DECISIVE STEP TAKEN.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 October 1931, Page 5

DECISIVE STEP TAKEN.

Cessation of Railway Works. SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK SUSPENDED. . ALSO EAST COAST AND INANGAHUA LINES. DISTRICT INTERESTS OUTVOTED. ENGINEERS TO PRESERVE STATUS QUO. , The decisive votes on the Railway Board’s recommendation for the suspension of. railway construction in New Zealand were taken, in the House early this morning. Work has been in progress on eight new lines, namely: (1) North Island Main Trunk from Okaihau, noirth of Kaikohe. (2) Dargaville to Kirikopuni section. (3) Gisborne to Waikokopu (East Coast Line), (4) Nelson to Inangahua, (5i Stratford to the Main Trunk line. (6) Wairoa to Putorino (East Coast line). (7) South Island Main Trunk line (Wharanui to Parnassus). (8) Westport (Te Kuha) —lnanga- - hua. ~~ Of these lines the Government had already suspended construction on the first fou,r. The Railway . Board recommended that none of these, nor any of the three latter works he proceeded with, and Parliament has now confirmed this decision, The result is that the only - point where railway construction is in progress is on the line that will connect Taranaki with the M£fin Trunk line, via Stratford. (By Telegraph—Press Association.)* WELLINGTON, Oct. 8. The Prime Minister’s resolution calling ■ for approval of the Railways Board-’s recommendation of. the cessation work on the Wharanui-Parnassus, Putorino-Wairoa, and Te Kuha-Inan-gahua lines continued to occupy the attention of members of the House of Representatives throughout the' early hours of this morning. 'MR JORDANAMENDMENT LOST. Discussion of Mr Jordan’s amendment,' "suggesting that the resolution should be referred to the’ Railways Committee of the House, was ‘brought to a close at 2.20 a.m., when on a division, it was rejected by 43 votes’to 22, The division was as follows: For (22). Against (43). Armstrong Ansell Atmore Bitohener Barnard Bodkin . Black Erbadfoot Carr »• Burnett Chapman Campbell Fraser Clinkard Healy Coates Hogan • Cobbe H. E. Holland Do la Perfelle Howard Dickie Jordan Donald. Lungstone' Endean Lysnar Field McKeen .Forbes MaePherson Hamilton Makitanara Harris W. Nash. Hawke O’Brien H.‘Holland Parry Jones Savage Jull Semple Kyle Ldnklater * Lye McDonald MacMillan Martin Massey Munns - , Murdoch J. A. Nash ■Ngata Ransom Rushworth Stallwor.lhy Sykes Te Tomo Waite Ward , . Wilkinson Williams Wright Young.

Continuing the debate on the resolu : tion, Mr Fraser (Lab.) said that'when the United Party had office it had immediately stopped the railway works commenced by Reform. Now that both parties were in office, they proposed to stop all construction work. He accused members of the United Party of a vacillating attitude. MORE MIGHT COST OVER ' ~ SEVEN PER CENT. ■ , Mr Forbes (Prime .Minister), ’replying', said the Government could .not disregard hard economic facts. • The construction, of the railways -had been justified at a time when the country could have stood the loss they would involve,. but to-day it was necessary to carefully scrutinise every pound of expenditure. The Board had been accused of having taken a pessimistic view, but he pointed out that it had based its calculations on money being raised at ,5 per. cent., whereas the Government had had to pay 6i per cent, for the last loan. He predicted that, if an attempt were made to raise a loan for railways against which the Board had reported, the Government would have to-pay 7 , per cent., Mr Forbes contended that if the Labour Party were in office at the present time, it would find it would have to do the same as was being proposed. Mr H. E. Holland (Leader of the (Opposition): If we . reached a stage .when we could not give effect to a declared policy, we would get off the Treasury (benches. Mr rForbes said he. had never heard of. any Labour Party getting off the Treasury benches for sush a reason. He again referred to the inadvisability of expending money on railway Construction at the present time. . TAWA FLAT NOT A PRESENT ANXIETY. . Mr Lysnar (Ind.): What about Tawa' Flat! • ' Mr Forbes: We are dealing the lines mentioned in -the reabmtion just now. We willV deal with Ta^a

Plat and others, if necessary, later on. Our business is to cut down unprofitable works. ' - • A REVIEW IF CONDITIONS IMPROVE. Mr Forbes assured members that the work of construction already carried out would be properly cared for; , and said that no one would be -better pleased than he if at a later stage it became .-possible to complete the lines. It would be possible to review them all -if economic conditions improved. He agreed that the lines should be completed if the country could afford to bear the loss. . ' - WOULD CONSIDER A SYNDICATE (SCHEME. Replying to a point raised by Mr Williams (Bay of Plenty), Mr Forbes said the Government would welcome anything like a definite offer from any responsible private or public syndicate to carry on the,, work of completing the railway's. HOUSE IN COMMITTEE. The House went into committee on the resolution at 3.30 a.m. Mr H. E. Holland asked the Prime Minister if he would agree to hold over the question of stopping railways until after the general election. He said it would be the utmost foolishness to stop work when it must be known that, if an election took place, there were almost certain to be big changes. It, would simply' be adding to the cost if the work on the railways were now stopped only to be resumed on a new partv coming into office. ELECTION STILL A SECRET. Mr Forbes said that instruction had 'been given to the engineers* to take proper care of the work already carried out. The question of the election did not enter into the consideration. If the Labour Party came into' office, it would not |be any more able to raise money for railway construction, than the present Government was. He informed 'Mr Holland that he would let him know, as soon as it was possible to give the information, as to when the general election would take place. SOUTH ISLAND TRUNK LINE. Mr E. F. Healy (Wairau) moved an amendment to exclude the Wharanui-Pamassus line from the - schedule of railways, concerning which it was proposed to adopt the Board’s recommendation not to proceed further with construction work. This was rejected by 40 - votes to 24. . The division was as follow: — For (24). Against (40). Armstrong Ansell Atmore Bitchener Barnard Broadfoot Black Burnett Carr Campbell Chapman ' Clinkard Fraser ; Coates Hawke Cobbe Healy de la Perrelie Hqjgan Dickie H. E. Holland Donald Howard / Endean Jordan Forbes Langstone Field ■ Ly'snar Hamilton MeKeen ’ Harris MacPherson H. Holland Makitanara ’ Jones W. Nash Jull O’Brien Kyi* Parry Lye Savage Linldater Semple McDonald Ward ' MacMillan W. W. Massey Martin Munns Murdoch J. A. Nash Ngata Ransom Rushworth Stallworthy Sy'kea Te Tomo ( Waite W illdnson Williams Wright Young PAIRS.

For the amendment —McCombs, Sullivan, McDougal and Mason. Against the amendment —(Poison, J. N. Massey, Stewart, and Fletcher. PUTORINO—WAIROA. MJt Williams then moved to exclude the PutoiUno-Wairoa line from the list of undertakings on which work was to stop. Mr Fraser asked that the Mohaka viaduct should be finished, as a gesture .of good faith that the line would be finished. The material was on the job. Mr Coates (Leader of the Reform Party) said that Ca'binet had not yet decided .how best'to (preserve the steel girders which were exposed to the sea air at Tauranga. This question would be decided in the near future.. All the material had been paid for. He believed it would be (better to leave these lines shipshape. Mr O’Brien (Westland): The men ’ will whack it. Mr Coates: Oh, no.; Sensible men will not take drastic steps against the country’s interest. Mr Semple: \se have memories of the past. Mr Coates: I know you have horrible memories, but the men will be sensible. They will not do any damage to the construction. . , Mr Williams’s amendment was defeated by 38 votes to 25. TE KUHA—INANGAHUA. An amendment moved by the Leader of the Opposition, to exclude the Te Kuha-Inangahua line from the schedule, , was defeated 40 to 22, and the resolution was then adopted by 41 to ■2l and reported to the House. Mr Healy expressed disappointment with the decision. He said he felt sure the people of Marlborough would "realise he had been badly let down by his own party. Mr Holland said he believed the utmost disappointment and resentment would be felt throughout the whole Coast district at the stoppage of work on the Inangahua-Westport line. It had been stated that the stoppage was merely a temporary arrangement, but he declared it was really permanent, because work could not be started again unless there was a majority vote of . both House of Parliament and unless the consent of fhe Board was obtained; 'Sir Apirana Ngata: Parliament can > dispense with the Board. 1 Mr Holland: But we have got to dispense with an undesirable Government first. The Leader of the Opposition also