SOUTH TRUNK LINE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 81, 2 October 1931, Page 8

SOUTH TRUNK LINE

PARLIAMENTARY VISIT

A FAVOURABLE TONE

(By Telegraph.—Prase Association.)

BLENHEIM, Ist October.

Acknowledging a civic welcome extended upon the completion of their inspection of the South Island Main Trunk railway work, members of Parliament to-day gave some of the impressions they formed regarding the country served by the line.

1 "I think most of us; were impressed with the fact that the land is really first class," said Mr.. E. A. Wright. "You have some of the finest land in New Zealand, and that is saying a very great deal Indeed." Blaming successive changes of Government for the non-com-pletion, of the line, he said it^was just the fortune of war. "It does seem you have been dogged by bad luck all along." Mr. G. C. Munns said it was his first visit to "your magnificent province, and I have been astounded by what I have seen. I was told we were coming to a land of precipices, rocks, and barren land, but I have not seen a scrap of it — just good land all along the route." He recommended the district to agitate for closer settlement. <

Mr. F. Langstone said he had always believed in the completion of the line to abolish two dead ends. "If the Beforni and United Governments and the present hotch-potch political matrimony refused to complete the line, Labour would." : :

Mr. A. Harris, who also made his first acquaintance with the country the line passes through, said he was deeply impressed with the land, though that did not necessarily mean that he would support the line. The Hon. C. J. Oarrington frankly confessed that he had arrived prejudiced against the line-'for the simple reason that he was under the impression that it followed a rocky coastline all the way from Parnassus. Having now seen the country, he said that without the slightest fear of contradiction there was no province with greater possibilities for closer settlement than Marlborough. : The party later left for Wellington.