THE EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1936, 19 December 1913, Page 4

THE EAST COAST RAILWAY.

I'ETOXE TO WAII'I'K! H A I - TIU.V Sir,—lii view of, the informatioif'pub: lijihcd in .your columns of the; Oih'inst.::'. "That the horse (after a brief period'of; partial disappearance) is again*-.rotiirii-' ins to the streets of Sydney, .m'/conscquence of: (L) The probienrof-' the petrol supply; (2) horec-le»d li-i.r-cheaper than oil; (.31 punctured tiros, detective sparking-plugs, tire renewals,-, and tho thousand <ukJ ouo nicchanical worries attending motor, lorry traffic end (4) horse-drawn 'buses being found more , reliable, daily, by business "people,never being put out of action": will Dr: : Newman please say: (a) Whether -lio still believes in motor lorry traffic being superior to a railway for opening .up'the Wellington East Coast lands? •

(-) As these lands are almost'roadless, and without metal in mnny' : 'parts of them, will Dr. Newman further say: .(b) Whether it would not be more expensive to .construct and maintain an arterial East Coast road than a railway (tho land would have to bo acquired in either case)? But this arterial road would have to be niado before Dr. Newman's motor lorries could run upon it. I might further be permitted to ask .Doctor Nowman: (c) Whether such - a road could bo kept open, in winter for heavy motor traction,' whore metal is so scarce?

(3) The statement was also made in larliameut, within the past' month, /bat tho only practical deviation .of tho Rinmtaka line was from Kaitoko to Hoodsido." Ido not remember whether Dr. Newman made tlisit statement, or somo other member. But, in view of tho fact that the Canadian-Pacific Railway Company has just let a contract for the construction of a ten-mile tunnel, through one of their mountain passes in British Columbia (a contract to bo completed in'three years), awl that there are only two tunnels 'to bo constructed in tho deviation via tho . ainui-o-mata (one of one . mile in length, and the other three miles fifty chams), would Dr. Newman state: (tit Whether,' in his honest 'opinion, the deviation from Kaitoko. to Woodside is the only practical one? Also, whether it would be good business for Wellington to cut nut Fcatherston and tho wliolo of the Lower Valley, in any plan of imprdved rail comniunication to open up its own hinterland?

(i) I would further ask Dr. Newman (should he be in favour of the KaitokeUoodsido deviation): ( 0 ) How ho pro- | poses to remedy tho most dangerous ' iv' G ,!^ I! ' an d greatest handicap against Wellington inward and outward traffic, viz., -tlio lino from Upper Hutt to Kaitoke, which rises SOO feet in a few nnles. As he knows, some three routes Have already been .surveyed to ameliorate this bad section, but none of them get over the difficulty of haulinn tho traffic up this'9oo feet, whereas the deviation via the Wainui is practically level. I may inform Dr. Newman thatI tlio honour of reviving the old proposal of tho lino originally going lrom Ivaitoke to Waodside, some seventeen .years ago, when suggesting the formation of a stock track from Groytoun to Otaki, but abandoned it in i'av°"r ° f tho route via Wainui, which Sir «..Hail-Jones had surveyed by' Mr. Dobson, at my request. . When i realised tho lay of the country, my exclamation was: Why didn't the line come m c in place ef via tho Summit? being then quite ignorant of my old friend (Mr. • William Beetliam s) original advocacy of that route. I am glad Sir William Hall-Jones is in Wellington now,, as lie will remember tho- whole matter. /I'he Hon, W. Fraser has 1 promised a new survey for 'tlio L |linitffaka deviation, but in tho fii'earitirlib this motor-lorry proposal, in place of-a Petone to Waipukiirau railway, requires to lie cleared, up. It rests with Dr. Newman, to explain how it' is .that the Sydney people aro abandoning tho motor-lorry and mot-or-'bus in favour of horso trailic again. (o) I would remind !)r. Newman, also, that tho distance from Petone to Upper Hutt (as the crow flics) is practically tho same as the distance from Petone to the Western Lake, so that, here, < ellington has the chance of adding to itself a wide lake suburb, unsurpassed in wealth, beauty, and convenience in the Southern Hemisphere.' Ex. gra: Directly the Wainui deviation is made, and tlio, Tauheronikau Falls harnessed (a matter duly provided for in the Memorandum of Association of tho East Coast Railway Company I havo drafted),' as tho tunnels must bo worked by electric traction, and the whole section, Wellington to Martinborough, via the W ainui tunnels, worked electrically, then it is plain that tho Goat Meat and A\ ellington Meat Export Companies should remove their present abattoirs to the lako, and each acquire a thousand acres of land (one, say, at Pigeon Push, and tho other at Wairongamai) for resting purposes (as at Aslfburton), and so improvo tho value of tho mutton -}d. to Id. a lb. . As a director of the Gear Company, Dr. Newman must know that the meat killed "off the truck" is ruined before it is frozen, and it is quite time that this handicap is romoved from Wellington's mutton. I therefore beg to suggest that tlio two companies not only acquire tho necessary land (with a water suppiv in each case) whilst the prico is low,'but aid me. in every way they can in getting tlio Rimutaka line deviated via the Wainui, in order that they may remove their works. (The directors will remember that I. strongly urged the Wsingawa Meat Company to erect, its works lower down the Valley, in order to havo a good simply of water, which it lacks at present.)

I give tin's as only one instance where Wellington would find it s.o enormously to its advantage and progress to have the wide areas of this hike suburb so close to itself, for its future manufacturing and residential expansion. At present there is hardly a level half-acre of land in or near the city where any person can erect a factory of any kind. But deviate via Wainui, and then there is half a million acres of level land for Wellington's future expansion! The late Sir William Fitzherbort used to sav that Wellington's -Harbour meant "the : little comer ,shor>" which no one iu New Zealand would pass by. I would ask Dr. Newman whether this lake country has not been specially designed by Providence as tho suburban back-door, of the "little sfiop"? and that a short line of railway, worked electrically (almost, in fact, as a tram line) should bo allowed to join the back "' and front doors? Thft Hatnitai tunnel to Lyall Bay is an instance of what I mean? Only the larger of the Wainui tunnels would allow the waters of the Orongo Orongo and Wairongamai, and even the Wairarnnn Lake itself, to be thrown into the Walnui-o-mata reservoir, and so solve the future watr><supply of_ the city for all time; To doviato via Woodside appears .to mo most detrimental for Wellington's welfare. I hope Dr. Newman will renly to what I ask him, as my task in life has always been to eausn neonle ''to think, and his answer wi'il do that—l am, etc., ■ COLEMAN PHI LLll'S; Friesland Lodge, Carterton, " .v. - December 10, 1013.