NORTH AUCKLAND RAILWAY

Evening Star, Issue 21315, 20 January 1933, Page 2

NORTH AUCKLAND RAILWAY

PLEA FOR COMPLETION [Per United Press Association.] DARGAVILLE, January 19. A large and representative meeting of local bodies, dairy companies, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Harbour Board met Mr H. H, Sterling and members of the Railways Board and departmental officers last night in a further endeavour to have the unfinished section of the railway system between Tangowahine and Dargaville on the Waiotira-Donnelly Crossing section of the North Auckland railway completed. A largely signed petition asking for the completion of the line also presented by the Mayor of Dargaville (Mr F. A. .Jones), who extended a welcome to the board and emphasised how the progress of the district was being retarded by the gap in the line of less than a mile and a-half.

Hon. C. J. Carrington, M.L.C., speaking in the absence of Mr Coates, the member for the district, presented a lengthy statement covering the cost of completion and the present revenue over the completed portion of the line. He pointed out that the gap was the only one in a distance of 590 miles from Donnellys Crossing at the northern end of the line to Wellington. The statement also made reference to the increased settlement and production, more especially in dairying, which had been accomplished in the district of recent years. Representatives of the local bodies dealt at length with the hardships the district was undergoing through the non-completion of the lino and also expressed the view that when completed the line would be a payable proposition instead of at present, a losing one. Settlers in the district were sincere in ( their desire to see the line completed and would support it to the fullest extent.

Mr Sterling observed, in reply, that although ho was not anticipating the reaction of the other members of the board to the representations made by the several speakers and could not bo definite as to his own opinion until he had given the matter more thought and consideration, he desired to place before tho meeting several factors which wove very important. Tho hoard was just as deeply imbued as were the people of tho district with the need for justice to bo done in the matter. It had been felt that nothing else would have served to enable the board to gain an adequate knowledge of the position than that its members should visit the district and hear the representations of the sponsors of the completion of tho line. Tho Railways Board would take second place to none in its sincerity and desire to arrive at a decision that would be in tho interests of all concerned. It would have been far easier for the board to have recommended the completion of the line after the previous representations that had been made by the district. The board bad investigated the circumstances very thoroughly and exhaustively at that time, and the conclusion that had been reached, after very careful consideration, had been that it could not deliver any judgment other than that which had been delivered.

Mr Sterling desired to give an assurance that the board was quite deeply impressed with tho amount of work which had been done already on the lino and the amount of expenditure required to complete it, but it must be appreciated if the sum of £50,000, which one of the speakers earlier in the evening had seemed to suggest was but a trifling amount, or even half of that amount, wore spent upon the creation of something spent might bo a recurring liability, the board must hesitate. Tho hoard was faced with a problem in the matter of branch lines, and in that connection there was laid down by Statute a definite principle that in cases where such lines did not measure up to financial and revenue requirements, the board was required to give very serious consideration to the closing down of the routes. An investigation of these linos throughout the dominion had revealed that many had grown progressively worse and worse, and that traffic systems had been duplicated and sometimes triplicated. hi the district now under review two methods of transport other than tho railways were operating —water and road. It was not reasonable to expect that the railways should carry low freighted goods because it was a “ national institution ” and be required on the other hand to compete with other modes of transport in respect of classes of goods which returned higher freights. Mr Sterling said that for his own part he had been disappointed somewhat in that ho had expected tho business interests responsible for much of the freight transported in and out of tho district to be “ for the railway and nothing else hut the railway.’’ However, a decision could not ho readied until the hoard had considered tho position, and the people of tho district could ho assured that judgment would not be passed until tlio situation had been fully investigated and the representations made subjected to a complete and detailed review.