THE MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 126, 4 June 1910, Page 5

THE MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

AND THE TOPHOUSE ROUTE. '*!

COMMENTS BY THE CHRISTCHURCH PRESS.

[from • our cokreseondeitr} ; i ■■.: CHRISTCHURCH, June 3. The Press has!the following editorial regarding the South Island Main Trunk £<me: We invite *he attention of the railway committee of the Chamber of Commerce to the statement tfiade by the president of the Maryborough;.. Land and, Railway I-ieague at the annual meeting of that body. Referring to the South Island Main Trunk Railway, Mr McCallum said that the Minister for Public Works had shown that he strongly-favored the extension of the railway from Blenheim ;by way of Tophouse to the" Nelsori-Buller railway as against the East Coast connection with Canterbury. The Marlborough people are, as they have always been, in favor of the latter route, and they propose to urge the Government to push on more rapidly with the construction of the line; but they no doubt realise that when Mr Roderick McKenzie makes up his mind as to the course a railway should take it is difficult to move him. On such occasions he displays sublime contempt for such' trivial matters ,as the reports of expert engineers, as we have seen in connection with the, deviation .in the route of the.North, Auckland'railway. The Marlborough Railway Leagues may therefore come to the conclusion that it is of little' use to fight agaiidst the Minister, and that it will be better to agitate for the deviation of which he is said to approve. Obviously, therefore, it is time that the Canterbury supporters of the East Coast line joined forces with their Marlborough friends arid helped them;.to secure from the Government a-prom-ise that the railway shall be, constructed along the route already surveyed. It is plain that if the line southwards from Pictoi> turns. <3f|. t at Blenheim, and, passing by way of Tophouse, finally ! joins*'the NelsonBuller line all pretence of its, being regarded as a Main Trunk line must be. abandoned. The only way to reach Christchurch; by : "railway from Picton would be to go south t^ Blenheim, then across the most mountainous part of Marlborough to the West Coast, down -the Coast from; Inangahua until the Midland Railway was met-. ; a.ij, ; Brunner, and thence by way, of the Otira into Canterbury. ■ Such a route would provide admirable opportunities of viewing the sftenery, but as a means of communication befriveeh North and South and of opening up country ' for settlement it avould be about-as, idiotic an arrangement as .could be imagined. . The through connection between Marlborough ; aiid Canterbury, which is so' much desired by the business men and producers of r both Provinces^ and which would add so much to the popularity of the' northern country as a holiday resort for Christchurch people, would be lost, and Kaikoura wf>uld b© left in its present isolation. The idea.'of relinquishing the extension of, the line from both ends along the natural route appears, indeed, so fantastic and absurd that it is difficult to believe that even the Minister for Public Works should have indicated his approval of it. It is "certain that no such cross-country railway as Mr McCallum described was in the mind of the Prime Minister when he spoke on the subject of the Main Trunk Railway at Kaikoura last year, fHe thep declared that "he recognised, as every sensible person must do, that it was of the first importance that the, spinal marrow of the railway system should be completed. The main railway 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 northern1 portion of the South Island Main Trunk Railway." The Government's performance in the matter of pushing on the Main Trunk lines has limped sadly behind its promises; but we cannot yet believe that it' intends to' leave the two ends of the South Island Majin Trunk Railway unconnected. Nevertheless it would be well for the I Chamber of Commence to get to work on ithe lines we have suggested.