LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1583, 29 October 1912, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

A SERIOUS CHARGE. , Sir,—l desire a very small portion of your spaco in which to ventilate a matter of grnvo concern to this Dominion generally, nud to Hawke's Bay in particular. It is a question of the route said to bo chosen by the engineers for tho East Coast railway from Napier. The Opposition press is always twitting the Reform party with having discovered nothing discreditable in the past administration and sneeriiigly asking for information. I propose to place your readers in possession of sonic, with your kind permission. A. few months ago, with the authority of tho Public Works Department, a map was exhibited for public inspection in tho Napier Arcade purporting to illustrate nil possible alternative routes of the East Coast line from Napier. My local knowledge (and for four years under the Ward Government I acted as a classification commissioner of Hawke's Bay lands) is my justification for stating that map to bo either a political concoction or a pain.'fill exhibition of carelessness or neglect of tho engineering experts. The map is now in tho office of the Re-' form Minister for Public Works. It was intended to convey to the public of Napier that a proper and thorough investigation had been mode of the country to bo traversed. My charger either against! tho Department or the Ward Cabinet is that a blunder of 30 miles has been perpetrated which at ,£IO,OOO per mile affect? tho calculation of cost to the extent of .£300,000. That since the commencement of work along the Touto said to bo recommended by the engineers, the Hawke's Bay Countv and the Chambers of Commerce of tfapier nnd Hastings havo actually asked for and obtained a survey of another railway running approximately parallel to that already bein» constructed, but a few miles further inland!! That had this ronto been adopted as far as Waihau Station, which tho Reform party havo recently purchased, not onlv would the first section have served as the first portion of'tho railway to Gisborno. but it would have saved tho country ,£300,000 as the first section of a railway connecting Napier with Auckland ,via Lake Taupo. This route was not adopted because tho engineers were stated to have said that it would make the distance to Gisborne approximately 45 miles longer. Whereas tho actual increase will ho found to b'e only 15 miles longer—a difference ■to tho cost, as I have already said, of ■£300,000.

As a result of this political jobbery the work of Construction lias been stopped at Napier as we are faced at the commencement of tho route chosen with the erection of a bridge and embankment two miles long across an arm of the sea which might have been avoided by adopting the coursefrom Napier via Taradale, Puketapu, Nsnroto, Wmhau, and Patoka. Unless the Reform party reconsider this matter n vast extent of Hawkc's Bay is left linrailed until such time a-s tho State can afford to spend another .£300,000. . The member for Napier, Mr. J. Vigor Brown, besides desiring to "dish" Hastings by depriving it practically for all timo of direct connection with this railway extension, was no doubt anxious to "dish" the advocates of the inner harbour scheme. The erection of tho bridce embankment along the proposed routo am\ across that harbour area would block tho inner harbour scheme for all time. Perhans now that the Spoils party has gone nut. Mr. Vigor Brown will find he has dished the people of Napier and Hawke's Bay, for the work of construction has been stopped practically for three years until completion of the bridge and embankment which choice of this route has rendered necessary! Thitws como homo to roost, don't they Mr. Editor? But I want my question answered: Will tho late Government deliberately shut .their eyes to an obviously advantageous routo via Puketapu, Patoka, and Te Pohue pretending that what wo asked for was a lino right to Puliititiri and then down tho Moheka River? Government road engineer M'Millnn's report and survey of a tram line from Pnketapu to Pukititiri now lies in the Minister's- office and from the point where it passes through tho Wniluvu country it will be easy to demonstrate the true position by measuring the distance thence, to Faloka and Te Pohne, and on to tho present survey beyond AVaiknre. Sir, this is as rotten a political job as ever camo within my" knowledge when I

wag a member of the Hawke's Bay Land Board, and I desire your assistance towards its expo Mire. Although I forfeited my deposit, only polling 400 votes at last general election, I pledged myself to work hereafter just as truly for Hawke's Bay as though I had been elected. That is

my only object in writing—l am sorry to dnmaco anyone, but it/is vital to the. future of this Dominion that truth and justico should triumph at this particular crisis of our history.—l am, etc., EUSTACE LANE. Napier, 19th October, 1912.