EAST COAST RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15975, 21 July 1915, Page 9

EAST COAST RAILWAY.

AN EXTENSION URGED. POSITION OF KATIKATI. [BY TELEGRAPH. OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Katikati, Tuesday. A Fri.i, meeting c the executive of the ; Katikati Railway League, Mr. Vesey Stewart presiding, was held on Saturday, when resolutions were unanimously adopted requesting the Hon. \V. H. Herries. in his dual capacity as the representative of Tauranga and as a Minister of the Crown, to urge the Minister for Public Works to place on the Estimates of file present session of Parliament such an amount as will provide for the extension of the East Coast main line from its present proposed terminus south of Athenree to the Township of Katikati, a distance of about six miles ; that, as Katikati is provided with ample wharf and storage accommodation, and being accessible by small steamers and scows, the produce from the Tauranga and Railway Wharves at the Mount can be conveyed direct to tha Waihi and goldfields markets; that this league strongly supports the Tauranga League in its request for the simultaneous construction of the line from Tauranga to Katikati, and will await the arrival of the railhead at Katikati from Tauranga in the full expectation that the Government, in discharge of its promises— far as the state of the money market and industrial resources for construction of ferro-con-crete bridges will permit—will use its best exertions for the early completion of the East Coast Main Trunk line; that the league protests against the assumption of the word "United" Bay of Plenty Railway League by a league having its headquarters at Rotorua, and considers that the construction of no branch lines, however desirable, should be entertained till after the completion of the East Coast Main Trunk line.

At the same meeting a letter was read from the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce inviting the Road Board to send delegates to a conference to be held at Hamilton with a. view to advocating railway accommodation connecting South Waikato with the Port of Tauranga under the Local Railways Act of last session. The unanimous opinion was expressed that the present time was inopportune for the proposal, and a reply to that effect was directed to be forwarded.