NO DEVIATION?

Horowhenua Chronicle, 17 July 1937, Page 2

NO DEVIATION?

MINISTERIAL ANNOUNCEMENT. AVRONCr INTERPRETATION. When a Press Association telegram from Wairoa at the beginning of the mouth contained a Ministerial announcement that £IOO,OOO had been budgetted for the deviation at Palmerston North, certain circles in the city were all smiles. An organisation anxious to see the rails laid outside the town boundary even went as far as to pass a resolution of satisfaction. It seems, however, that the hand-clapping has been a little premature and that the clang of hammer dealing rail to sleeper at Milson is as far away as ever it' was.

When Mr. Hodgens, M.P., was in Wellington yesterday, he made inquiries from official circles as to what was Intended, as the Minister had failed to disclose anything except the bare announcement that the work was to be proceeded with. The people of Palmerston North, he knew, would be anxious to know just when the work would be re-commenced and if there would be any chance of getting some of the sustenance men into jobs. But his in* quiries revealed that something had gone wrong. Either the Minister had been not quite explicit enough or the Press message had been condensed to give a wrong impression.

There is no money to be set aside at the moment for work at Milson, and possibly what the telegram referred to was work at present under way further up the line at Kakariki or Turakina, where deviations of some magnitude are under way to ease steep grades in the permanent way. ‘ ‘Here’s hoping,’ ’ must remain Palmerston North’s slogan.

DARG-AVILLE LINE. SECTION TO BE COMPLETED. DARGAVILLE, July 16. Work is to be re-commenced immediately on the uncompleted section of the Dargaville branch railway between Tangowahine and Dargaville, according to a message received by the Et. Hon, J. G. Coates, M.P., from the ActingMinister of Public Works, Hon. P. C. Webb. Operations will begin at Tangowahine, a gang of 30 men being employed immediately. The route over which the line will enter Dargaville has not been decided. The question has been under consideration for some months. The Minister has intimated that arrangements will be completed within' the next few weeks. Mr. Webb also intimated that in pursuance of the Government’s policy of taking men off sustenance and placing them on local body work, 50 men will be available for allocation between Ctamatea and Hobson counties and the Dargaville borough.