THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTH CROSS FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1914. THE PAEROA-POKENO LINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15520, 30 January 1914, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTH CROSS FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1914. THE PAEROA-POKENO LINE.

Convincing evidence of the importance of the Paeroa-Pokeno railway is furnished in the series of articles on the Hauraki Plains concluded in to-day's Herald. Our Special Commissioner, after ' a visit to the , district, gives . details of the immense area' of land which the drainage works have turned from swamp to rich'alluvial' soil capable of producing, as much wealth per acre as the best .natural dairying country in New Zealand. This has been accom- - plished Iby wise • Governmental expenditure, the interests of settlement. . The pioneers on the land are , already sending butter-fat to the value of £20,000 per annum to the factories established as ' the result of their industry and enterprise. But . there remains much land to be-taken up and improved. The present yield of the district is but a fraction of . what it will produce When' a railway runs from Pokeno to ,'Paeroa, giving direct communication with ' Auckland and cheap transport for all that the plains can produce under the - close settlement and, intensive cultivation which invariably results from easy access to the best ' markets. The draining of the plains stands to the credit of , the Continuous . Government.;, we can depend that the Reform Government will "not , risk its reputation as.the " farmers' rgqvern!- - ment" by any itardiness" in following < a good examples The .full interest on- the mohey?si»ent in 'draining the swamp. can 'nevier' be " earned till v the 44 r miles of railway to ' connect Paeroa ; with Pokeno. have been constructed and- handed over to the Railway Department.' We have al- 1 ready had the assurance of the Minister for Railways of his keen appreciation of the value of /• the line; ' the Prime Minister is so familiar with the whole district that he must be fully conscious oi its overwhelming , claims; • the Minister for Public Works has no doubt ' more enthusiasm- for the Otago Central than for ; any Auckland project, but unless he is altogether blind to the urgency, of expending public works funds to swell - our exports and produce profits for the railways he cannot fail to " be impressed ' with the ease for the Paeroa-Pokeno connection. ■ • • • *

Regarded purely as a . settlement railway to bring the produce of the Hauraki Plains to market the Paeroa-Pokeno line would' amply justify -its cost. There is no.railway • project : before; .the people of New Zealand to compare with- it either in low cost of construction or in the promise of high and continu* ous railway returns. Over 300,000 acres.. of rich level country would be tapped by a short 44 miles of line traversing a country which presents no engineering ' difficulties. The Paeroa-Pokeno line < would arouse s no enthusiasm in the. public works engineer, for . it would give no scope for his skill, but to the railway manager it has possibilities, which make it indispensable to those whose business it is to control traffic on the New. Zealand railways. At present the whole of the produce of the Thames Valley. and its immense passenger traffic have to be carried by Morrinsville to Frankton —a distance of 45 miles from Paeroa —to reach the Main Trunk line 45 miles south of Pokeno. There is thus a bend of 90 miles to be traversed which can be reduced to a straight run of 44 miles by the construction of the link from Paeroa to Pokeno. The result of this waste haulage of 46 miles for every train either to-or from the Thames Valley is a congestion of trains at Frankton Junction, which increases the difficulty of handling the railway traffic over the whole of the North Island. -This congestion is already acute; the traffic is growing enormously. Long before the East Coast i railway is opened the use of this circuitous route will have become as impossible to the- railway authorities as it is inconvenient and costly to those using the lino. On the present traffic the PaeroaPokeno link is necessary for tHe; smooth working. of . the . railways--What will it be when the enormous

wealth, of -the East Coast is being poured into Auckland for shipment, and when Aucklanders are as familiar • with through .trains to Gishorne as they, now.are with through trains to Wellington? To carry the whole of the East Coast traffic round by Frankton • when .46 miles • can be saved by a short link across the Hauraki Plains would be unthinkable waste if the lines could carry it. And the lines could not carry it without expenditure which to a certainty would be far greater than , the '. whole cost of a Paeroa-Pokeno.link. Eve a if those j who so persistently advocate bringing the East Coast traffic to Auckland by way of Rotorua gained their point.the difficulty of; handling the traffic at Frankton would have to be solved. This can best be accomplished by constructing the East Coast railway on the generally acceptable , route to Waihi and . completing the connection ,by. the link from Paeroa. to Pokeno. This : link, as has been shown, will open up an immense area of rich country; 1 it will shorten the route by 46 miles to the'' whole of the Thames , Valley and to the great , unopened country on the East Coast;-and it will enable the Railway Department to make the whole of the railway system of the North Island more easily workable. All this can- be accomplished at a cost much less then half of what will still be needed to complete the Otira tunnel. Can these two projects.be weighed in the balance, even, in Greymouth or Christchurch, ■ without emphasising the folly and the waste of the big tunnel?. Can any. railway project in any part of New Zealand offer so-many advantages for a small outlay as the scheme to connect Paeroa with Pokeno through the Hauraki Plains?