Completing the Railways

Evening Star, Issue 20054, 20 December 1928, Page 17

Completing the Railways

PROMPT START MADE. THE PREMIER'S INSTRUCTIONS MEN REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY. [Special to the ' Stab.'l WELLINGTON, December 19. Ono of the big policy points of the Ward Government is already going into operation. The Prime Minister announced to-day that the Public Works Department had been instructed to arrange for additional numbers of men to be put on the railways whose completion he Pad previously announced as part of the general policy of the Government, and to make arrangements to push on with the construction of the Taranaki-Auckland Railway, the Gisborne-Napier Railway, the Inangahua-Westport Railway, and the Midland Railway to Nelson. The officers oi tho department had been advised to put matters in motion to get ready for going right on with these works. Definite instructions had also been given that surveyors were to bo put on without delay to put in hand the surveying of the South island Trunk Railway, and it was to !;e done as expeditiously as possible. in emphasising the lart that tho Government was not going to delay starting these works, Sir Joseph said he remembered that similar expressions to those which had been uiged by some opponents of the South Island Main Trunk bad been made against some of the principal lines that bad been constructed in the country. The North Island Main Trunk was a case in point.

He was the head ol the Government when this line, in its later years, was prosecuted vigorously. “ there were croakers, no doubt with the best of intentions, then, as is the case now, who predicted failure from the point of view of the railway paying its way. Statements of the kind were circulated 'iii-s, and bo also with the Can-terbury-West Coast Railway The pouring out of opposition to it, on flic grounds that it would be a great white elephant, was endless. The Government did not hesitate to push these lines on as fast as possible to completion. Similar statements regarding any of the five lines, including the South Island Trunk Railway, all of which the Government were determined to push on with, in order to complete them as early as possible, would not deter them from carrying out their policy, and he predicted that in the whole of these cases similar results, on the completion of the different lines referred to, would lie achieved. GISBORNE-NAPiER SURVEY. Regarding the Gisborne-Napior Railway, some questions had been raised as to the route. Naturally those who .were raising the question were entitled to consideration. There was a difference of £600,000 between the two routes, and the official representations were quite clear, that the shorter route, which would save £600,000, would meet the whole of the requirements that the GisborneNapier Railway was started with the object of providing. Before definitely deciding this matter, however, a full report would be obtained. “There is one thing, however, quite certain,” concluded the Prime Minister; “that if the results required could be obtained by a saving of £600,000, the Government will most unhesitatingly adopt that course.”