THE MARTOX-LEVIN DEVIATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16268, 29 June 1916, Page 4

THE MARTOX-LEVIN DEVIATION.

! Sir, Mr. McKenzie makes an attempt to obscure the issue of the Hebald's contention as to the Levm-Marton railway being a superfluous luxury at the present time and for many years to come. Surely Mr. McKenzie does not expect those "who know the country to accept the inference contained in his statement ' that the sandhills are selling at £28 to - £56 per acre, and are, in fact, non- " existent. That the country to seaward •'"» is largely sandhill is a fair statement. What the patches of good land may be sold or "swopped" at does not alter the Vfact. As to the good land being no- -X. where half-a-dozen miles from .the Main >' Trunk line, this statement was not in the Herald. Any reasonable person whoit"' knows the district can see that the good- ** land is nowhere more than half-a-dozen" miles from a line. It is doubtful whether M anywhere near £17,000 built the Bulls* Vfe bridge, and that is only a traffic bridge. '4 The statement that the route runs ■»# through _ sbme of the finest land in the 'S colony is such a loose statement ,as to. Sa mean almost nothing. At Rongotea, for a little way, it does. * ■.'* The lower Rangitikei may be unnavig- 'C: able now, as Mr. McKenzie says, but it , v would only be four, miles nearer "this T railway were completed. Other parts of - the_ Dominion, without roads or rail, are '» entitled to some consideration before this excelleritly-roaded and railed county is * entitled to such a plainlv superfluous luxury. * nZsos.