THE CONDEMNED RAILWAY

Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1931, Page 11

THE CONDEMNED RAILWAY

INDIGNATION AT BLENHEIM BAILWAY BOARD CASTIGATED. (A NIGGER IN THE WOOD PILE.” "LET US BURN HIM OUT!” By Telegraph—Press Association. Blenheim, Last Night. A series of indignation meetings in various parts of Marlborough arising from the Railway Board’s recommendation in connection with the South Island Main Trunk line culminated this afternoon in th largest mass meeting ever held in Blenheim. Spirited protests were made against the board's finding and its figures, and it was decided to send a deputation to Wellington to meet the members of both Houses. Mr. E. F. Healy (United—Wairau), contrasting the board’s estimates of. revenue and expenditure on the project with those prepared by the railway experts, declared that the board had laid it=elf open to the derision of all who ki ;v even the A.B.C. of the South Island ’ Main Trunk line. He challenged the board to substantiate by nearly £1,000,000 its estimate for the completion of the gap, and declared that the extravagance of its figures indicated a nigger in the wood pile. He asked the people of Marlborough to help smoke him out. (Cheers). Illustrating what he termed the absurdity of the board’s figures, Mr. Healy drew attention to its estimate of £127,753 to complete ocnstruction to the Clarence River. He offered personally to take a contract to lay rails to the Clarence River for £5OOO, and make a profit, and he felt confident there were men on the job who would be glad of a chance at half that figure. Other speakers pointed out £BOO,OOO had already been spent or committed for between Wharanui and Parnassus, and the interest on that amount would be nearly £50,000 per annum. And even -on the board’s figures another £43,000 per annum would give New Zealand the benefits of the railway and eave the £4,000,000 capital already expended. The meeting was very lively and full of spirit, the speakers not hesitating to express the opinion that the line had been made the victim first of party politicians and secondly of a board which had demonstrated its lack of vision and unfitness for the task with which it had been entrusted. Further meetings at Seddon and Ward are projected, and public men are openly advancing opinions that if the line is stopped the time is ripe for the establishment ol a separate Parliament for the South Island. Attention was pointedly drawh to Auckland’s £2,000,000 railway station, the Taranaki deviation, u’hich was characterised as an immensely costly side line to the Main Trunk line, and Wellington’s Tawa Flat deviation as three instances which could never add a copper to the Railway Department’s revenue, while completion of a main trunk line was denied at the same time. The speakers sympathised particularly with the Gi> borne line and the Westport project.