GISBORNE RAILWAY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19099, 21 August 1936, Page 5

GISBORNE RAILWAY

REASON FOR COMPLETION OPINION OF MINISTER BEST land in dominion (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Opposition references to the Government’s large public works expen diture provoked the Hon. R. Semple, Minister of Public. Works, to give some explanations during the Imprest Bill discussion regarding the reasons why three suspended railway construction works had been resumed. He did not blame the Leader of the Opposition for the stoppage of the Gisborne-Napier line, for it was not now a question of whether it should have been started. The position was that, whether with £3,5(>5,()00 spent, a further £1,593,000 should be expended to complete the line, turning a constant loss into some form of service of real value to New Zealand. The line would not pay at the outset, for few lines ever did. Settlement followed the railways, and there was room foi development on the route. In fact, some areas were better than had been reported, judging by the results from the State experimental farm at Mohaka, while the flats south of and beyond Gisborne were as fertile as any lands in New Zealand. When one compared the strip of country between Napier and Wairoa with the pumice lands on which so much was being spent on development, he considered that the comparison was in favour of the former. In deciding to complete the line, the Government, took into consideration the development in the days to come, a factor which had not been formerly .taken into account by the Railways Board.