The Press. Wednesday, February 27, 1918. The Tunnel Agitation.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16147, 27 February 1918, Page 6

The Press. Wednesday, February 27, 1918. The Tunnel Agitation.

The most- substantial step forward in tho agitation for a more vigorous prosecution of the Otira tunnel construction was taken yesterday at a meeting of two of the sub-committees of the Arthur's Pass Tunnel League. We have been urging that the early summoning of Parliament, for a session at which the Government will be disinclined to give facilities for the consideration of anything but financial supplies, makes imperative the earliest possible despatch of a strong and wellarmed deputation to Wellington. This deputation, we suggested, ought not to content itself with interviewing the Minister for Public Works, but ought to intorview MrMasseyand Sir Joseph Ward simultaneously. On both these points the Finance and Deputations Committee have adopted our suggestion, and we hop© that it will be a matter of only a few days before we are able to report a vigorous offensive in

Wellington. There appears to have been a little dissent from the Mayor's opinion that the League should assume that the Government's reply to tho deputation will bo unfavourable. If the Mayor means that the League should act as if it were going to be repulsed at first, he is certainly right. Nothing less, as "wc have said in earlier discussions of the matter, than firm and diligent aggression is likely to achieve any satisfactory result. Tho Otira-Bealev connexion stands in the Public Works Estimates as only one— though certainly a large one —of nearly forty picces of railway construction: and that is how it stands in the mind of the Governmont, and that is how it will continue to stand unless the Government receive impressive proof that the provinces of Westland and Canterbury are firm and united in be'ieving that such a view of this vitally important national work is monstrously wrong and improper. The Government, of course, may soy that they have not got the money to spare, and cannot get the labour—but the labour difficulty is one that the Government can overcome if they wish to do so, and the financial objections have no sound basis at all. Although it hardly requires detailed demonstration, tho Finance Committee will 110 doubt arm itself with tho facts and figures which will prove tho economic value to the whole Dominion of the linking-up of Canterbury and Westland—an economic advantage in which even Auckland will share. The Ministers, wo imagine, will be ready to admit the case of the deputation on this point; but they may nevertheless urgo that at present a cautious policy must bo pursued. If it can be proved that tho completion of the Midland line is an urgent war-worlc, the Government will be unable to urge anything against it, and the Finance Committee should easily be able to put the deputation in the way of supplying tho proof. It is not as if we were asking for the opening up of new territory which only in the course of years would become profitable. Westland is not an undeveloped country. There is already a full stream of commerco and trade waiting to flow tho moment tho through trains begin to run—cattle, sheep, dairy produco, timber, and coal. Increased trade, with more efficient and quick transport and handling of goods—this means an addition to the national wealth, and it will bo an immediate addition. Thero is no other means in sight whereby tho expediture of public money can produce results so good without any delay, and thero is urgent need that tho wealth and the efficiency of the country should bo strengthened to pull its full weight as a member of the Imperial union. Then the benefits that will accrue to the Consolidated Fund are obvious. From being a money-losing concern, 'tho Midland Railway will become a money-making one, and a true policy of war economy would direct the Government to make haste to achieve that result. IT a business firm had a large work uncompleted in which a great sum wero sunk, the completion of which would make all the difference botweon a good profit and a heavy loss it would leave no stone unturned to complete it. It would not say it could not afford the outlay necessary to get' th« work done at once; it would say that it could not afford not to make the outlay. That is the case of tho Midland Railway, and we hope that the League's deputation will make it clear to the Government that war cconomy does not require niggardliness in making provision for th e work, but requires a bold and vigorous expenditure of labour and money without tho delay of a single day. That would be true economy, and fruitful war-work.