SUSPENDING CONSTRUCTION AT MOTU.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14052, 24 July 1916, Page 8

SUSPENDING CONSTRUCTION AT MOTU.

AN AUCKLAND PROTEST. Discussing the Public Works Statement, the. New; Zealand Herald once more warmly champions the cause- of the East Coast railway, and takes the Government to task for lack of apx>reclatioi: of North Island conditions,. and want of sympathy with northern needs. "On the East Coast line," our contemporary remarks, "the section beyond the Motu is to be practically suspended on tho very thin excuse that it must wait 'until the .route of the" Main Line towards the Bay of Plenty is definitely determined.' Wo liave long been accustomed m. Auckland to the delays occasioned by the suspicious readiness of the Department to wait for the conclusion of 'rival routes' agitations, but m this case the Department has created a 'rival route' difficulty on its own account. This particular question is not m any way new. Tf. has been, referred to by Ministers with hardly concealed gratification for a considerable time. It coidd have been settled long ago vrith j out any difficulty by a sympathetic Department, and w,e do not'hesitate to say that it would have been settled long ago had as much Ministerial interest been taken m the East Coast as is taken m the, Oiira . Tunnel. The determination of tbe route from the Motu to the Bay of Plenty may be the convenient excuse for indefinite delay, ard should be made lbi> subject of especial attention by Auckland members. The section is m good though rugged country, is essential to the opening of tho heart of the East Coast region as well as to the linking of the terminals, and is only delayed by Ministerial shortsightedness and the habitual Departmental negligence of • Northern opportunities.*"