THE NORTH AUCKLAND RAILWAY DEVIATION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 542, 24 June 1909, Page 5

THE NORTH AUCKLAND RAILWAY DEVIATION.

VIEWS OF.JOt. MANDER, M.P. ' i ■ y° ur . WPortoTß waited on:ma S 111 ' ' aa ' > . e T en ing re deviation -of North Auckland railway , from Kaiwaka onwarns, and perhaps I aid not nut the. mattar very clearty. What I wisn to Bay .is that: I was*.astounded at'the' announcement or so radical' a change, seeing Hliat the rail-- • t way authorised' to;Mangatupini .'BoundTho lino to that vicinity was also surveyed. All. the engineers' had reported in -favour of it,- and the Hon. . Hall-Jones, exMinister of Public Works, had declared the line, fixed to within five miles of Maungatu-, .roto, • ond yet the Hon. • R. M'Kenzie has j deviated/from,,that; course, and;.has'decided I to take, the line about ten. miles whore it;'.was . authorised to. go;] has adapted a longer and,mow - expensive route/ takep 'it over-,, to a' navigable ; river. on the western mde, and quite . out of -• the oentre. of the peninsula,. his argument. being,. according -to the; paper ? that there are more, cattle on the aide. This; seems; to me very , weak argument for the .deviation of .a main; trunk railway : that will: have -to serve hundreds of ; Bottlers in years to. come, ,who wffl want'cheap manures to enable;them ■to..' develop -to a ■ productive state ' the ' large ! arfea 'of /lands; now lyings idle. A fewmiles .extra-* for; cattle to walk, to a station ,on either, side does not amount to much,-'but the. cartage of goods is, a very expensive' item, especially• on such roads as:exist in the north. Besides this the extra mileage to the settlers further. north will' be a' continuous . charge. If it could have been shown "that the devifr, shorter or cheaper there would have been some argument in- its favpur; but my knowledge of/the country satisfies nre ,this is, not the i case.—l am, etc., ■'/ /.p - T. MANDEEi; .June 23. : ,'. : x