EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19763, 19 December 1935, Page 11

EAST COAST RAILWAY.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I am sorry that the Hon. R. Semple, one of the best-intentioned and least patient of men, should have attacked the Railways Board In the way he did. The matters surely cad for a consultation first, and then, u any "unwarranted opposition were shown, action might have been fully justified. ' , The board is strictly controlled by the existing laws, and so long as it carried them out it should not be disparaged by a member of the Ministry, I happen to know Mr Semple faiily well, and Avondered how long It would be -before his impatience with what he regards as unnecessary opposition, or failure to co-operate, led him to say some hard things. The Government itself can do nothing with regard to the East Coast railway ■ until the legislation is amended.. The Act of 1931 placed the operation and construction of .railways outside Parliament. One section stated that no suspended work could be resumed until a report on it had been presented to Parliament and a resolution authorising the resumption of the Avork had been passed by both Houses. Personally I have no doubt at all that the Railways Board has been marked down for suppression, but it will be surprising if its death is the result of a Labour Government wishing to construct a railway that has such poor prospects of paying.—l am, eto., INANGAHUA. Hamilton, December 18.