REQUEST FOR RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21167, 27 April 1932, Page 12

REQUEST FOR RAILWAY.

deputation from buller. PRIME MINISTER'S DOUBTS. lessons FROM EXPERIENCE. [BY TELEGBAFH. —SPECIAL REPORTER.] WELLINGTON, Tuesday. "If the optimism of deputations regarding the earnings of railway lines could be transferred to figures the Railways Department would be a flourishing concern said the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, to-day when replying in sceptical vein to representations by a Buller istrict deputation that, work on the West-port-Inangahua line should be restarted and the labour paid for out of the Unemployment Fund. The Prime Minister said he recognised it would be an advantage to have men continue their occupation on the spot where their wives and families were domiciled, but the fact had to be faced that it was impossible to borrow money for railway construction at present. "I know that any unfinished work of this sort looks something like an unfinished house," said Mr. Forbes. "I have seen houses with the roof left off because the money has run out and that is the position with this line. If the line is finished we have to face the possibility of drjving the last spike and then abandoning the line altogether, because if the cost of running is too great it cannot be continued unless the public purse is inexhaustible Mr. Forbes continued that he had been assured there was ample trade for this line, but he did not know of a deputation waiting upon a Minister that did not claim I great deal of trade for Us line, yet when a railway was finished it frequen y occurred that the district interests immediately made arrangements for motorlorries to carry their goods. Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of tne Opposition and member for Buller: lou have your own farming district in minc^> Pe I have in mind a district in which a dairy company was most prominent in advocating a line and when the line was constructed the company held a ballot to see whether its produce should be sent by rail or by sea. They carried a ballot in favour of sea and the rail did not get the business. "These things make you feel you have been let down," continued Mr. Forbes. "It is a question of paying interest on the full cost of the construction of lines Ro far as branch lines are concerned, if they pay working expenses without any interest they are kept going, but you could not do this with new lines. Ihe Government could not announce to the people from whom it hoped to borrow money that it intended to do this. Putting moncv into railway construction is a thing of the past. People will not lend money for that purpose now, as railways all the world over arc in difficulties." Mr. Forbes added that the Government had slowed down on hydro-electric and other construction .works and the railways were also governed by finance. He promised to investigate the representations made.