LIGHT RAILWAYS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1401, 8 September 1923, Page 5

LIGHT RAILWAYS.

FE ANKTON -RAGLAN -KA WW A. MEETING AT TE PAHU. The public meeting, convened by Messrs W. J. Marx (Te Rore) and E. H. Grey (Te Rore) to select candidates opposed to this light railway for the forthcoming election, which takes place on October 4th, was very largely attended. Ngahinapouri, Koromatua, Karamu, Te Rore, Waitetuna, Harapepe and Te Palm were well represented. Mr Marx occupied the chair, and before commencing the ordinary business of the meeting proposed votes of sympathy to Mrs Strong and family and Mr Stewart Reid in their recent bereavements. The chairman explained that the object of the meeting was to select candidates .opposed to the scheme of going on with the proposed railway, as he did not think it would be a paying proposition. He instanced the Putaruru line, which had proved a failure. The Government Railways were not paying 3 per cent., so there was little prospect of the light railway being a success. He was out to squash the scheme for all time. Mr A. Cooper (Hamilton) said that the object of the forthcoming election was to select candidates from bonaflde ratepayers to act on the permanent board of the light railways, when all documents, survey plans, etc., would be preserved so that at any future time when the line was proceeded with they would be available. If. on the other hand, the scheme was turned down, the expenditure ,of the survey, records, etc., would be lost, and the whole formula would need to be gone over again should the line at any future time be required; that is all that is being asked for. The ratepayers were not committing themselves in any way by voting for members ,on the board, as the scheme had to be submitted to Parliament for sanction to go on with the work, and if the Minister for Railways considered that it would not be a payable proposition it would be thrown out. Further, a poll would be taken before the work could be proceeded with, therefore the ratepayer is safeguarded. He was a member of the provisional board, and had signed a joint and several covering the expense of the survey, etc., and the speaker added that he was not asking others to go in for a thing that he was afraid of doing himself.

Mr Grey (Te Rore) said he was opposed to the scheme, and quoted figures of what he considered would be the approximate freight on the various merchandise ,nnd the estimated value of the timber, etc., available in the vicinity. He quoted the failure of the Roxburgh-Lawrence line in the South, which ran through good farming country; it was run on a similar basis. Mr Ritchie (Waitetuna): What is at the end of the line? A pub and a store! While there is deep water at the end of the proposed line at Raglan with a sandstone bar, which is much different to drifting sand bottom. The Lawrence line is a "joke." Mr Grey: Well, this one would be a mate for it! Messrs Finn (Te Rore) and T. Livingstone (Ngahinapouri) spoke strongly against the proposed railway being a paying proposition, and there was much friendly "exchanging of arms" between them and Mr Cooper as to what eventuated at the Ngahinapouri meeting. The failure of the Putaruru line and the expense to ratepayers for same, and compensation to property holders where the line would traverse, were arguments brought against the proposal. After much! desultory discission, which lasted to nearly midnight, Mr Budden proposed and Mr H. Haddock seconded, "That the provisional board carry on." The chairman ruled the motion out of order, stating that the meeting was convened for the purpose of opposing the scheme. It was proposed by Mr Finn (Te Rore) and seconded by Mr Sigvertsen (Te Pahu) "That Mr Grey be appointed a member of the committee opposed to the light railways."— This was lost. A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated a most interesting meeting.