BULLER RAILWAY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVIII, Issue LXXVIII, 13 June 1919, Page 5

BULLER RAILWAY

ITS COMPLETION URGED.

(BY TELEGRAPH —PHESS ASSOCIATION.) WESTPORT, June 12. A conference of the Buller and Reefton Railway League was held in Westport to-day, when strong exception was taken to the delay in the completion of the construction of the Buller Gorge railway. The Reefton members pointed out that timber and coal were being taken out of the Inangahua and Buller valleys 'and dragged up over the saddle to Reefton, thence to Grey mouth, whereas they could, if the railway were completed, be much more easily and cheaply brought to Westport, the natural outlet, as there is a gradual down grade to this port It was also pointed out that the railway would enable freezing works to be established at Westport to handle surplus stock, which at present had to be taken over the Otira to Christchurch. The members of the league blamed the Government for the present shortage of coal, due in a large measure to failure to complete the Buller Gorge line and enable its immense coalfield there to be developed. It was suggested by a member of the league that if the Government, instead of paying large sums of money in importing coal, were to provide free passages for a thousand married miners and families from the Old Country and see that proper housing conditions were provided there would be no coal shortage in New Zealand.