THE PARNELL TUNNEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14589, 27 January 1911, Page 6

THE PARNELL TUNNEL.

DUPLICATION QUESTION.

WHAT DELAYS THE REPORT.

Alt no ran a committee. of ten representative* men was set up in May of hist year to consider whether the duplication of the Farad 1 tunnel is necessary, tho' committee has not yet furnished a report. Inquiries made by a Herald representative indicate that the cause of tho delay is the difficulty of securing unanimity amongst tho committee, and complete unanimity is considered very desirable. It will be remembered that tho committee undertook its investigations in consequence of a promise made by Sir Joseph Ward', who at tho time was Minister for Railways. Tho duplication of the tunnel had long been a burning question in Auckland. The Government duplicated the Auckland-Penrose section of railway, but refused to duplicate the tunnel. On October 14, 1905, Sir Joseph Ward, then Minister for Railways, was met by a large and representative deputation in Auckland on tlio subject. After hearing thoir side of the case tho Minister himself moved tho following resolution, which was carried unanimously: —"That in • the opinion of this meeting the programme the Government, proposes to carry out on the An ckland-P section without tho duplication of the tunnel be completed, and on that being done tho Mayor of Auckland select ton representative men, who shall moot tho Minister for Railways and go over the section; if they declare the duplication of the tunnel is then necessary tho Minister shall bo bound) to carry out tho said duplication." It is thought by tome that unless there is a unanimous vote as to tho necessity for duplication the Government will refuse to sanction the work. Those who hold this view are not prepared to admit that tho wording of tho resolution above quoted would justify such an attitude on the part of the Government, but they fear it may bo taken up, especially as it is known that the present Minister for Railways (Hon. J. A. Millar) is strongly opposed to the duplication. Though no official statement is yet available from tho committee, it is rumoured that some .members have been influenced by the Hon. J. A. Millar's remark that if the committee decided to have the duplication of the tunnel the goods sheds would not be enlarged. This autocratic utterance is resented by the vast body of citizens, but it is said to be exercising tho minds of some members of the committee.

The position now is that the committee is awaiting a report, from a sub-committee of three, which was appointed to collect evidence. The sub-committee has already called tho full committee together, but was asked to formulate a report setting forth definitely the arguments in favour of the duplication of the tunnel. The committee has taken a good deal of evidence, including tho expert opinion of a number of exemployees of the Railway Department who are familiar with the conditions between tho city and the tunnel. This evidence is to the effect that although it is theoretically possible to run 280 trains in 24 hours on a single lino of rails, as alleged by the Department, this could only be done by prejudicing the public safety. The intervals between the trains would be so small that the margin of safety would be reduced to a dangerously small one, especially' when the fallibility of human judgment is admitted as a factor.

The Mayor (Mr. L. J. Bagnall), in answer to a reporter's .question last evening, expressed the opinion that tho vote of a majority of the members of the committee should be sufficient to bind the Government to keep its promise to duplicate the tunnel.