SOUTH ISLAND RAILWAY SYSTEM.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 76, 19 September 1924, Page 3

SOUTH ISLAND RAILWAY SYSTEM.

Tn a leading article on Friday last, (ho Marlborough Express says:

“ Anything that the Christchurch papers have to say about the question of railway extension in the northern portion of the South Island has a close interest for the Marlborough people. It is realised here that there would be good reason for satisfaction if and when these leaders of public opinion see fit’to take up the case for the completion of the Main Trunk Line in the affirmative. So far they have been exceedingly .cautious in the matter. The one thing that they have been insisting on so far as the Government’s railway policy is concerned is the early duplication and electrification of the Christchurch-Lyttelton railway, a work that would cost about £700,000. No distraction is being allowed to prejudice that agitation, which is being conducted with special vigour, in anticipation of the forthcoming Public Works Statement. Doubtless demands of this character on the public exchequer do impose a certain amount of strain on the sympathy and patience of the ruralc interests; but it may be pointed out that the Hiley scheme of 1914, supported by the representations of the Railway Department up to date, advises that the expenditure of three millions or so on the improvement of certain port communications, and on the enlargement of stations and yards at a number of chief centres would be a profitable national investment. At the present stage, the Christchurch claim was so much the stronger because in this connection only £16,000 has been spent there, whereas over £600,000 has been vouchsafed to Auckland. On the strength of this comparison, Mr P. R. Cliiniq, the Organiser for the Canterbury Progress League, has advanced the rather startling consideration that ‘Canterbury, in common with the rest of the South Island, is losing population, prestige, ami trade through the fact that the revenues raised here by way of taxation, direct and indirect, are mostly spent in the North Island, especially in Auckland Province, which now has «• tti acted within its borders one-third of the population of the Dominion, the result of the continual spending in that locality of millions of tax revenue and loan moneys. ’ That with particular reference to the delay that has occurred in the matter of making financial provision for the improvement of the port communications. Obviously our Canterbury friends arc concentrating on this objective. Nevertheless, the time is surely drawing near when they must perforce realise that the investment of these huge sums of money at the ports and within the metropolitan boundaries would be deprived of a great deal of its real value if it is not to be backed up by the due encouragement of production, through the promotion of railway extension, road construction, and closer

settlement. That is an essential Complement. We must not have all our honey in the front window. "We hope to see the project of completing the South Island Main Trunk Line regarded in this light eye long; and, as we say, one of the best signs would be the advocacy of the Christchurch papers. The comments made by a Christchurch paper on the leaflet issued by the Nelson Progress League give us something to go on with in the meantime. They will have been read with mixed appreciation; that is to say, they would have been more encouraging if the paper had refrained from the remark that it is a moot point whether there is a strong economic case for the completion of either the East Coast or the West. Coast line in the present circumstances, as it might very well have done since it admits that judgment should be suspended until the results of the Canterbury Progress League’s investngations are to hand. What will be appreciated, though, is the evident leaning of the paper towards the East Coast connection. As we have said on more than one occasion, the Canterbury Progress League’s inquiry will have a distinct value if it only establishes this preference once for all.”