TAUPO RAILWAY

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1930, Page 9

TAUPO RAILWAY

REPORT ON THE PETITION

NO RECOMMENDATION MADE AMENDMENT BEFORE HOUSE DEFEAT ONE VOTE By Telejfrafih.—Press Association. v -.‘Wellington, Last Night. Th© A to L Public Petitions Coitiniittee, reporting id the House of Representatives to-day on a petition praying for the immediate resumptipp of .work on the Rotorua-Taupo railway line, stated that it had no- recommendation to fnake as a question of policy was involved. Mh H. S. S. lyyle expressed the opint ion that it hud npt been possible for th© committee to give the same consideratjon to this subject as had been given by the. committee of the last session. He believfed it possible to open up largo areas of land in the thermal region to the economic advantage of the Dominion. Mr. A. W. Hall said there had'been a veiy (even division of opinion among members of the committee. A large section believed the possibilities of this line should bo corisiderM by the committee recently appointed to investigate all railway lines under construction. He moved as an. amendment that .the report be referred back to the 'committee for farther consideration. Mr. C. A. Wilkinson said he hoped the Government would, stand by its decision not th gb on with the line. He did not think the annual loss to the country that it would involve could be justified. The area would be adequately served by a good road. Mr., P. Fraser asked, that the House shqiijd. be glVen th© benefit of a frill report on the possibilities of the land in th© area. The House should be in a positidn to judge what justification there .was for,an expensive railway or fdr aii expensive road. He supported the view that' the line should be cbnsitleredby the railway construction committee. ■ ENTHUSIASM.” Sir Apirana Jfgatfi’said it was possible to -be an enthusiast about the settlement of pumice land' and at the same time still be retrained concerning the construction of the railway line. The difficulty relating‘to settlement in the area had been the, existence of bush sickness, and until that problem had been overcome 7 the work could . not be pushed ahemi. . The Government was, experimenting with the - country and that stage had not yet been' passbd.. . Fdr m&ny years afforestation companies had been operating, in the area and a lot of the land was already under, trees. The Minister agreed that the question of. the development of the land should be fully investigated. Mr. D. Jones complained that the House had not’been given the promised opportunity, to discuss th© report .of the cointnititee which 'considered the question last.session.../. ... Tho Acting-Prim© Minister, the Hon. E. 'A'. Raiipojp, shid a.pfomis© had been given that the House would have an opportunity to consider th© report early in the session, but . the .business before the Houte then consisted of measures 40.'he disposed oflsq as.-to-enable Mr. "Forbes to leave for the Imperial Conference. .Since, the Prim© Minister’s departure the Government had shown . meftibers every Consideration. He had v been surprised that rip member had considered the report, of last year’s committee of sufficient importance to raise the question lintil the present juncture. Mf. 'Raiifeofti' contended that the railway was toot essential to the development of the country. He had not lost ' his confidence in the development of the pumice belt; indeed, he, believed the future possibility of New Zealand to a large extent depended upon its develop- - merit arid,, sdt.tlfcntent of /those, portions of the'country/. < It; offered the best solution of the unemployment problem that could be seen. He considered further that the time wds not far distant when much of the country regarded to-daji* us sheep and cattle sick would be brought into production. The Government was justified in the experiments it was conducting. LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEME. Mr. F. Lye said the report of the committee last year had recommended that the line should toot be proceeded with. This recommendation had been reached after an , exhaustive investigation. It had, further . been recommended that \ 10.000 acres of the best land in this ur6a should be settled as an experiment.

Mr. J. A. Nash: How much has been settled? Mr. Lye: The Government has a scheme of settlement under way. As the member Ispows, it is impossible to settle 10,000 acres in one year. Mr. Lye said that as a practical farmer he did not -think the results even 20 years hence would justify the building of the railway. It was unlikely that it would be possible to get an adequate water supply in many large areas in the Taupo district. Mr. A. M. Samuel said the report of the committee of last session had been brought down on the casting vote of the chairman, and he understood this year’s recommendation had also been decided Upon the casting vote of the chairman. He knew from his own personal observation that there were vast areas of land in the district that wdre cap : able of successful and highly profitable development. He was going to vote for the amendment because, while not wishing at th© moment to state whether a •railway or a foad should be utilised as • means of development he was of opinion .that the. House, should be given an opportunity for a full discussion of the report of last year’s select committee. Mr. C. H. Clinkard said many of the members who l|ad a<lvdcated ;tho dcVel” Opment of the district had been taiceii there in the flush of the season. If the land was as attractive throimhout the

year there would be no need for encouragement to bring about settlement. H® believed any of the country suitable for development could be served satisfactorily by a good road, and he certainly did not agree that the cost of the railway would be justified. After a number of other members had spoken Mr. J. A. MaePherson, replying, said the question before the committee had been whether-it was advisable now to go on with the railway or not. There was not the slightest doubt that if at some, future date it- became apparent that the construction of the railway was warranted whatever Government was in power would then go on with the scheme. It certainly was not warranted at the present time. He did not see that any good purpose could be gained by referring the report back to the committee. Mr. Hall’s amendment was rejected

by 34 votes to 33. The division list was:—AYES (33). Ansell MacMillan Armstrong Martin Barnett Massey Chapman J. A. Nash Dickie W. Nash Eudean * Parry J'ielSamuel Fraser Savage Hall Semple Henare Stewart H. Holland Sullivan H. E. Holland Sykes Howard ‘ Waite Jordan Williams Kyle Wright Linklater Young McKeen NOES (34). Atmore MaePherson Barnard Makitanara Bodkin Mason Breadfoot Munns Carr Munro Clinkard Murdoch Cobbe Ngata. de la' Perrelle O'Brien Donald Polson Hawke Ransom Healy Rushworth Hogan Smith I. Stallworthy Lye Taverner Lysnar "V eitch McDonald Ward McDougall Wilkinson