Tunnel Progress

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19884, 10 March 1939, Page 14

Tunnel Progress

Sir, —A letter, under the heading “Tunnel Progress,” recently appeared 'in your correspondence columns, in | which the writer, “Fang Screw,” made j comparisons between the driving-rate | in certain tunnels on this section and | the rate attained in two tunnels over- ' seas, both driven some (JO or TO years | ago. That the comparisons were unfavourable to modern tunnelling equipment is beside the point, and I write this letter in the hope that, while silencing busy tongues in one direcj tion, I may perhaps provide them with material to waggle over in another ! Idle rumour has persistently connected ! my' name with that of your correspondent, “Fang Screw.” The belief is now general in Tikiwhata that “Fang Screw” and myself are one and the same, until the gossips have convinced themselves, and are attempting to convince others, that I am stationed on these works as a spy in their midst, to carefully watch the progress made in these tunnels. Then, it seems, I use your paper as a medium to inform the National Party of all that the tunnel'lers are doing, how they are doing it, and why. The linking of my name with that of "Fang Screw,” and the consequent blame arising directly from criticism that is attached to me, finds its origin in malicious conjecture on the part, of those with whom I cannot see eye to eye in all things. My position is this: For some 2jj years, 1 was a guest at a military smoke-concert held in France —a concert that is known to-day as “The Great War.” Serving with the Ist Battalion of Infantry on the Western Front, we remnants of New Zealand's little army saw many officers come and go. After the battle of the Somme in 191 G, the command of the company —then leaderless —of which 1 was a member, was taken over by one Captain Gordon Coates, a l gallant soldier and 1 a great gentleman: a man who quickly won both the respect and! affection of every man in the entire battalion, who laid aside the most promising political career that New Zealand had to offer, who placed his ambitions on the scrap-heap to “bog-in" with the boys in the trenches, la man who, by the fortune of war, reI turned to this country with welllearned military decorations, and who later became, first, Minister of Public, | Works, and then Prime Minister of iNew Zealand. The writer has met! I him when lie held first one high office 1 jand then the other, to find him the j 'same Gordon Coates whom we knew; in France, ever ready with a helping hand and a cheery word. Any returned soldier will verify this. | And so, because I find, it impossible ilo believe that Gordon Coates was i personally responsible for the recent I world-wide depression, that he organ-j j ised the present war in China, or i 'created .the thousands of different and! difficult problems that confront the , world to-day, because I am not prej pared to hear him foully abused • by j the ill-informed and non-thinking, j

without saving some word in his defence, because both gratitude and reason dictate that I accord some loyalty to a man. who has helped me and others whom I know, a story is circulated to the effect that I write to your paper criticising progress made on these works under Labour! My career on the public works has been a long and somewhat chequered one, comprising, in the main, service that is directly connected with railway construction. I have learnt, then, that the all-important factor to be observed in making comparisons in driving rates in various tunnels is most definitely the nature and condition of flic ground. Your correspondent “Fang Screw” overlooks tins point, and so, in consequence, presents a very weak case. However, I have absolutely no interest in the argument itself. I have seen so many tunnels driven now that, to me, they are no longer tunels, but merely holes in a hilil.' B. MURRAY. |The writer of this letter has never previously communicated with the Herald on the subject of tunnelling or anything else. “Fang Screw" is the nom do plume of a writer who has contributed to the correspondence colums for many years, is a resident of Gisborne, and has no connection with the railway works.—Ed. ll.erald.l