RAILWAY AND BRIDGE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1241, 25 September 1911, Page 6

RAILWAY AND BRIDGE.

MARTINBOROUGH'S WANTS. A DEPUTATION, An influential deputation from the Wailurapa was introduced to the Hon. I\. M'Kcnzie, Minister for Public Works, by Mr. W. C. Buchanan, M.P., on Saturday morning. Tho members of the deputation were Messrs. A. 1). M'Leod (chairman of the I'eatherston County Council), .T. Koss (chairman of the Martinborongb. Town Board). ,T. M'Leod, A. Considine, IT..Mackay, T. Donald, C. Harris, Daysh. Pain, and Cobb. One of the objects of the deputation was to induce th-s Government to include the proposed Feather-ston-Mnr-tinborongh branch railway in the Railway Authorisation Bill this session; They.also desired assistance towards the cost of tho new concrete bridge near Martinborough. As soon as the matter of the bridge was mentioned by Mr. Buchanan, tho Minister interrupted: "You can drop that subject, for you're- not going to get it. You wouldn't have our pla.n, and we told you that you could not have any extra ass'ist--a.noc. That subject was settled long ago." , Mr. A. D. M'Leod was the spokesman of the deputation. He said the sugses- ■ tiou bad been ■ thrown out that the outlet for Maryborough by rail should be vja Greytown, but he thought that .'in that case road traffic would compete with the railway. • Tho Minister: That's a good argument against the railway. |. Mr. M'Leod, con'tinning, said the Mar,'tinborough people had made an offer as to what they were prepared to do if tho railway was built, but the Government had stated that such arrangements wero not in accordance with its policy, and (hat tne. Government would take the responsibility of building railways. At present, the traffic of 'the stock' on the main road was such that the by-law forbidding travelling stock by night could not bn complied with. In'regard to the : bridge, the. council decided that ,£SOOO : should l>? a pro rata charge on the county: The Government had contributed .C2OQO, nnd t.lin balance was to be raised from the outlyina districts. The cost had run "into .£9OOO, so'that there would be .£2OOO to bo borne by outlyin? districts, R'oine of which had no roads at all. They, therefore, hoped further assistance would be granted. Mr. Buchanan said the Minister had visited the district, and knew how favourably its capacity compared with that of other districts where railways woro to be made. The peoplo had shown their confidence by offering to take responsibility in the matter of the railway. By far the greater proportion of the shrep trucked, at Featliorston came from the J[art.inboTou!»h district, and passed over the bridee mentioned. The Minister said he did not dispute any of the. arguments, that had beon used in siinuort of the request for tho railway. He knew the district was capable of very great development from a productive point of view, but he doubted whether any branch railways would bo authorised this .session. He would put the request before th? Government, and it would roeeiv-a the fame consideration as other requests of the samo kind. As to the bridge, the County Council hnd insisted on making it longer than tho Government , engineers thought necessary. Of course, if they liko-1 to go in for luxuries, they could spend as much money as they liked, but they wmi'd have to foot the bill themselves. The extra cost was entirely their own affair, and they would not get any assistance towards it from the Government. They had been, extremely well treated in the matter by the Government.

Mr. M'Leod poinlwl out that even if the railway were not carried acro?s tho river, it could come within two miles of Maryborough, and its co=t under those conditions would be considerably less than if a railway bridge had to bo'built. The deputation siibrenuen'.ly waited on tho Minister for Justice (Sir John Findlay), nnd asknd that provision should be made for a building for the holding of tho Magistrate's Court at Martinb'oronrh. Tho Court has hitherto sat in the Oddfellows' Hull, but as tenders have been called for the sale of that building it "will probably bq no longer available. The Minister admitted that pomething would havo to be done, and promised to. mnl;<; inquiries and inform the chairman 'of the Town 'Beard what was decided.