SUGGESTED ABANDONMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16347, 23 May 1927, Page 7

SUGGESTED ABANDONMENT

OF EAST COAST RAILWAY FIRST-CLASS ROAD PROFOSED “A FAR CHEAPER SUBSTITUTE” “I imagine that .the East Coast railway will prove to be a world’s champion in its combined character as a money absorber and a servant giving a minimum service,” said a visiting ei\\il engineer to a H.B. Herald reporter in Napier. Perhaps 1 am wrong in saying that it is the most expensive railway per mile in this country ;of - expensive railway construction, yet 1 think that will he found true. “I think the Government would lie doing a wise thing to abandon its attempt to build the East Coast railway, and to substitute for it a first class permanent road from Napier to Gisborne. ’ ’ “And to waste the money it has already spent?” asked the reporter. “Yes,' if you like to call to waste. 1 don’t! The money they have spent is not a shingled flapper’s hair-pin money compared with what they are going to let themselves in for,” was the engineer’s reply. They are going to spend millions on this business —I forget hotv -many millions- —but 1 understand that’ -the Mohaka viaduct alone is estimated to cost £1,250,000. And whom will the railway serve? I certainly do not wish to belittle either your towns or your beautiful province, I>ut T must say the population that is having so much spent on its railway i-> not likely to be able to provide a very vast revenue. Maintenance costs, apart from anything else, would for a few years at least entail a .dreadful expense.” GOOD ROADS INSTEAD OF BAD RAILWAYS “And you suggest leaving the people, lamenting for their railway?” the reporter asked. “For their railway, yes. But for decent, means of transport, no. Is there anything wrong about a first class road?” said the engineer. “I believe that such a learned authority as Lord Montagu, as chairman of the Transport Board at Home, has predicted the advent of good roads as substitutes for bad railways. “It’s 130 miles, from Napier to Gisborne, isn’t it? Well, do you know that if you built a road over the whole of that distance at a cost of £IO,OOO a. mile, you would barely exceed the cost of the Mohaka viaduct?” “A concrete road?” “Not necessarily. In fact, I think concrete would not he feasible in some parts. But I feel pretty sure that I could build a road for a good deal less than £IO,OOO a mile; and I quoted that figure only to show that what I consider the greatest possible cost of a road would just about equal the cost, of one viaduct ou the railway route, such an expenditure would allow of so luxurious a road as one built of conciete with a bitumen cushioning. WHAT WOULD THE PEOPLE SAY “I suppose you feel inclined to tell mo of the outcry' there would be if the Government did abandon the railway. No doubt there would be an outcry, but J doubt whether it would be half as loud as the remarks when the people discover what their railway is going to cost them. “Mr. Coates has promised the people tlliif The wdrk will. bo finished jin about four years, and will proceed as money will allow. I think nioncy will beat them, and they ought to save their official faces while there is yet time, and brave the outcry. “Even if it were necessary to use the coastal ships for certain classes of heavy freights, I still think the road I have in mind would be the best, thing. It is my humble opinion that to ptoceed with the railway' would mean more complete.ruination than is yet dreamed of. “That’s what I think. And I think, too, that the railway' will be abandoned. I have good reasons for thinking the Government is thinking the same thought.” said the engineer, with a knowing look, and walked away. . “Oh! tell me some more,” said the reporter. But this knowing engineer had gone.