TAUPO TIMBER RAILWAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18584, 17 December 1923, Page 10

TAUPO TIMBER RAILWAY

NEW BOARD'S NEGOTIATIONS.

COMPANY'S SALE PRICE.

CONFERENCE OF ALL PARTIES

An. outline of the - history of the question 1 of the public-ownership of the Taupo Totara Timber Company's railway has been given' by the chairman of the com. pany, Mr. F. G. : Dalziell, of Wellington. Mr. Dalziell said that prior to the outbreak of war, in 1914, the company had in mind the extension of the line to Taupo and had muds a survey for this purpose, at a cost of about £2000 or £3000. The war, however, stopped the project. On returning from England in 1918 he found that the value of the timber had so appreciated that the success of the line no longer depended on its extension to Taupo. Moreover, with the timber in the more easily accessible parts of the Dominion being rapidly cut out, the value of the timber in tnis district would continue to still further appreciate. He thus foresaw that the cost of the line" could be repaid by the constitution of a sinking fund in the form of royalty on the timber, and in this way the Government or some other public body could obtain the line for all time for the public. He placed these views before a meeting of the settlers of the Putaruru district. As the outcome of ensuing representations to the ; Government, the special commission of three years ago was appointed to report on the question. The commission's report, said Mr. Dalziell, was submitted in due course and the question of giving effect to it was then pursued. After some preliminary discussions a conference was held in Wellington between the representatives of the Public Works Department, the company and the settlers and other timber owners. This conference arrived at a basis of agreement for an acquisition of the railway by the public and the next step was the devising of means to give effect to this agreement. This led to the formation of the Putaruru-Taupo Railway Board, which was given certain powers to acquire the company's railway. The board had last session of Parliament, said Mr, Dalziell, applied to have its powers extended to permit it to build an alternative line if it so desired. On hearing of this he, Mr. Dalziell, went to the Minister for Public Works to object, a# the company, an interested party, had not been consulted in the matter at all. The Attorney-General was called in and pointed out that it was not the practice in England to grant a charter for the building of a railway in a district where there was already one, unless the owners of the existing one were unreasonable. Consequently the new power for the board took the form that it could build an alternative railway only if the company's terms and conditions for the sale of its railway to the board were unreasonable, the Government to be the judge on the point of reasonableness. The board now wanted the company to submit a definite offer for the sale of the railway, but the. company refused, its contention being that the offer should be submitted to a joint conference of the board, the Government and the company. There it could be discussed in full and the Government more easily decide whether or not the company's terms were reasonable. Consequently, the Hon. J. G. Coates, as the Minister particularly concerned, . was taken over the line last week by members of the company ana the board. A conference, added Mr. Dalziell, would probably be held shortly in Wellington.