THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1922. LINKING UP THE NORTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18278, 20 December 1922, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1922. LINKING UP THE NORTH.

The virtual completion of the Auckland-Whangarei railway this week is an event of unusual importance. The line's actual completion is promised by March, next; but, as only a break of five chains now remains at Mareretu and arrangements are effected for conveying passengers by other means across this very small gap, the Public Works Department now finds it practicable to open through traffic. This means that with the exception of the negligible gap, the whole of the one hundred and thirty miles of railway connecting Whangarei with Auckland will be available for regular traffic, and that the section ! extending from Whangarei northward to the Bay of Islands and to Kaikohe, which has been isolated for years, will enter upon a new career of service. It is to be confidently anticipated that this opening up of railway communication between the city and a large portion of the North will bring speedily a marked development in the Northern area. It has immense possibilities. Some of these, as exemplified in the progress made already along the line of railway connecting Whangarei with the Bay of Islands, have been already signally developed,* as the opening of the Moerewa freezing works and the increase of shipping at Opua sufficiently prove. Their further exploitation, with untold advantage to the whole of the area adjacent to the completed line, is now assured. Such an expectation is based upon abundant evidence that railways everywhere contribute to advancing settlement and prosperity.

The importance of communications can hardly be exaggerated. The roadmaker is humanity's pathfinder in much more than a physical sense. He has been the pioneer of civilisation. The highway of the sea has been another of man's roads to more social and more satisfying life. The great inter-ocean canals have been links between peoples. The upper reaches of the air are being made to serve the same beneficent end. Lacking communications man has remained a savage and his subdual of the earth b-v wise toil has tarried. With speedy and sure transit his kingdom has been won. In this advance railways have played a part of outstanding service. Until the locomotive came the world's population, in relatively civilised lands, increased so slowly as to be almost stationary. In 1760 v a year that divides the old rural Britain from its modern industrial successor, there was a population of G. 479.7.30 in England and Wales. By 1801, after the introduction of modern manufacturing, that number had increased to 8,872,980. But it was after the opening of the last century that the rate of increase became most marked—it was when railways made the country's interior easily accessible. That is typicai of world-wide experience. A hundred years ago only the fringes of North America were inhabited by whites. In 1820 the United States' population was a little less than ten millions. Xow it is 110.000.000. Canada has had the same experience. Its population has grown with the railroad. In the development of the j overseas portions of the Empire this | factor has been of outstanding im- ! portance. Comparison with ether lands, when due allowance is riade for tracts of country in them that climate and other natural conditions make scarcely habitable, shows that New Zealand has lagged behind in railway construction, with conse-

queut restriction of population. But our own records are significant enough to impress the service of railways. A glance at the Year Book's maps showing separately the distribution of dairy and other cattle as at January 1, 1922, reveals the fact that the dairying industry has closely followed railway development. A comparison of census returns for 1906 and 1921 covering the area served by the Main Trunk line's construction through the King Country, shows an enormous increase of population in that area. It is a matter of 'common knowledge that idle lands were brought into cultivation, and that towns sprang up in places hitherto occupied by dense viigin forest. Last census registered a very notable increase in the population of the Bay of Plenty, an increase surpassing in ratio that of other districts in the Dominion : it was located along that portion of the East Coast Railway already constructed. These things are significant of the development to be expected in the region served by the Auckland-Whangarei line.

It is noteworthy that in new countries railways must be built ahead of immediate requirements. The United States Government lavishly subsidised transcontinental railway construction very early as a matter of deliberate policy. The policy has been justified by the event: these railways have practically created the great wealth and power of the States. In this enterprise the British Empire has not shown equal courage: with four times the area of the United States —taking the position before the war —and four times their population, the Empire had but half the railway mileage of the States. A vigorous railway construction policy is absolutely essential in a new country's development. There is no call for reckless expenditure, but for wise enterprise, emboldened by the knowledge that losses in running railways may be soon more than balanced by large profits accruing to the country from closer settlement. Men will cheerfully undertake pioneer settlement when good communications are assured: they cannot be blamed for reluctance to doom themselves and their families to the living burial that isolation means. All honour is due to the settlers of the North who have bravely endured for years the lack of good communications that the new railway link will do something further to remedy. Congratulations may be sincerely offered also to the Minister for Public Works and his departmental officers on the achievement that is virtually attained this week. Three tasks in railway construction have been definitely marked by him for speedy accomplishment—this North Auckland link, the Otira tunnel, and the East Coast line. With satisfactory progress made on the first and second, it remains for him to concentrate on the East Coast line, and bring it to early completion.