THE TAUPC RAILWAY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 38, 29 September 1911, Page 6

THE TAUPC RAILWAY.

(Per Press Association.) Wellington, Septennial- 29. The Parliamentary Committee whicii is re porting on r! 10 petition of t.io Taup;; Tctarsi limber Company met again to-day. d iic Ciiairman read a telegram from a meeting hold at hntaruru, urging favourable consideration of the company's proposals. A similar message' u sis also received from the • '.l aupo District Railway League. Eduard Earle Vane, a farmer at Waiotapu, owning 53,000 acres, said tiie ‘ proposed line would •go acres of tno proposed line woud go within live miles of Ids land. lie tanugiit tiio Government should construct the line from Rotorua to Tsuipo, and success would bo assured by tiie tourist traffic alone; but it was improbable that the line would he started nothin tiie next thirty years, therefore private enterprise should lie encouraged, and lie did not think the Government’s right of purchase should lio exorcised for a reasonable period. He suggested tiiat the company might he allowed to charge higher rates than the State did for, say, five years. He did not oppose; the company’s land pnrciiasc proposal. .v Replying .to questions, witness said, the scheme would undoubtedly 'do harm to Rotorua. He thought the, company had acquired the actual thermal rights, and this should bq safeguarded against. He had been farming for four years, and lie was more satisfied every day that.ytho country would be occupied by close settlement. The Chairman: Which, in your opinion, would be the best lino for the whole district? Witness: The line from Rotorua,,as there is 'settlement on the route. Tliere is little or none on the other. Replying to Mr. Dahdoll, witness said although lie thought the Roto-rua-Taupe lino the better one, ho now favoured the company’s proposals on the principle that half a loaf is better than no bread. William Louis Luxford, farmer, at Ha miiton, also strongly supported the company's proposals.