A STRONG MINISTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3071, 22 January 1913, Page 8

A STRONG MINISTER.

HON. W. FRASER AND RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. (From Oub Own CoEBESPONrJNx.I January 15. The Hon. W. Fraser, Minister of Public Works, is exhibiting a refreshing candour and a strength of mind that deputations accustomed to the methods of past years are finding somewhat new. A typical example was furnished at Rotorua when an important deputation urged many and weighty reasons for the construction of a railway from Rotorua to Taupo, this to servo instead of the proposed private line. Mr Fraser said that the whole thing was a question of money. He would not deprecate the weight of the arguments brought forward, but could say in reply to them that there was no money available. Present settlement demanded more attention than future settlement, and the Government must give settlers at present on the land some means of communication to bring about proper agricultural development, but, as he had said, nothing of the kind suggested was possible without money. To say that the Government had enough money in hand to build railways would be betraying a profound ignorance of the subject. He was not opposed to the Taupo line. Far from it. in fact he did not wish to discourage the deputation, but he did not see the possibility of constructing the railway when all the money at prcj sent being* borrowed was already pledged. There was no doubt that the connection between Rotorua and Tauranga would soon be rendered essential, and a good route with an easy grade was obtainable, yet he could only repeat what he had* already said as to the prospects for its construction in the immediate future. He was as anxious as anyone to see the financial conditions improve, and when a change was effected he would do his utmost to assist development in a district of the potentialities of the Bay of Plenty. As to the construction of a private railway, he would only say that it was more a question of policy than anything else. The Government had laid down the principle that all railways should be Stateowned. Nevertheless his own personal feeling in the matter was that if private enterprise was willing to undertake a heavy responsibility like this the State should not be guilty of a dog-in-the-manger attitude.