MIDLAND RAILWAY LINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20768, 10 January 1931, Page 10

MIDLAND RAILWAY LINE.

PROTESTS AT CESSATION. THE UNITED PARTY'S £70,000,000. [r,Y TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] NELSON, Friday. The Waimea County Council and the Nelson City Council have entered strongest protests against the cessation of work on the Midland railway line. The county chairman, Mr. 0. Corder, said it was astounding that a Government put into power 011 its railway policy could stop such a work and take away the money already granted for it. The Mayor of Nelson, Mr. \V. J. Moffatt, said at a meeting of the council that Kir Joseph Ward had given ail assurance that the railway would ho taken to Murchison in three years. The stun of £125,000 put' aside for the work this year should lie spent. It came as a blow and a surprise to find the work stopped when Nelson was given an understanding that h vigorous railway policy would bo followed bv the Government.

Mr. S. A. Gibbs asked what tlmy wore to do with the 300 men put out of work, lie considered that if tlie funds of the Government were not enough to continue the work on the railway then the Unemployment Board's funds should supplement tho work. The poll tax had to lie used somewhere, and it could not be used better than in a national work like the railway.

The Mayor: I suppose I will Ret into trouble if I mention that £70,000,000 of the United Party. The Government has not yet completed its borrowing scheme. He considered that the £70.000,000 had been a lure which had pained a number of Northern seats for tho Government. Mr. Muggins said the £70,000.000 was ordy a figure of speech.