SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21446, 22 September 1931, Page 8

SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

PROPOSED STOPPAGE OF WORK MASS MEETINGS OF PROTEST (Per United Press Association.) BLENHEIM, September 21. Following on a spirited mass meeting at Kaikoura on Saturday, when resolutions protesting against the Railway Board’s recommendations regarding the South Island main trunk were carried, Mr E. F. Healy, M.P. for Wairau, was present at a series of meetings of workers and their wives at the half dozen big camps along the route. Resolutions challenging the board’s finding were carried, and in addition the workers carried resolutions asking to be informed as to the Government’s intentions regard ing the future employment of the 740 men and their dependents if the line Is closed, and demanding an immediate pronouncement by the Government. A mass meeting is being held in Blenheim to-day. INDIGNATION MEETINGS RAILWAYS BOARD CRITICISED. (Per United Press Association.) BLENHEIM, September 21, _ A series of indignation meetings _in various parts of Marlborough, arising from the Railways Board’s recommendation in connection with the South Island main trunk, culminated this afternoon in the largest mass meeting ever held in Blenheim, when a spirited protest against the board’s finding and _ its figures was entered, and it was decided to send a deputation to Wellington to meet members of both Houses. Mr E. F. Healy, M.P., after contrasting the board’s estimates of revenue and expenditure on the project with those prepared by railway experts, declared that the board had laid itself open to the derision of all who knew even the ABC of the South Island main trunk. He challenged the board to substantiate by nearly £1,000,000 its estimate for the completion of the gap, and declared that the extravagance of its figures indicated a “nigger in the woodpile,” and lie asked the people of Marlborough to help to smoke him out,— (Cheers) Illustrating what he termed the absurdity of the board’s figures, Mr Healy drew attention to its estimates of £127,753 to complete the construction to Clarence River. Ho offered personally to take a contract to lay the rails to Clarence for £SOOO and to make profit. He was sure the men on the job would be glad of a chance at half that figure. Other speakers pointed out that £BOO,OOO had already been spent or committed for between Wharanui and Parnassus, and the interests thereon would be nearly £50,000 per annum whereas even on the board’s figures another £43,000 per annum would give New Zealand the benefits of the railway and save the £4,000,000 capital already expended. The meeting was very lively, and full of spirit. The speakers did not hesitate to express the opinion that the line had been made the victim, first of party politicians and, secondly, of a board which had demonstrated its lack of vision and unfitness for the task with which it had been entrusted.

Further meetings at Seddon and Ward are projected and public men are openly advancing the opinion that if the line is stopped the time is ripe for the establishment of a separate Parliament for the South Island. Attention was pointedly drawn to Auckland’s £2,000,000 station and the deviation of Taranaki’s immensely-costly side line to the main trunk and Wellington’s Tawa Flat deviation, as three instances which could never add a copper to the Railways Department’s revenue.