HAWKE'S BAY-GISBORNE RAILWAY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 47, 8 February 1912, Page 2

HAWKE'S BAY-GISBORNE RAILWAY.

A ICELAND'S DISAPPOINT MENT.

MUixEY SHOl'1.1) BE SPFNI IN THE NOiiTH.

Comnvnting editorially i’)>uii the decision <>f the Goveninirnt to proceed immediately with the work of constructing the NaPier-Gi s b o r 11 < ■ section of the East Coast Railway, the ‘'Auckland Star” says:—“His Excellency the Governor uill turn the first sod of the Napier-Gisborne railway on Friday next, thus inaugurating what is intended to be a vigorous policy in the construction oi this line. The total cost of the work is estimated at £ 1.250,000, and largo votes will he required from year i t vear if the railway is to be completed within the next ten years. NVithout in any way' minimising the importance of this railway, it is a matter for serious consideration whether the interests of the country would not have been better served by concentrating public works expenditure upon a smaller number of lines, in order to make them quickly reproductive, rather than by enlarging the list of works for which grants must be provided annually by borrowing. The East Coast Main Trunk Railway has been almost completed for a distance of fifty miles northward, and the speedy penetration i:f this great arterial way into the fertile settlements of the Bay of Plenty seems to promise more profitably returns, both to Gisborne and to the other districts affected. han are likely to arise from a division of the necessarily restricted vote which will be available for the East Coast Railway. We are under the impression that the land between Napier and Gisborne u? chiefly held in large areas, -. or is under Maori 1 enure, and that the prospect of an extension cf close settlement in that direction i:. no .cry promising. We hope that the Government will adopt measures to secure public rights over these lands and that the native land, at any rate, will be withdrawn from the operations of European speculators. One of the chief drawbacks to Government control over railway construction is the difficulty of resisting political pressure from many qunrt■rs. Every district, having an equal liability for the borrowed millions, naturally considers that, it has a right to share in the expenditure. The governing factor in determining the authorisation of railways, therefore, is not the relative- importance of the various works ant| the proslect which they hold out of pax able results, but the claims of the respective districts to public expenditure. The Nelson line, which yields only 17,11 pei cent. <m an expenditure of £404,640, and the Pieton line, which pays only 5/1 per cent, on £390,032. ■ire notable examples of political railways. We do not place the Na-pier-Gisborne line in the same class with these. No railway has proved more profitable or more beneficial to settlement than the line southward from Napier, and possibl.v the people of that flourishing East Coast town may be able to make out a good case for the Northern extension that has now been entered upon. Unfortunately. past efforts to break up the big estates in Hawke's Bay have not proved so successful as they should have been, and the construction of a railway which will greatlv inflate land values must increase the difficulty of coping with the serious evil of monopoly within the territory traversed by the new line. Successive governments were seriously to blame for their failure to acquire larger areas of Maori land along the route of the Main Trunk Railway to Wellington. and vve trust that a similar mistake will not he made in con 'ection with the costly line which has now been embarked upon in response to the clamorous demands of the people of Napier and Gisborne. A statement showing the areas of land held along t.lie routes of tlie variolic railways under construction, the nature of the tenure under which they are held, and the measures that, are being adopted to secure an adequate area for the public should be submitted to Parliament. With This information before us we should he in a better position than we are at present to judge whether the NapierGisborne railway is a work-of national importance and value, or whether it is likely to add to the burden already imposed on tb.c taxpayer by unprofitable lines.”