THE MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY
UNEMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE'S INTEREST. That the completion of the South Island Main Trunk Kailway would save some of the interest, amounting to £140,000, incurred on expenditure on the uncompleted portion, was claimed by Mr E. H. Andrews, Chairman of the Christchurch' Unemployment Committee, when advocating the completion of the line at the meeting of the committee on Monday. After a short discussion the committee carried a motion moved by Mr J. S. Barnett, urging the Government to complete the line. When members were discussing means of settling the dispute between the advocates of the estuary port and the tunnel road, Mr Barnett said that if the committee were going to take part in such a discussion it should add the completion of the line to the list. It was an essential work, essential in the interests of New Zealand as well as Canterbury and the South Island. Mr J. W. Crampton supported the motion. Mr F. W. J. Belton suggested that the construction of an adequate ■ main highway in Marlborough would serve the needs of the area better than the completion of the line, in view of the severe competition of modern road traisport with railways. Mr «T. W. Beanland expressed a similar view. He said that the only way the railway could pay would be to squash road traffic entirely. The Chairman, Mr E. H. Andrews, had more favourable views about the line. “I do not believe it will pay. But I really believe it will save some of that money we are paying for interest,” he said. ”1 do not think that everyone who talks about the line I knows the type of country through which it will pass. I believe the day of the long-distance railway is not past. I also agree that this line will not get a lot of passenger traffic. But I do ( believe that we can save quite a lot of that £140,000 in interest we are meeting annually, and at the same time give give the people in the country through which it will pass greatly improved access. ’ ’ ,
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Kaikoura Star, Volume LVI, Issue 14, 20 February 1936, Page 3
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349THE MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY Kaikoura Star, Volume LVI, Issue 14, 20 February 1936, Page 3
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