OTAGO NEEDS.

Evening Star, Issue 19268, 5 June 1926, Page 6

OTAGO NEEDS.

Slowly the list of urgent needs of Otago which the Government decides shall bo satisfied or not is diminishing. Last night’s pre-sctsional gathering of members of Parliament and of the Expansion League was notable rather for expressions of satisfaction for things achieved or promised than of impatience for the advent of further improvements. The Prime Minister has promised that a start on a new post office for Dunedin will be made some time between now and April next; the Law-renoe-Roxburgh railway is at last nearing completion; and the survey of the Upper Clutha railway from Cromwell to Luggato is in hand. The question of , unprofitable branch railway lines has been prominently before the public in the last week or two. For fifty years or more the New Zealand railways have been constructed and worked more with a view to the opening up of the country than with any expectation of their being made to pay the full interest on the capital outlay. The policy of relieving the railway accounts of tho burden of unprofitable lines and throwing it upon the general taxpayer has now been enunciated, but it is to be hoped that there is no deliberate intention to add to tho number of unprofitable lines. There are grounds for believing that there is no such intention, and it may therefore be assumed that the Government has satisfied itself that the prospects of the Upper Clutha line are payable. It is undeniable that farmers in tho remarkably productive country that would be served by the railway have hitherto had their returns terribly eaten into by the great cost of transporting their produce to market. Railway facilities would undoubtedly lighten that inordinate cost, but it remains to be seen by how much, Mr Horn, M.P., who has worked very hard for the authorisation of this lino, certainly should know tho latest news in connection with it, and it is to be observed that he speaks confidently about a start being made on its construction some seven months hence. It is interesting to note that lower down the Clutha River the settlers have more or less voluntarily abandoned the project of a branch railway line up river from Balclutha in favor of good roads on either side of the river. The existing road from Balclutha to Tuapeka Mouth is being put in order by tho Public Works Department, this work being the agreed on substitute for the abandoned railway project. But there is a strong movement for a parallel road on the Balclutha side of tho river, and it was this work which Mr Mosley brought under notice last night. We believe that he is right in stating that communication would quadruple the popu-lation-carrying capacity of what he described as 25,000 acres of the best land

in Otago. It is understood that the Government Valuator for the Lands Department has recently been going into the reading question in connection with Clifton Settlement, and that he is now ready with his recommendations. There are thus good grounds for believing that dependence on the river for transport will before long become a thing of the past. The shoaling of the river bed due to mining operations higher up and the effect of the damming of the Kawarau when the scheme becomes operative make the old form of communication, useful though it has been, ripe for replacement. Most of the other Otago matters dealt with last night were those connected with road improvement, chiefly in the direction of opening up the tourist traffic, and it is probable that the patronage ex-

tended by Exhibition visitors from the north tc the Otago lake country trips will secure for any improvement proposals far more active sympathy and support than would have been the case previousiy. In particular the replacement of the obsolete steamer on Lake Te Anau should certainly not bo delayed for another season. Mr Inglis Wright did not exaggerate when he pointed out the risks that wore being run by keeping the present vessel in commission.