available, and that judgment has singled out this particular lino as really imperative and left all others unrnentioued. Could there be clearer direction? Mr Coates also said that “ the question was'whether, or not it would bo a load on the country. Tho deputation said it would not.” It may be added that the Royal Commission most plainly indicated that it would lift a load from tho country. The Prime Minister also discussed tho probabilities of tho purely local traffic, and was decidedly dubious about its extent and the degree to which the railway would develop the country and increase production and settlement. That is a matter difficult to forecast; but its very secondary importance compared with tho consideration of through traffic has been stressed by tho Royal Commission. Evidently it is tho capital cost, together, possibly, with tho fear of North Island opinion on largo expenditure in tho South Island, which causes Mr Coates to hesitate. Tho average cost per mile of open lines in Now Zealand is £13,5(30. Those built since 1914 have averaged £14,950 per mile. The departmental estimate for the eighty-one miles between Parnassus and Wharanui is £2,200,000, or no less than £27,160 per mile. This indicates some excessively difficult country along tho route. It occurs in tho section immediately north of tho present Canterbury railhead. The stretch between Parnassus and Wharanui falls naturally into three divisions, the intermediates being Kaikoura. and the Clarence River. Tho estimate from Parnassus to the ITapuka River, just north of Kaikoura, is £1,595,100 for the forty-four miles necessary to be covered, and from Kaikoura through tho Clarence River £530,900 for tho remaining thirtyseven miles. It is apparent that tho authorities have hesitated at tho costly engineering problems just north of Parnassus. But it will be necessary for them to screw their courage up to sticking point. The unanimity of Ihowholo of the South Island in favor of the job being tackled without further delay is refreshing. There is no longer any battle of the routes of tho South Island Main Trunk Line —or “ battle of the gaps,” as Canterbury has named the former controversy with those who advocated a railway through tho Bailor Gorge to connect tho fifty-two-milo Inangalma-Glenhopc gap and give through connection with tho West Coast and so with Christchurch. It is significant that tho Nelson-West Coast party has thrown its weight into the movement for the completion of tho East Coast South Island Trunk line, being content to wait its turn for its own linking up. It should be made a vital matter in Parliament that there should be a substantial sum placed on this year’s Public Works Estimates for actual construction, and not merely for tho permanent survey. Mr Coates admits that there is £1,100,000 available for railway construction this year, and first claim on it undoubtedly belongs to this lino.