THE OPENING OF THE RAILWAY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 144, 31 August 1881, Page 2

THE OPENING OF THE RAILWAY.

The date of the railway opening seems still uncertain, and people throughout the district have suffered, and still suffer, much loss and inconvenience through tize ba<3 management -which has caused this delay. On reference to the schedule of railway contracts current, we find that the Normanby-Hawera permanent way contract was let to Messrs. Mace and Bassett, for £3,520, on March 23rd; the date of completion was the 30th June, or about fourteen weeks. Tbe contract has consequently now been about 23 weeks in hand, and, so far as we can learn, is likely to be at least a month or six weeks before it i& completed. It is scarcely our province to apportion the blame in this matter. We can simply point' out that, through delays caused by bad management of some sort, for which no one is to he punished, the general public have been put to many hundred pounds' worth of avoidable loss and inconvenience. The Public Works Department should be primarily held responsible. Three weeks ago to-day, the Minister for Public Works said in his Statement that the line to Hawera would be opened in a few days. It would appear that he too, as well as the public, has been misinformed. Though the weather has lately been rough and showery, we question whether the contractors' men have lost one day a -week on the average during the last three months. While'the public .suffer, the Railway Traffic Department, the Construction Department, and the contractors all "blame one another, and all consider themselves aggrieved if the public, through the Press, complain of .the lofs they suffer through departmental bungling. The natural outcome of the- business is, a , big lawsuit,' for which the taxpayers will have to pay.