SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

Otago Witness, Issue 4041, 25 August 1931, Page 33

SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

A COSTLY UNDERTAKING *

RAILWAY BOARDS INVESTIGATION.

WELLINGTON. August 19. According to the official figures supplied by the Government to-day the total amount spent upon the South Island main trunk line to date is £450.163. Members of the Railway Board have been engaged for the past week making a second inspection of the line already constructed and the route of the proposed completion. Upon their return to Wellington the board members will consider the whole question and present a report to the Government for consideration if possible during the current session upon the advisability or otherwise of stopping the line. Members are beginning to show concern upon the length of time required to have tlfe information collected and the report finalised, and questions are frequently directed at the Prime Minister in the House seeking an indication as to when the House will have an opportunity of discussing the line. The estimated capital cost was given last year as £2,581,000, and the total cost per mile £33,961, while the expenditure to June 30 last year was £193,631. An estimated lass of £lOO,OOO a year was then budgeted for.

“ DISASTER FOR TAXPAYERS ”

MR WILKINSON’S CRITICISM. WELLINGTON, August 19. Brief reference to the line was made by Mr C. A. Wilkinson (Egmont) in the course of a speech on the Financial Statement in the House of Representatives this evening. The work, he said, was still going on. It was a tribute to the member for Wairau, for that gentleman had been most assiduous in his advocacy of the completion of the line. “ The work is one of the biggest disasters this country has ever taken on,” he said. “It is a disaster for the taxpayers of this Dominion. I wonder if Cabinet has ever considered the position in regard to this line. It seems incredible that Ministers have given any consideration to the matter. The fact remains that the work is going on day by day at great expense to the taxpayers;”