NORTH AUCKLAND LINES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19143, 8 October 1925, Page 13

NORTH AUCKLAND LINES

MR. COATES' ACHIEVEMENTS. RAILWAYS* LEAGUE TRIBUTE: ENERGETIC POLICY PRAISED. Many tributes have been paid to the wisdom of the policy of concentration adopted by the Hon. 37 G. Coates since lie became Minister for Public Works, and to the energy with which the policy has been carried into effect, but few tributes could be more convincing than that, prepared by the Auckland Railways and Development. League. The publicity committee of the league was to have prepared a booklet on the linking up of the Wairoa and Hokianga waterways with the railways. But since the publication of -the Public Works Statement for 1925-26, the committee has decided that the booklet is unnecessary. The proposal has therefore been dropped, and instead a resolution expressing appreciation of the Minister's efforts is to be submitted to members and forwarded to Mr. Coates. The resolution is accompanied by a letter giving details of the work that has been accomplished as a result of the energetic policy followed. The letter opens by referring to the great forward moveihent made by the Minister since 1918 when his first Ministerial introduction to North Auckland settlers was made at the opening of the Haurau section of the North Auckland Main Trunk railway, 93 miles from -Auckland. Since that period he had pushed on the Main Trunk line to Waiotira Junction, 107 miles from Auckland, and from that junction to Kirikopuni, 122 miles from Auckland. He now proposed in the estimates to join up the Dargaville section, 13j miles from Kirikopuni, at a cost of about £250,000. That would open up the Kaihu Valley section of 25 miles and connect up the west coast to Hokianga Harbour, as well as opening out the Government State kauri forest at Waipoua j by direct carriage to the Auckland mills with their up-to-date machinery for utilising every inch of the kauri logs and preventing the waste of bush mills in the past.. This would give 162 miles of line direct to Auckland, via Waiotira Junction. Beyond this the branch line, 22 miles long, to Whangarei from Waiotira Junction had been almost completed. The through traffic from the branch line to Otiria Junction, Opua and Kaikohe had ! given a great impetus to the lines, which could not make headway for want of through traffic, and had caused the outward traffic at Whangarei to 'jump from £*>4,886 in 1919. to £98,379 'in 1925. Through traffic had nearly doubled the returns on the Whangarei section and it would shortly be among the paying lines of the Dominion. On the Main Trunk line from KaikDhe northwards, the Okaihau section, eight and a-quarter miles long, was completed, leaving 13 miles from Okaihau to Te Tio to be carried out. At present the objective was to reach Rangiahua on the Hokianga • Harbour, leaving Mangamuka and Te Tio for further investigation. By main and branch lines to Okaihau there was an unbroken connection with Auckland of 197 miles. " With the comprehensive scheme as shown carried out, since -1918, by the present Minister for Public Works, we shall shortly see the North Auckland territory of 3,800,000 acres revolutionised," the 'letter states. "It will be possible for the produce of this large extent of countrv to be carried to Auckland for direct "shipment. This should give an increased impetus to the largely neglected Northland territory, and it fully justifies the contention of the league, that_ in 1918 wo required a North Island Minister for Public Works with v : sion and energy to carry out this important work ,50 years after its initiation in 1870. We think this great achievement deserves the recognition of the league in a suitable manner."