The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1929.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 December 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1929.

SOUTHERN DEVELOPMENT. Ihk southern district of Westland is advancing so steadily and showing such prospects of permanency that the matter of assisting towards an expansion of settlement should be a subject of concern both by the local and general government authorities. There are great tracts of valuable timber in the south, and with the expansion of settlement, unless the timber wealth is to be wasted in bush (ires to clear the land for permanent reproduction, facilities must he provided to get the timber milled before it is too late. The southern district has great stores of timber, and we have seen the industrial results following the extension? of the railway to Ross, and the further extension by private line beyond to the V aitaha. Hut for the provision of the rail transport vast stands of timber would be untouched, and the locality would have continued stagnant. The provision of the railway gave facilities to cut for export and so industrial development has taken place. The time is fully ripe now to, consider a definite policy of railway extension further

south for the purpose of tapping tlie timber lands, reaping the harvest now waiting to be garnered from the Crown areas, and throwing the land open for permanent pastoral and general settlement purposes. The great mistake made,by the Conservative Government of ; 1911, when the;railway extension to Waitaha authorised! by the: Liberals, was vetoed by the Massey Ministry, ■ and the district has suffered in tonsequence: ever since. Certainly private enterprise came to the rescue, and to its) credit did for itself what the Government failed to do for the public as a whole; but the line'being private has restricted development, even though' the operating company, has permitted the use of its line for general transport purposes. The vol ume I‘.of that .-traffic is an indication of the greater traffic which would have resulted had the railway been a public one, and on that lccount it is; all the more necessary now to op eft, up the question of genH’al access to he carried further south and so tap the splendid stands of timer along the various stages south, til river flats from, the sea to the f'ot:ills carry large, forests, while the hills •re also bush clad. Valuable timber exists along the whole. route for the .'nil? width of .the flatter; lands, so that here is every reason to iustifv the denand for the railway. The native proluct 'is there for export, and linked ip with the railway system of the' D' 1 - ninion as it would -be,, the timber vould have a wide j’market for consumption.. Unless tliis comes to pass, t is to lie feared greatly that much of he timber will never be marketed. Year by year more bush clearing is ';oing on in the extension of .settlement. Stock raising and d.Crying are loiurishing in the south, and that neans that the bush is being felled md burned to clear the land lor grass--ng. A great natural asset which vould do much in helping industry and mtural development, is being lost, so that leaving matters as they are to the fate of circumstances, is altogether ineconomio, and is against the best interests of the district as a whole. With o fine a natural asset at hand there should be every encouragement to advocate the resumption of railway extension, either as a Government line or in connection with the length of private line already in existence. Private capital has been encouraged to build a very substantial work involving the crossing of difficult rivers. This is an indieaten of the payable nature of the proposition, and from that action may be drawn a line as to the good judgment there is in extending the railway to the timber areas beyond. This is a matter of general importance, for we have seen with the extension of industry how all parts of the district feel the advantage of increased production, and the matter should be taken up not by any single locality, but by the community as a whole. The matter is so strongly justified by the palpable facts as they are, that it is surprising this important question is allowed to remain in abeyance for so long.