OUR RAILWAY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11111, 28 October 1907, Page 6

OUR RAILWAY.

INTERESTING REMARKS

who thinks were are lukewarm m tlie matter of pushing the railway on further should remember that we liave the one object im mind at present, of getting the railway to the Motu, which olace it must reach before it can go further. When we get out to there I will undertake to see that it is pushed on. That it will, as Mr Elliott said, there is no doubt. It will open one of the best bushes m the country, a virgin bush that has been untouched and will last 'for many years. In regard to any .feeling m Opotiki, -ye should stick together, and get the line more rapidly extended. Mr Gaud'in said he would not fr*ve taken notice of the remarks only that they came from officers, of the League m Opotiki, who had made a strong point of it, saying the people of this district did not want the line taken beyond Motu. It would be sufficient to state that they were desirous of having tlie line pushed on. He had never heard a word said against pushing the line on to Opotiki Mr J. G. Black asked who owned the land upon which there was so much timber. , -._ „ Mr Gaudin : It is Crown and Native l an< fc ••., x ■■ „ "Would it not be possible to get , a piece of Crown land handed over to the League for the construction of the railway?" asked Mr Black, who went on to explain how by sncli an arrangement tne Christchurch. to Little River railway had, been constructed. / ' The Chairman pointed out that the ays- 1 'tern had now been changed ; that the Government were setting aside all they could for endowments, and that they insisted m having construction work, m their own hands. ... "But the land would be better put into use," said Mr Black. "The Government will soon have it occupied when the railway is pushed on, r *S 3i££?3d that Mr Black's suggestion was a good one. |* W*"*J on the Government," he said, "that they bave a huge estate which if it belonged to a private person, would be developed, , Continuing, Mr DeLautoiu; said that when , the railway was first authorised Cabinet could" noThave submitted a bigger .scheme because if it had been down on the schedule of that year every district would have wanted another line m, and the whole thing would have been shut out I Mr Seddon had advised them to take what they could get; they would call it Tcisborne-Karaka line, and. come again the next-year for an extension And h& said, "so it creeps along— l am soiry S £ye to use the W 'creep' m connection with the work-then it wiU^trot and later on it will gallop. If you «? L stop it at the Motu I am sure you will not be able to do 60." Mr Gaudin said that it would become the main trunk line of the Nonunion The Chairman said it would at any rate become a most important line of the North Island-there could be no question: about that. . ■ ■ '

Very few m Gisborne have realised tlie class of country and the extent oi timber which this railway lias got to oo through,'' said Mr T. Elliott at the meeting ot tne Railway League on Saturday aitemoon. "This railway Ims got to co through seven counties. I do not know wnethev the object is to get it to Rota* rua or Tauianga." Mr Gaudin : To get jt to Opotiki. lh e Chairman : I should say Rotorua '-I have," volunteered Mr Elliott, seen it stated that there are only two good forests left standing m New Zealand," one at Waimarino and the other at -Motu. I feel like Mr Campbell Thomson about the matter, annoyed when people ask the question, 'Is there really any timber at the Motu?\ It is always people who have never seen the Motu who say there is^ no sawmilling timber there. I. always advise them to go there and look for themselves. I feel sure tliat if we would only urge tliis railway on the Hon. J. Carroll. Hon. Capt. 'Tucker, Hon. Wi Pere, and Mr Ngata — Mr Herries I know is doing his utmost, because he knows as well as ayons else that this railway would do far more towards increasing the national exports and wealth of the Dominion than any new railway m it — we should get the work pushed on with more degree of speed. Anyone who takes the toruble to look at the figures will find that it holds the position of second to lowest, and sometimes the lowest, of any line m the Dominion for the number of men employed. The Chairman : It was the last railway organised. Mr Elliott: Mount Egmont is a more recent one. The Chairman: That is a tramway. ''Is this an authorised railway, and where to?" asked Mr Mortimer. The Chairman said it- was authorised by Act of Parliament. Mr DeLautour said m the last Act it was referred to as the Gisborne-Rotorua line, and Mr Gaudin said it was authorised to Auckland. Referring to the remark as to the Opotiki. people having an idea that Gisborne people did not wish to see the. lino go beyond the Motu. the Chairman said th-?v need have no fear on that score. "Why," he said, ''our difficulty at first was tc get the work started at all. When we mentioned it to the late Hon. A. J. Cadman, ho ridiculed the idea of a railway being authorised ty the Motu. Anyone