The Hawera Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1929. RAILWAYS AND POLITICS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 21 March 1929, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1929. RAILWAYS AND POLITICS.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Obangai, Meremere. Fraser Road, and Ararata.

It is obvious that New Zealand’s rail -way system lias resumed its old role of a political shuttlecock. Recent decisions of the Government and the influences which, are being brought to beai to have those decisions rescinded or confirmed, as best suits the immediate, needs of particular districts, make that fact plain. When Parliament resumes Tve can expect the old game to be resumed in all earnestness, for there have been given already plenty of indications that the time "when the North Island and the South Island will be perfectly happy with their respective and comparative railway positions is stT far distant. The North Island claims that its railway revenue is loaded with the South Island’s losses, and the latter half of the Dominion is firm in the belief that hitherto its just claims have been disregarded and: that the North Island received the lion’? share of national expenditure. In r? - munition of South’ Island suscep tibiUties in respect of another phase of the transport question the. Government has consented to set up separate hic-li-v nv -boards in each island, and in consequence South Island interests are ji’.li.ant. Whether the cost of duplicating the administration of these tivines will be justified by results remains to be seen, but it is difficult to perceive how it can be, for the South Island has suffered most through the unwillingness of its local bodies to incur the expenditure necessary to participation in tnc- Highways Board ’n finances. ' There is, however, no such comparatively easy way out for the Government as regards the railway difficulties looming ahead. The veto placed upon the continuance of construction of the Taupo line has thrown sand into wheels which were piroiuising to run smoothly in that portion of the

North Island. Some three, weeks ago the Minister of Public Works, at the conclusion of a tour of the district, was able to strike an optimistic note which cheered the settlers on the “poor lands. ’ ’ But since then the decision to put a. stop to the railway-line construction lias been announced and it was a yery different atmosphere which the Minister of Agriculture encountered upon ljis subsequent visit. Mr .Forbes, who can be fairly said to have op- ] preached with an unprejudiced mind the questions awaiting him there, asked for the plain unvarnished truth. He said that he “had no time for pointers,’ ’ but had every sympathy with the triers who had circumstances against them, and he admitted that there were grounds for the hopeless note which had been struck iby the disappointed settlers. On the one hand the Government has been faced with what it has believed to have been the certainty of heavy losses on the line. On the other side it is embarrassed by the needs of farmers wdio require cheap transportation for fertilisers and produce if they are ever to have a hope of turning their lands into' areas of payable productivity. The Rotorua-Taupo claims are not the only ones which arc being pressed upon the Railway Department fr<sn the north. There are others, including those for the Paeroa-Pokeno line which the United journal in Auckland is strongly urging upon the Government. Then Auckland itself has some rather big ideas regarding “urgent works” in and around that centre, and its claims are. not calculated to make things easier for a department which has been criticised for its lack of business acumen by the self-same public which makes so many sectional demands upon it. In the meantime It can bo presumed that the South Island is, figuratively speaking, purring with satisfaction in the light of the premise that its “main trunk” system is to be completed by the completion of the line between Parnassus and Wharanui and troubling itself not at all about the questions being asked in the North Island about, the wisdom of proceeding with bridging the gap over difficult, and comparatively unproductive country. The lot of a Government which inherits New Zealand’s railway system is by no | means an easy one.