RAILWAY PROBLEMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 15774, 15 March 1922, Page 3

RAILWAY PROBLEMS.

AUSTRALIAN EXTENSION AND LAND DEVELOPMENT.

Elec. Tel Copyright—United Press Assn Australian ana N Z Cable Association LONDON, March 13.

Mr. T. R. Johnston, formerly Railway Commissioner for New South' Wales, and lately engineering adviser to the Pekin Board of Communication, lectured before the Institute of Transport on the "Railway Problems of Australia and China." He endorsed the Commission's recommendation of 1921 for the adoption of the New South Wales gauge. He pointed out the overwhelming advantages from tho point of view of defence of diverting the proposed NorthSouth line to the eastward, thereby linking up Queensland with the East and West lines. This would, be, better than the Oodnadatta route. Victoria was, he said, leading the Commonwealth in regard to electrification of railways. Sir Joseph Cook paid a tribute to Mr. Johnston's railway services in Australia. Well-informed opinion favored the new South line via Queensland. He deprecated reference to the "desert line." He had the best authority for saying that, in this territory, there were hundreds of millions pf\ acres capable of carrying millions of when the bores were in operation and the railway transport was provided. In Kimberley alone there were a hundred million acres of the finest cattle country in the world. Lord Kitchener had repeatedly informed him that he favored the. Queensland overland route, not only for military purposes, but from an economic point of view. * Sir J. Cook advocated the spending of millions'" on railway extension "and land development, thereby employing hundreds of thousands of immigrants and promoting the expansion of industries.