LINK WITH TARANAKI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18897, 20 December 1924, Page 10

LINK WITH TARANAKI.

THE STRATFORD RAILWAY. SPEEDING-UP CONSTRUCTION. COMPLETION IN FIVE YEARS. fBV TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. tf£W PLYMOUTH. Friday The construction of the Stratford-Oka-hukura railway, linking up Taranaki and Auckland, is to be expedited. Early in the New Year work is to be recommenced at the Stratford end of the line, and the joining up of the gap of 54 miles between the rail heads at Tahora and Matiere is expected to be completed in five years. This important announcement was made at Ohura to-day by the Minister for Railways, the Hon." J. G. Coates, after he had listened to a deputation from the Ohura Railway League, strongly urging expedition in the completion of the gap. The deputation also pressed for a definite sur- ; vey of the route over the last 10 miles i to Ohura.

Mr. Coates stated that the men on the Opunako railway would be finishing work at the end of February, and it was his intention to transfer the huts and 50 men to the Tahora end of the gap, and make a start with the work and the first tunnel. As more men were relieved from the Opunakc lino they would be concentrated on the Taranaki-Auckland line at the Stratford end. Authority had been given to have the uncompleted section defined and the work was now proceeding. He thought the gap would bo completed in five years. __