GISBORNE-NAPIER LINE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17837, 21 July 1932, Page 4

GISBORNE-NAPIER LINE

JOURNALISTIC AID SOUGHT AN INSPECTION SUGGESTED In the belief that if the conditions under which the district was laboring were more fully understood opposition to flic resumption of work on the Gis-borne-Xapier railway would be withdrawn so far as the editorial columns of the newspapers of tin* Dominion wore concerned, the Gisborne Chamber of Commerce at its meeting last evening resolved to extend an invitation to the delegates to the annual press conference in Rotorua in February to travel to Rotorua via Napier and Gisborne.

The suggestion emanated from Mr. H. 11. DeOosta, who said that it had been held by the Chamber of Commerce, the Unemployment Committee, and the Farmers’ Union that the unemployed should be put to work on the Xapier-Gisborne railway, but most of the newspapers,in the Dominion had been opposed to the resumption of the work. “It’s all very well for the editors of the Dominion, the Auckland Star, ami other papers to pass comment upon the railway,” remarked Mr. DeOosta. The annual conference of the Press Association would be held in Rotorua in February, and lie suggested that tlm chamber should issue an invitation to the delegates to the conference to travel to Rotorua via Napier and Gisborne, in order that they might be acquainted with the travelling conditions. TARANAKI’S DOUBLE LINE

Mr. R. W. .T. Edwards seconded iho motion, and referred to an article in a New Pulmouth paper, remarking that the editor of that .journal .was overlooking the fact that Taranaki was go ting a double railway—one to Auckland, and one to Wellington. There was a national cry for decentralisation, and that could only be brought about by means of railways. Mr. Sterling was harassing the side lines, saying that they were not producing revenue, but if they were closed down there would only be railways mi Ihe main routes, so that decentralisation of the population would be impossible. Gisborne was a very big district, and yet it could not get one railway, whereas Taranaki had a double line.

Mr. G. Cl. Bloore gave his support to the motion, and asserted that there was no doubt that there was a “dead set” against anything that tended for tin 1 good of Gisborne. It would be necessary eventually to alter the policy of the board. If the editors of the various newspapers of the Dominion could be induced to come through Gisborne lie was confident that their eyes would be opened to what the district was suffering. Mr. Bloore felt also that the chamber should reply fully to all articles such as that referred to by Mr. Edwards. Air. Edwards: What would Waikato, Manawatu, and Taranaki be without railways’.'

The acting-chairman, Air. T. Corson, remarked that if the chamber advocated the construction of a railway to Auckland it would have the Auckland papers with it immediately. Mr. BeCostn’s motion was carried unanimously. RELIEF WORK PROPOSAL .fudging from a letter received from tlm Hon. Adam Hamilton, acting-Mbl-ister of Employment, there is no possibility of the Unemployment Board giving its support to the GisborneNapior railway completion proposal. In reply to a letter from the chamber, the Minister stated:—“l have to advise you that the cessation of work ou the Ciisbovne-Waikokopu section of the East Coast railway was a matter of Government policy, and is not considered one in which the Unemployment Board can take any action. The employment of relief labor on this work would be in direct contraveiitiou of the considered judgment of the Government in ceasing operations ou various railway construction works. “They have changed their minds so often they could easily do it again,’'' commented Air. Bloore, and other members remarked that the chamber was up against a brick wall. ‘The letter was received.