MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11826, 2 December 1901, Page 5

MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

THE WHOLESALE DISMISSALS. The secretary of the North Island Main Trunk Railway League has received the following letter from the branch league, at Ahurca:—"We send you £4 5s subscriptions to the funds of the league. We are calling a meeting for the 30th inst., to take into consideration what steps are to Vie adopted about the stoppage of the railway work, as all work north of this place has ceased." The Commissioner of the league South of Auckland, wires:—" Men employed north end Main Trunk railway (south .of Auckland) last month, nearly 600. Present wholesale dismissals will reduce number to under 200."

PAEROA-WAIHI RAILWAY. So many men have been dismissed from the Paeroa-Waihi railway works that it is reported there are only eight men now working at each end of the tunnel. All the contractors on cuttings have been knocked off. Petitions on the subject to the Minister for Public Works and Mr. Jackson Palmer are in course of preparation.

[IIY TELEGRAPH. — OWN' CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Saturday. Concerning the North Island Trunk railway the Times says :—"Quite an unnecessary fuss is being made in certain quarters over the absurd report which emanates from hysterical Auckland, to the .effect that over 700 labourers are to be discharged from the works on the northern section of the North Island Trunk railway. It is at the outset quite impossible for tins rumour to be correct, as the number of men employed 011 the section named is under 600. There is no doubt that 80 or 100 men have been discharged, some of them because there contracts have been finished, others because it is found that so large a. number as was lately at work cannot be profitably kept going. The Minister for Works has doubtless calculated what can lie done with the money voted by Parliament, and has resolved to concentrate the chief effort upon the works at the Wellington end, where the line as it is formed, will at once serve a settled district, and will command traffic as soon as it is opened. It will be found when reports are presented to Parliament, that the Minister lias expended all the money voted, and has made the best possible use of it. always keeping in mind the pledge to have the railway finished in three years' time. It must be remembered, too, that the number of men employed 011 the line at both ends, has lately been much greater than ever before."