SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 116, 14 May 1909, Page 3

SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK.

DEPUTATION TO SIR JOSEPH

WARD

(Evening News Special.) The claims of the South Island Main Trunk, were again brought prominently under the notice of the Prime Minister by a large deputation at Kaikoura on Saturday. The deputation, which was introduced by Mr G. W. Forbes, M.P., represented the Kaikoura Railway League. The speakers Messrs Forbes and J. Davidson, asked the Prime Minister to' introduce a Bill for the further extension of the railway from Mackenzie to Kaikoura, and further if required. It was stated 25 years ago that the railway would pay 3 per cent, on the cost of construction, and it was certain that it would pay even better to-day. The present authorisation of the railway ran out when it reached a point opposite Mackenzie township. If the Bill were, passed it

Mould be an earnest assurance to the people of Kaikoura that the line would be prosecuted, especially as tenders were in the hands of the Government for the Waiau bridge. Sir Joseph Ward said that it was not necessary to discuss the Waiau bridge. If the tenders were satisfactory T he had no doubt that the Government would accept the lowest. At present he did not know what _ the tenders were, so he had no idea whether they approximated the estimate made on behalf of the Government. The best assurance the depvitation could have that the railway would be proceeded with was that the bridge was a railway and traffic bridge, showing that the Government intended that the line should cross the bridge. He could make no promise as to what the Government was poing to do about this railway or any other line in the Dominion, but when the Public Works estimates were being prepared its claim must come up for consideration. He could assure the deputation that the Government would not make the bridge unless they intended to carry the railway on. The representations of the deputation would be fully considered when the Government were going into the matter of providing money for the making of railways. (Applause.) The Prime Minister made a much more definite statement about the prospects of the railway, as far as its prosecution is concerned, in the course of his speech at the complimentary social, The Chairman (Mr F. Monk) had suggested that Sir Joseph Ward should give the people of Canterbury and Kaikoura a definite assurance that the railway would be vigorously prosecuted from this year onward, and the Prime Minister, in reply, stated that the railway had been going on steadily for some time past, and it was not intended to stop it. (Applause.) He recognised, as # every sensible person must do, that it was of the first importance to New Zealand that the spinal marrow of the railway system should be completed, so that all portions which branched from it could be carried on to the best advantage. The main railways must be the real arterial portion of the service, and it would be an act of madness not to carry on the gradual extension of the northern portion of the South, Island Main Trunk Railway. (Applause.)