ROTORUA-TAUPO RAILWAY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 18 September 1929, Page 6

ROTORUA-TAUPO RAILWAY

PETITION FOR RESUMPTION OF WORK (By Telegraph—Press Association) WELLINGTON, This Day. The hearing of evidence in connection with the petition of Ernest Earle Vaile and others asking that the construction of the Rotorua-Taupo railway be resumed, was continued to-day. Continuing his evidence Frederick Carr Rollett, agricultural journalist, said there was a tremendous area of easily ploughable land which could be made permanently productive on each side of the proposed route. Further down, east of the lake, there were further valleys which offered great productive possibilities., The work done by the- Prisons Department at Hautau had shown what could be done with pumice lands. Some thouof acres had been broken in and good work had also been accomplished on hill lands. Good results were also achieved in the prison camp in Tongariro Valley. Other valleys also were capable of carrying good snug little farms. A Minister expressed surprise and indignation that the State had allowed so much nice cojmtry, which could be cut up into farms, to be locked up in forests for a hundred years or more. Good roads through the district would certainly open up land for settlement, but not so economically as a railway would. He did not see how it would be possible to convey heavy traffic by motor. He believed the railway was absolutely essential for the carriage of immense quantities of timber.

Witness expressed the opinion that with the use of fertilisers the land between Taupo and Rotorua- could be 'matte mo're productive than in the Waihi district where the construction of the railway would practically lead to the establishment of a new South Auckland province. Some good tobacco leaf was grown in the district.