OTIRA TUNNEL.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16143, 22 February 1918, Page 7

OTIRA TUNNEL.

A WELLINGTON VIEW

On Wednesday, the "New Zealand Times" printed a lengthy oditorial on the Otira tunnel. After giving a history of the Lyttelton tunnel, and of the progress of the Midland railway project, the "Times" said, in conclusion :—

"At this point the theories come m sight oiieo more, opinions for and agamst being shurpiy uiviued still. vVo Have, However, some aata to guide us —a Jortunate thing, ior the Juoinmion is committed to tut> completion ot tiio work. Tiie last Railway Statement supplies til© data. 'l'iiese give tJie cost of the open lines of the western system —not including the Westport section, which, with its annual proiit of £10 8s 3d per cent., is tlie best paying section or all the .New Zealand railways—at £2j075,217, returning a net profit, not including interest payment, of £3 Is per cent., from a net revenue of £63,341. The cost of the unopened lines of the western system jis given at £044,000; and we have to estimat© what it will cost to finish, these and the tunnel, if we place that at £35(3,000, Wb shall not, we think, bo far out. In that case there will be an additional million on whicli to pay interest. If the estimate is corroct, the railway project after the connexion through the tunnel is established between the eastern and western systems, will have to justify itself. To do that it need not be asked to do moro than pay 3 per cent, on tins new million, for that is what tho western system pays. A net revenue of £30,00u a year would do that. .Now, with a tunnel of level grade, and worked by electricity, there will be no addition to working expenses. That trouble is clearly eliminated —one of the gravest it was in the battle of theories. Now, is it reasonable to expect the mineral and timber traffic sure to he carried through the tunnel to contribute this £30,000, less than half of the net revenue of the existing western systems? That it is eminently reasonable goes without saying. In the future there is the certainty of linking up with the TVestport section, with its large power as a feeder, and there is the chance of the growing earnings of the western system, which must be reflected in tne eastern. It is plain, therefore, that the piercing of the range by the tunnel, and the whole groat railway project, so hardly cmtested in the middl« 'eighties, is within measurable distance of justification by results. Anyono who decries the completion of the Otira 'tunnel convicts himself of not having studied the question as it ought to be studied."