THE WHANGAREI-KAWAKAWA RAILWAY EXTENSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11734, 16 August 1901, Page 3

THE WHANGAREI-KAWAKAWA RAILWAY EXTENSION.

TO THE EDITOH. Sir.—Strenuous efforts arc Doing- made by a section of the Whangarei people to obtain a grant for the extension of the railway from Whangarei to Grahamtown, and this despite the fact that in 1892 Mr. Seddon made an explicit promise that there should be nothing done in that direction until the line was eon-' nec-ted with Kavvakawa. The gentlemen responsible lor the agitation in favoui of tho extension to Grahamtown can furnish no better argument in favour 01 their application than that such extension would facilitate tho despatch of goods to and from Whangarei. Another reason fo. their action—probably the most powerful one, but at present kept sedulously in the background—is that such railway works would mean the expenditure of a large sum of public money, which would create a temporary boom to the immediate benefit of the business people of that thriving township, some of whom appea„ to imagine that it is better to have boomed and " bust" than never to have boomed at all. They have signally failed to produce a single argument to show that the construction ot that lin" would facilitate the settlement of the land in any one direction. On the other hand, the extension northward will open up thousands of acres ot good land now lying idle, besides benefiting a large number of settlers now located here, ami it is fully acknowledged by men of all shades of political opinion that the settlement of the land is the true basis of prosperity for the colony. In opposing the extension northward the Whangarei people are fighting against their own interests, as hundreds ot settlers are finding it to then advantage to visit Whangarei and purchase nearly everything they require, and the further north the line is extended tho greater will this volume of trade become.' In advocating the construction of . i.e tlnr.ugh line I am not. writing in the interests of Kawakawa, as I fully believe that the completion of this line will be a serious blow tQ Kawakawa. Experience has invariably shown that town*' ships are only prosperous so long as they are the termini of railway systems, and Kawakawa may yet find itself in the position of thai American village described by Mark Twain J which so long as it was the terminus ot the railway enjoyed a certain amount of uro-i sperity, but when the line was advanced a. stage further on the inhabitants were forced to gain a precarious livelihood by entertaining casual strangers, and instead of praying (t Give us this day our daily bread," prayed brive us this day jur daily stranger. ,> 100 much stress has been laid upon the statement that the construction of these lines is a question affecting Whangarei or Kawakawa alone. I submit, that the construction of any line is not a local but a colonial question, and that railways should be only placed where they would not only benefit the inhabitants of any particular district, but be of service to the State. If this much-dis-puted question is settled on these grounds, ■ there is not the slightest doubt in my mind but that the construction ot the through lineto Kawakawa will soon be an accompusbed , fact. am, etc., FasUSOE. Euapekapeka. August 8, 1901.