RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17275, 26 September 1919, Page 6

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION

ALLOCATION OF LOANS.

FAIRER SHARE FOR NORTE,

CAMPAIGN BY THE LEAGUE,

The campaign of the Auckland Railways League to obtain a fairer share of railway loans for the North Island -was brought*. under the notice of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, at yesterday's meeting of the council of that body, in a communication from the president of the league, Mr. I . E. Cheal.

The writer urged the necessity of action, before the elections, to see that some fairer basis of the allocation of future loans should be made before anyother loans were shared out to variou? Darts of the Dominion. The league had been corresponding with the chambers at, Gisborne, Napier, Stratford, and New Plymouth, suggesting unity of action on

the part of the Auckland. Hawke's Bay, and Taranaki provincial districts .a organising for a strenuous effort *o obtain just treatment for the future, as I acair.st the scandalous treatment of the , North Island in the past by all Govern- | ments.

j "We require between 500 and 600 miles lof railways to link up the Main Trunk ! lines of Auckland, Hawke's Bay, a;: 1 [ larar.aki," said Mr. Cheal, "irrespective ! of the shortage of 450 miles of railway we ! are behind the South Island mileage ' I He added that it must be insisted that I future loan allocations should be based ..a j population, produce, and value of experts i and of lands fit for settlement, purposes. j As a first step toward unity of effort ha I suggested that the chambers in the three provincial districts pass resolutions suprorting any district that felt aggrieved in its erlorts to obtain greater and more lapid progress in pushing on Main Trunk lines.

It was decided to intimate to the ieaz-ua that the chamber would support it in any way it could.