AN EXTRAORDINARY ACTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 October 1919, Page 4

AN EXTRAORDINARY ACTION.

In the House of Representatives last evening the Minister for Public Works stated that the To Roti-Opunake line had got into the schedule of the Railway Authorisation Bill by mistake, and, at his instance, this work was deleted. Unfortunately no Taranaki member was in the House at the time. Mr. S. 6. Smith was attending a meeting of the Railways Committee, Mr. Wilkinson was in the South, and the Hon. J. B. Hine and Mr. Jennings were on their way to Wellington. There was, therefore, nobody present to protest against the Minister's action, which is hard to understand. During the first reading of the Bill last week Sir William Fraser referred to the provision for the Opunake-Moturoa line. What caused him to change his mind? It would have been far more satisfactory if he had not included the work in the Bill in the first place. To include it and then to delete it is simply trifling with an important matter and the people of the district the proposed line will serve. We hope the Taranaki Chamber ,of Commerce, the County Council, and the various coastal branches of the Farmers' Union will lose no time in registering their emphatic protests to the Government against such arbitrary treatment. Unfortunately the Bill lias passed its. third reading and no amendment is possible now, Jmt there is no reason why a supplementary Bill cannot be passed to remedy what appears to be an extraordinary mistake on the part of the Minister for Public Works.