STRATFORD-MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1926, Page 8

STRATFORD-MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

Taranaki as a province will be pleased with the information received by the Stratford Chamber of Commerce from the Minister for Public Works (Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates) who advised that “the number of men was being increased on the Stratford-Main Trunk railway, up-to-date machinery had been installed, and the work was being pushed on as vigorously as the natural- difficulties would allow.” Tile support received by the chamber from practically every local authority in the province shows' that it is no mere local demand for the completion of the railway. Fortunately the day has passed when different portions of Taranaki were jealous of each other, and it is now recognised that great public works such as harbours and railways bi-mfit the province as a whole

far more than they do the individual towns in which they may be located or administered. At the same time local effort can still play a very useful part in focussing the attention of the Government upon particular public works, and no one will grudge the Stratford Chamber of Commerce the satisfaction it must feel that the end of its long drawn out appeal for the completion of this most important undertaking is likely at last to meet with the success it deserves. The Minister for Public Works, who is also the Premier, was far-seeing enough a year or two ago to lay down the policy of concentration upon and completion of certain important public works in turn, instead of dissipating the resources of the Public Works Department in efforts to carry on works which had been authorised in all directions. That policy has been emphatically approved by the Dominion, and it is very satisfactory to learn that apart from any political considerations, the Stratford-Main Trunk railway is now recognised as the next in order of national importance, and that the concentration of the national resources will apply to it until its long-looked-for completion is achieved.