Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1923. OUR, NATURAL HIGHWAY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16170, 5 July 1923, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1923. OUR, NATURAL HIGHWAY.

We have a highway over the sea.. The pity is that the facilities we possess are so bad that ivc do not get the use from it that wo ought to got. It is quite, true that thor© are many who arc con-

stitutionally unable, to travel by sea without great inconvenience, amounting sometimes T » distress. But if these persons aro compelled to limit their adventures abroad, yet they, too, would immensely benefit- if there, were provided fair regularity and frequency of transit for passengers and mails. It comes to tin's. Wo have) no other highway. Supposing what is unlikely that next summer finds tha district provided with a metal road through to .Napier, that road can never be> a. commercial road for through traffic. It will servo the re-

quirements of thosw who have, and can afford to run their own cars over 150 miles of road. It will also serve persons who must travel fov business or other reasons and can afford to pay anything from Bay £3 10s to £5 plus expenses on the road. To wait for a. railway will mean a wait of at least twenty years. Life is too short to place a railway as a, competitor with the sea in the list at all. The only other possible solution of our difficulties is the completion of an outer harbor which might bring about some reasonable improvement in the present service. From a review of the past, and the conclusion which must be come to upon such a. review that tho service has steadily become worse, we have not much hope that matter's will bo better when we have again 16 feet in tho channel, except that a. time-table will bo possible to a great extent independent of tidal conditions. Assuming that Ihc completion! of an outer harbor would improve ihc position can the district afford to taka the chance and awaiti that improvement? We have talked about our outer harbor in earnest for some two years, and we are not so much as started yet. It should be at once stated that no blame is sugg«stcd as attachable to the Union S.S. Co. for the present barbarous conditions of sea travel. The company has had to contend with greater difficulties than possibly the public quite understand. While saying this much thcro can be no hesitation in saying thai the attempt to keep up a. bi-weekly service for passengers and mails between! Gisborne and Napier and with the samo boat to keep up a, run to Auckland to serve cargo and passengers for 500 miles upon a. most inhospitable coast with varying climatic north and south of the East Gnpo is impracticable. Tho passenger and cargo services must be separated. This must be so even if tho direct passenger service to Auckland may have to be given up. At present no one leaving Auckland on a Tuesday can know whether he will arrive at Gisborne at midnight on Wednesday, at 5 a.m. on Thursday, or ovom later. If a student of geology i(, may interest him to study the stratification of the geologic formation at Nick's Hand, but for most people tho compensation, in that direction for their many sufferings, appears to be rather inadequate. The requirements for the use of our highways are:—First: A fast boat sufficiently powerful and stable. She should lie capable of maintaining a I tri-weekly service between Oisborno and ; Napier, for passengers, mails, and parcels. .Second : A rate for passengers for an eighty mile run sufficiently low to be within tho reach of everyone. Fifteen shillings should be the maximum. Third : A time-table so that the steamer from Gisborno should catch a train reaching Wellington tho same night. The boat should bo capable of twenty knots and run at least at 16. With modern improvements there should be no trouble : in such a boat l>oing found. There need '. bo no elaborate cabin accommodation, I but only such provision as might be i necessary for delicate pcr.sons to lay 'down and for emero-encies caused by ! weather conditions. If the railways wire, Iran by private companies such companies : would cater for the northern passenger trade coming through Napier. Its timetable would bo made to suit] and to build up thej connecting trade. There is no reason why a, train leaving Napier at 1 p.m. should not roach Wellington at 9 p.m. If Napier objected to the mail train being go delayed a, social non-stop boat train could be run through to connect at Palmerston with the New Plymouth mail. Wo should bo foolish indeed to pretend to be able to work out a time-table. Given a departmental will there would bo a way. The run. io Wellinston is only 199 miles and 25 miles an hour should be well within possibility. The run to Napier is 80 miles. It is really a ferry service and should be run by the Government with their own boat in connection with the trains. The only ease where the same conditions at all apply is the run between two Islands soon fo be shortened to Picton. But with such boats on daily as tho Maori and Wabine there is no possible room for complaint. These two boats are probably not surpassed in any such service anywhere. If a seasonable subsidy were offered we have no doubt a ferry service between Gisborne and Napier could be very shortly inaugurated. It could not be exported to pay its way for the first few years. If the Government would not entertain tho grant of subsidy for maintenance it might favor a grant for £ for £ for tho cost of a boat

which the district could find out of its own resources by loan or debentures. The matter is of such great importance, that it should bo thrashed out in all its many sides with: ihe Minister responsible before Mr. Massey leaves in. September. Mr. Massey no doubt would allow inquiries to foe made, in England through tho High Commissioner's office when ho is at Home, as to what, boats could bo got suitable, for the purpose and their cost. Tho Prime .Minister would also bo in touch with the) head office., in London of the Union. Company and would be anxious, as wo would bo in New Zealand, to exhaust all reasonable means of getting our requirements served by the company which has stood by the. district for so long. What is clear is that- tho present position is intolerable, h can he relieved. Nothing is needed but a little stiffening of the backs of our principal local representatives acting in tho fullest co-operation with the district's member. To allow this session to close without taking action will be not only a calamity bid a crime.