The Taranaki Herald. (DAILY EVENING) TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1912. THE OPUNAKE RAILWAY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143767, 16 April 1912, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. (DAILY EVENING) TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1912. THE OPUNAKE RAILWAY.

The Mayor of New Plymouth no doubt exercised a wise discretion at Kaponga on Friday evening in refraining from introducing the debatable subject of the route "of the railway to connect Opunake with the railway system. Later on he may be called upon to express an opinion, when the Commission is taking evidence. In the meantime it might be as well that New Plymouth should make up its mind where it stands in the matter. It may be argued that it is a question which does not greatly concern this town, but a little reflection will, we think, serve to convince that it does concern Us a great deal. Presumably we are all agreed that this is going to be the port of Taranaki, and that the trade route of the whole province, and even of a much wider area, will pass through this port in the near future, when accommodation is provided for direct-trading vessels. That being so, our efforts should be turned to influencing trade routes as directly as possible to the port, consistently with serving the needs of the country. Taking Opunakc as a trading centre at the western terminus of the proposed railway, it will be found that the distance from there to New Plymouth by way of Te Roti is 63 miles, by way of Eltham 59 miles, and by way of Stratford 55f miles, so that there is a substantial advantage to the district around Opunake in the matter of distance in favour of the last-named route. When, however, the elevations are taken into account the advantage attaching to the Stratford route is much greater. We do not know the exact elevation of Kaponga, but assume that it is nearly as high as Eltham and higher than Te° Roti. If that is so, produce from Kaponga will run down to Te' Roti. if the junction is there, and then have to be hauled nearly 500 feet up to Stratford. If the junction is at Stratford it will still have to be hauled up hill, but the greater distance will make the grade easier. The very heavy

grades between Ngaere and Stratford will be avoided, thus tending to the cheaper carriage of produce. These are matters, however, which the official data of the Public Works and Railway Departments will throw more light upon than we can. In our view the strongest argument that can be advanced from New Plymouth is in connection with the direct trading facilities at the harbour. We are satisfied that if the people of the district to be served by the proposed railway could see the direct liners lying at the wharf at Moturoa waiting for their butter and cheese they would very strongly support that route which gave them the shortest and cheapest connection between the factories and the steamers, and that, we believe, will be the Stratford route. They only want an assurance that their produce can and will be shipped as regularly at Moturoa as it has been at Wellington. Ii that assurance can be given the saving in railway freight will turn the scale in favour of the Stratford route. Similarly with regard to imports, when the people in the district to be served see their imports of artificial manures, merchandise, etc., landed regularly from direct steamers at Moturoa, their support will go to the line which gives them the closest and cheapest connection with the port; and that is the Stratford route. The questions of cost of construction and facilities for handling traffic are for the railway constructive and operative departments to deal with, but it seems to us to be for New Plymouth to prepare evidence in favour of the route which will lead most directly to the port, and the best evidence will be a satisfactory guarantee that the port will handle the trade more efficiently than it can be handled under the existing system of transhipment at Wellington. When the railway is once started it will be too late to attempt to change the route.