STRATFORD RAILWAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1924, Page 8

STRATFORD RAILWAY.

GAP TO BE COMPLETED. WORK AT TAHORA END. ( START EARLY IN NEW YEAR. COMPLETION IN FIVE YEARS. (By Wire —Special Reporter.) Ohura, Last Night. The construction of the S t ratford - Okahukura railway is to be expedited. Early in the New Year work is to be recommenced at the Stratford end of theline and the linking up. of the gap of 34 miles between tlie rajl heads at Tahbra and Matiere is expected to be completed in five years. This important announcement was made here to-day by the Minister for Railways (Hon. J. (i.; Coates) after he had listened to a deputation from *the Ohura Railway League strongly urging expedition in the completion of the in the Taranaki-Auckland railway. deputation also pressed for a definite survey of the route over the last ten miles to Ohura.

Mr. Coates stated that the men on the Te. Roti-Opunake line would be finishing work at the. end of February, and it was his intention to then transfer huts and 50 men on to the Tahora end of the gap and make a start with the work on the first tunnel. As more men were relieved from the Te Roti line they would be concentrated on the Taranaki-Auckland line at the Stratford end. Authority had been given to have the uncompleted section defined, and the work .was now proceeding. ' He thought the ...gap should be completed in five years.