TAUPO RAILWAY SCHEME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15096, 12 September 1912, Page 8

TAUPO RAILWAY SCHEME.

ROTORUA OBJECTIONS.

PROTEST AGAINST PRIVATE LINE.

.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

Wellington, Wednesday. jib hearing of tho Taupo Totara Timber Company's petition by a committee of the House of Representatives was continued to-day. Mr. Dal'/ioll, chairman of the company, continuing his evidence, said there 'nas no part of New Zealand where so much country could be opened up by a single vailway project as that before the committee. An extension of tho company's lino to Taupo, a distance of twenty miles, would, •with the adjunct of a steamer service, opori up tho whole of the vast undeveloped country round Lake Taupo, every acre of which was almost nloughablo. Air. J. R- Raw, president of tho Rotorua Chamber of Commerce, strongly opposed the company's proposals. He contended that a Stato line from Rotorua to Taupo would bo infinitely better than the suggested Piitaruru connection. Further, the Rotorua-Taupo line could be constructed for £100,000 less than it would cost to put tho other line in ordinal working condition. A private lino would be a bar to settlement. The proposal before the committee, if endorsed, would depreciate Rotorua- as a State asset, and would create in tho Taupo district a great •monopoly. Tho witness argued that if tho Taupo-Putaruru connection was decided oil it would effectively bar for a very long period at all ©vents the development of the eastern district and Tauranga Harbour which was tho natural coastal outlet for the district. These points wero elaborated by Air. Raw at considerable length. He described the suggestion that tho Putarurn-Taupo line would give a better tourist route than the RotoruaTaupo connection as being manifestly absurd. Tho former would give to the company a gigantic trust, and mean withdrawing traffic from the State railways and depreciating the value of State afisets at Rotorua.. . The possibility of tho company obtaining a huge slice of native land was surely opposed to all ideas of land settlement as at present understood in New Zealand. Ho insisted on tho importance of maintaining the assets at Rotorua, seeing that an adequate return was received for the money epeni there out of public funds. The State was practically asked to subsidise the company and guarantee it against loss on the carriage of goods over its line. Such a"proposal would not be tolerated by . the public of this or any. other country. In reply to the chairman, witness said ho was a- storekeeper in Rotorua. In answer to Sir John Findlay, witness admitted ho was interested in leases at Rotorua, and that of tho seventy members of his chamber all were similarly interested with the exception of two. His objections would cease if the line were completed and bought outright by _ the Government in 18 months. lie considered, however, that the Government would have to remake the line.