BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1948 A VITAL LINK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 54, 11 June 1948, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1948 A VITAL LINK

Present petrol shortage and recent floods serve as additional reminders, if those were necessary, that the linking up the gap in the Gisborne-Taneatua line is a vital need in the communications of this part of the country. It might be argued, indeed it has been argued by apologists for Government apathy in the matter, that such a link would be uneconomic. But can it be said that would be peculiar to this district? Is it not a fact that existing railways are not showing a profit—are not, in fact, even self-supporting? But is there anyone crazy enough to suggest they should be scrapped on that account? Their value in service to the community far outweighs any drain- they might be on the taxpayers’ pockets. It can be said with truth there are many other State organisations that give the taxpayer less value per shilling than the railways do.

Figures quoted to the Gisborne Junior Chamber of Commerce recently by Mr C. H. Cooper, president of the Gisborne-East Coast Regional Council, showed that freights over the existing 3500 miles of railways averaged 3£d per ton-mile, compared with road transport at an average of about If-. A’t that rate, rail freights could stand a lot of adjustment before they would be uneconomic for the public _ in comparison with the alternative. Mr Cooper had the answer for those who say there is no practical route from Motuhora to Opotiki that would not be ruinously expensive to builds Today, he said the Motuhora line was doing little business, and there was an entirely new conception of the route to Opotiki. This new route branched off the established line at Rakauroa, and traversed part of the Te Wera country, by-passing the difficult country around Matawai and eventually emerging on to the floor of the Waioeka "Valley beyond Trafford’s Hill. The maximum grade for railways construction was one in 40, but on the proposed route through Te Wera there would be nothing steeper than one in 60.

There would, moreover, be no question of an immensely costly-figure-of-eight tunnel, nor even any substantial tunnels or viaducts.

Concerning the cost factor, to make a road capable of carrying all the traffic likely to develop between Poverty Bay, and the Bay of Plenty would possibly cost not much if any less than the linking up of the . -existing railways and its maintenance cost would almost certainly be higher. ■