The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1891.

Timaru Herald, Volume 5264, Issue 5264, 15 October 1891, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1891.

A strong effort is being made m Auckland and, New Plymouth at the present time to induce the Government to commit themselves to the work of constructing a railway between those two places. In such a matter Ministers can of course do nothing that has not been sanctioned by Parliament ; but Northern influence is great, Auckland mast be conciliated, and as the colony will have to pay for any publio works Vbicb may be Undertaken, it is -bb well to ' note what theße agitators have m viewj m order that when the proper time comes an effectual veto may be. given to their extravagant proposals. They are not new proposals by any means, but have lately been pushed to the front again and urged with iaore persistence than ever. We see that within, the last day or two a large meeting, at Stratford resolved- 1 -" That it is highly desirable that Auckland and Taranaki should : be connected by railway,, and that, this meeting urges that m the meantime coach roads should be put through '' at . once, connecting the Taranaki and Auckland railways from Stratford via the east road." 1 , resolution urged the Government .to acquire blocks of ..native land along the proposed line of connection. A strong committee were appointed to act with the Auokland committee, who are already on the warpath and deter, mined to leave no stone unturned m order to secure Government support. It is impossible to cay what the Ballance Ministry may do m ' such a case. They certainly will not aljow regard for the well-being of the colony as.a whole to stand iv the way of any conrße of action Bnggested by narrow local considerations, if yielding to the hitter appears for the moment to be mQre conducive to their own safety. If Messrs Ballance and Seddon could get more votes by throwing over the Central rotjt'e for the' North Island Main Trunk Bailway and adopting tho Stratford route,- they would soon find plausible arguments '• m favour of the latter and allow the , former to drop altogether. Therefore, although the Stratford route is being agitated for m the fax* north on grounds which certainly cannot fairly be called colonial, and although the Central route is incomparably the best from a colonial point of view, it does not follow that Ministers will refuse to listen favourably to the nrgent appeals which are now being made to them. Auckland | does not like the idea of a proportion of the Taranaki trade finding its way to Wellington over the railway now connecting the two points. Thut is what is at the bottom of the Hgication as far as the northern capital is concerned. The Auckland mercantile community be]ieve that if their city were joined to Taranaki by the Stratford route they would" 'ba able ito^out out Wellington. The New Zealand Herald sides strongly with the agitators, and holds that the time has come "to review the whole position ", or m other words to abandon the route deliberately adopted by the Parliamentary Committee of 188-t, and sanctioned by the legislature. Just m the height, of this agitation it happened that Mr Maxwell, the Chief Railway Commissioner was m Auckland, and was .approached by a press representative, who was naturally anxious to ascertain the opinion of such an authority on the vexed question of routes,- Mr Maxwell spoke bis mind freely. He told the interviewer that there could be no two opinions as to which route was the beet. It was the Central one. Tbo Taranaki route could never be a trunk line of communication. ''Itjaad grades m some places of 1 m 33, and five-chain curves ; and although that grade wua not the average, it governed the haulage. From Halcombe to Stratford the line was like the teeth of a saw ; and being badly built, could never carry a heavy goods traffic or admit of the rate of speed necessary for a trunk line. To connect with Tarnuaki meant a railway 260 miles m length to junction with a township 100 miles distant from Auckland. As goods were being now shipped to and from Tara. naki at 10s per ton, no railway that could b,e built could compete with such a tariff. All that such a prospect would entail' would be the saddling the present Waikuto line with an additional l'Off mifes of unprofitable line,' having severe grades and through difficult country". Even with the West Coast line running through settled country, the railway was dependent upon the passenger, stock, and wheat traffic for returns, bb it could not compete with water carriage for general merchandise, whioh was -, supplied to . Wanganui, Patea, and Taranaki by steamer. Practically the Stratford route would be only giving a second railway .to the West Coast, instead of opening up the interior of the North Island as a trunk line should do. Mr Maxwell states that the Central route, besides opening up a larger area of country, has the inestimable advantage of having no competition m the shape of water carriage. All the produce must come by rail, and every cross road on either hand from adjacent districts will act qb a feeder. The grades are better, being about 1 m 80, and it would be possible to attain a muoh higher rate of speed, so as to secure a good passenger as well as goods service. Auckland would sconre the traffio of the whole of the Taupo and adjacent country, and she should be able to secure the wool and also the sheep for freezing works, as she would meet Wellington on equal terms. . Wellington was buying sheep now at Hastings, Hawke's Bay (where Nelson Bros, had great; freezing works), and taking .them to Wellington with profit, and also doing the same from as far north aa Hawero. What Wellington was doing commercially aa regards country districts Auokland could ' do. So far as he could see Auckland, by the central route, would secure m the yeavs to come the lion's share of the traffio of tho great interior of the North Island." It would have been hardly possible to administer a heavier blow than that dealt by Mr Maxwell to the pretensions of the agitators ; but they will, of course, continue their operations, we expeot that next cession a strenuous effort

will be made to secure the adoption of the Stratford route. It would simply mean the waste of enormous sums of money, all of which would come out of the pooketß of the general taxpayer.