HIGHWAY FIRST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 14, 1 November 1948, Page 5

HIGHWAY FIRST

Chamber of Commerce & Access Problem

“While we are naturally interested in the project we think that a first class highway should be put through between Whakatane and Gisborne before a railway,” said Mr R. T. Morpeth, president of the Whakatane Chamber of Commerce, commenting on a report that both 1 the Gisborne and Auckland Chambers of Commerce were agitating for a direct railway route between the two centres. “There are more important jobs needed yet,” Mr Morpeth added. “First, the Whakatane Chamber considers that a first class highway between Rotorua and Gisborne via Whakatane should be completed. “Then there is the extension of the present line from Edgecumbe to the proposed new timber jtown at Murupara. This job is urgent and will, have to be done very soon. Timber there has now reached maturity and if left much longer will decline quickly in value. “Finally,” he said, “there is the. old line betweejn Paeroa and Pokeno which was started just before the war and like other jobs, had to be abandoned. This should be finished.” “If a line was put through we would like it, naturally, to go through Whakatane and on via Opotiki. At present that seems a bit too much to wish for,” Mr Morpeth added. Mr Morpeth said that roads, good roads, could quite easily serve in place of a rail link at the present time. He thought that his chamber would prefer them first.