RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19275, 12 September 1924, Page 4

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION

GISBORNE-NAPIER LINE. DEMAND FOR COMPLETION. SPEEDING-UP POLICY URGED. (Fbou Otto Own CokßESPONonrr.j " WELLINGTON, September 11. It is perhaps not generally realised by one half of New Zealand what the other half is asking- for in the wav of money for the making of rands and railways. To-day a bipr deputation waited on the Prime Minister and Minister of Works to ask that encrget,io work should be undertaken for the completion of the railway between Gisborne and Napior. This line, sections of which are partly completed, goes through some very difficult country, and there is a very large viaduct to be built. The district/ however, is richly productive b<ut badly roadecl, but. of late the present Government hits done a good deal to improve the road tag- and the settlers gratefully acknowledge what, has been done in this respect. Both the Prime Minister and iMr Coates in replying to to-day's deputation, made' soma remarks that were of general interest. The".lcon. Mr Coates said he realised that the request for the pushing 'on to completion of the line was a. reasonable one. It ,was' just a question of the amount of money the Government, could allocate to this particu-, lar line. There were engineering difficulties to be overcome, and very important surveys had recently been made disclosing valuable information. As to the cost, to finish the lino to Wairoa would take six years at at}, expenditure of a quarter of a million a ysar. Mr Lysnar: Too little. Mr Coites: What you are asking for is half a million <a year to finish it to Gisborne. If you spend at the rate of £250.000 it will take 12 years. We are allocating £1.200.000 a year for railways altogether, and you must "realise that if we spend a larger amount on railways we cannot spend so much on roads, and sr> far as some of the settlers are concerned the immediate necessity is roading. I do not think anyone would say that we could do without the money for roads. The deputation, he added, was anxious |o see what the Government would propose, and he hoped the Public Work? Statement tvould show them that. There were, however, other railways that also had to be considered, such as the Glenhope section of the South Island railway and others. He did not gay all these works shou'd "nme before this one. but the interests of the country as a whole had to_ be considered. . All Governments had said that this railway would have to be made, but it was the present Government . that had started it. and it had given them something they had never been given before. His department had certainly speeded up the work on this line from Napier at agrowing amount per year, and he hoped to increase that amount aga'in this vear. He was unable ?t present to say how much the vote would be. He had to put his recommendations before the Prime Minister, and it would be necesSirv for Mr Massey and the Cabinet to consider what amount could be allocated. He realised the time had arrived wlien they should make better progress with thf work. When they started on those lines it would pay them to out aside a stated sum per year so that they could arrancre for thi necessary machinery, contracts, etc.. to do the work economically. The difficult countrv thev were going thrrnifh now h-ad been handled fairly economical v, and the price per yard bad been brought down bv menus of organisation and th" iis« nf matlvip'v. Mr Massey said he was very glad to learn that the isolation of the Gisborne district had to a certain extent been relieved hv thp making of * l 'e read referred to. He had gone through that way about 18 months ago, nnd thousrh it was raining heavily tbev had mannered to get through.He could understand how much they appreciated what, had been done since then. Tfc wr>9 scarcely necessary for them to stress the importance of tho district from a producing point of view. It was one of the most productive in New Zealand, nnd ono thnt it would xrw to develop. Unfortunately other districts as well came into the competition.,, for the money available. All \mbfoted Jjir-mrriniVicaHoTi with the main centres, and there were several capes where promises for t.b o commencement of works had beeu mado. Tb«-re waa the Glenhooe section in the South Island, and thev would have to go on with that, and also the Westoort line, which would |ead to one of the most important coaJ-beajing areas in the dominion. In connection with tho Gisborne line, there was one thing that was common to the others—there wore very heavy v/o'-ks to be put through before it could reach the stage where engines with carriages could run from one centre to another. There was a viaduct that would be pile of the biggest in the world. He was not sayintr that to discourage them, but it was iust as well to realise that there were difficulties in front of them. He looked upon this line as a continuation of tho East Copst Main Trunk line that would eventuallv connect Auckland with Napier. They had some time ago let a contract for •ttother part of that line, connecting Oootjki with Auckland, and personally he thought Ihn contract system would he successful and ono result, would be that tV>e Une would be completed sooner than vyould otherwise have been the case. Mr Coates was now proparing hi 9 Public Works Statement, and within the nevt few weks it would be submitted to Parliament. He was afraid that ho (Mr Massey) had the most difficult part of the business to deal with—the finding of the money. There w*re many claims and many demands, and there was o"ly a certain amount available. It would bo unwise to attempt to rush the London money market for more money than thev thought it would be wise to give us. That must not be donn. He had an idea of thr- amount that b» could get at .i reasonable rate of interest, and he meant to koep within the limit, Just at present they horl to borrow for other mirposes bes'des railway constijiioliou. Lately they had to borrow for relending to settlers' and to nrovido homes for workers. They ba.d had to borrow for that rwrnosß pretlv heavily, but he did not think it would be neces«nrv to keen it up at tho present rate. Tbore ""ould be _ a chancre for the better within the next six or nine months. Meantime he was aski'nrr their financial nsrents >'" London to advise as to borrowing. That was necessary, and he was elad in say that no obiections hn c ] been raised. They would hare to do the best they could with tho amount of monev at their disposal to complete certain lines in the interests of the country rs a whole, and tonkins: at ; t 'rom tha* noint of view he did not think tho Kast Coast railway would be very far behind. TAUPO TO PUTARURU. SATISFACTORY NEGOTIATIONS. (Per Onttkt* Pans* Association.) WELLINGTON, September 11. The project of building a railway from Taupo to Putaruru. which has been reported upon by a Royal Commisson. has now reached a rntisfactory stage as the result of negotiations between tho Minister of Railways, the Railway Board, and the Taupo-Totara Timber Company. The lastnamed offered 19 miles of contructed railway to fhe board for £50,000. subject to the conservation of certain rights: and after considerable discussion made a further announcement that it would raise no objection to the howd building tho proposed line if it could be shown that it would serve other timber interest* in the district better than the company's line. This concession is expected to go a long way towards disposing of the obstacles which hove held up the project for some years. The total cost of the 40 miles of new line nnd th" relaving of the existing 19 miles with 401 b rails will be, roughly, £300,000.