THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1897.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10421, 20 April 1897, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1897.

Wk have already briefly referred to the nconvenience that lias boen caused by the break down of telegraphic communication with the South, and consequently with the world without. Its pathetic aspect is presented in the calling of persons, women and others, at this office yesterday anxiously enquiring respecting near relatives reported to be missing in the floods, and in the amount of anxiety that exists among all those who have friends in the district, which is now suffering under this seemingly unprecedented disaster, Apart from this is the great inconvenience that has been caused in business circles and others, by our having been suddenly isolated from the centres in the south, and shut oil from all intelligence of what is proceeding in all the rest of the world, as fully as if the cables themselves had been ruptured. If this had been a solitary or even infrequent case of such a break in communication, less might have been felt or said about it, but warnings enough have been given by repeated breaks on the same lines of wires, and it cannot be regarded as other tliau gross negligence that at this period in the colony's progress so large a centre of population and business as Auckland should be dependent on a single set of wires for communication with the rest of the colony, This route by Taupo and Napier is notoriously subject to storms and floods, which of itself might have suggested the prudence of providing an alternative route; and when it is knowu that ninety or one hundred miles of telegraph wire would make connection with Taranaki, and by the western districts with Wellington, by an entirely independent set of wires, it seems a shame that the connection has not been long ago completed.

From Te Kuiti in the Upper Wiiikato to the terminal station of the West Coast wires at Waitara, rear New Plymouth, but 96 miles of easily traveraible country remain to be wired. Starting from Kuiti the land is all open country along a well defined road | through settled country, to the head of

the Avrakino River. One piece of three I miles of standing bush is all that remains to be felled to complete the work of clearing the whole line to Taraniiki. From the head of the Awakino to the sea is a dray road of 12 miles through Government land, leased to settlers, who arc entirely cut off from outside communication. From the Awakino to the Mokau and on to the Tougaporutu is along the sea coast. Here the route goes inland by the road recently mado by the Tongaporutu and Mimi Special Settlements, down the valley of the Mimi to the Urenui, and thence to Waitara. This line we are authoritatively assured would require less than three months to complete if properly taken in hand. The posts, wires, etc., could be delivered at three points, namely, at Te Kuiti by rail, at Slokau and at Waitara by sea, Mokau being nearly equidistant from the termini. This is in the event of the posts or disused iron rails being conveyed from a distance for the purpose, although large part, if not the whole of the posts required, could be obtained at various places near the line of route. In all this track, the highest elevation is only 2100 feet, and it lies throughout iu a country where the storms, which destroy the present line via Taupo and Napier, are never experienced. The Government, we understand, have all the data requisite for undertaking the work at once, and Mr. Logan, of the Telegraph Department, went recently over the line. The settlors along the line have continually pleaded for consideration, as they are cut 08 from any means of rapid communication with a doctor in cases of sickness or accident. In a district like that accidents are frequent, and we have been told of one instance which occurred last season, in which a poor fellow with both legs broken was carried for twenty hours on a stretcher, without a halt, by relays of his mates, while others rode ahead to reach the telegraph line at Waitara. The Hon, J. G. Ward while PostmasterGeneral, at a meeting in New Plymouth last year, gave a deputation of settlers a promise that this line would be pushed on at once, and at the same time that a telephone wire would be put on to Mokau, the settlers on their part giving a guarantee of £25 a-year incase the line did not pay. But neither of these promises has been fulfilled. The line would be cheap to put up, inexpensive to keep in repair, and as there are post-offices established along the line, the telephone would serve local purposes, and the telegraph wires would complete the much-needed through line from Auckland to Wellington. To put an extra wiroon the present line would be foolish, as the storm which broke the one would break the other, yet it is well known that apart from the present liability to rupture of the wires, something must be done to relieve the pressure of business on the existing line.

That this want of an alternative line should have continued so long reflects not merely on the negligence of the Government, but on the more inexcusable negligence of the representatives in Parliament of the Auckland districts, Time was when the extension of wires over the King Country was attended with such difficulty and so liable to political friction, that attention could only be given to the East Const routes. But that has long since passed away ; and that a telegraph line so obvious, so inexpensive, and in every way so favourably conditioned, connecting Taranaki with Auckland, should have been neglected, may be regarded as eminently characteristic of the laim aire that is conspicuous in the Auckland political and commercial temperament. Tins disaster at Hawke's Bay, the uncertainty that has been cast over the fate of the sufferers, as well as the interruption of the entire telegraphic communication South, should surely move the Chamber of Commerce, as well as our members of Parliament, and others interested in the welfare of the city and district to take action, and to bring such pressure to bear, that this inconvenient and discreditable liability to be isolated from the rest of the world should be ended.