RAILWAY PROJECTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20218, 1 April 1929, Page 8

RAILWAY PROJECTS.

A Ministerial inspection of the alternative routes for the line to bridge the existing gap in the South Island Main Trunk line, between Parnassus and Wharanui, has been followed by statements indicating that there is no question of its construction, that the only point at issue is whether the coastal or the inland route is to be followed. Last week the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Labour made a hurried tour of the area, after which both made statements showing that in their opinion work will be begun on the scheme almost immediately. Indeed, Mr. Forbes said "reports as to routes would be considered by Cabinet and engineers, and the work would be put in hand as early as possible." The decision regarding the Rotorua-Taupo line has been made, and that project can be dismissed from practical politics. The history of the decision which caused it to stop is useful now only as a pointed contrast to what is being done about the South Island Main Trunk connection. No anxiety is expressed about the possibility that it might not return a reasonable rate of interest on the capital expended. In the pronouncements of the two Ministers, no mention can be found of so inconvenient a question. What Mr. Forbes said was amplified by Mr. Veitch with the remark that "the public could rest assured that the line would be constructed." There has been a suggestion that criticism of this work is merely North Island objection to the expenditure of public money in the South, but the subject is far too serious to be dismissed in that easy fashion. Here is a railway project which has been categorically condemned in an expert report officially on record. The prospect of a heavy working loss is supported by a profusion of close estimates and detailed figures. The summing up was that the completion of the lina was "not a sound economic proposition" at the time of the inquiry—l92s. Now, after hurried one-day tours, responsible Ministers express satisfaction with the nature of the country they have inspected, and assure interested gatherings that the work will certainly be done. It is not a reassuring prospect for those who realise the heavy annual loss already returned by the South Island railways. No question of South Island and North Island interests clashing can obscure the point that the Government, if it proceeds in face of the Fay-Casey report, without producing any evidence in rebuttal, will be coir.Diittiiig the country to a very serious step, the. possible consequences of which cannot be contemplated without uneasiness.