EAST COAST LINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19979, 3 July 1939, Page 7

EAST COAST LINE

BUILDING PROBLEMS UNPRECEDENTED IN N.Z. MINISTER’S APPRECIATION TRIBUTE TO COLLKAGI'E (Herald Special Reporter). WAIROA, tins day. “I believe, and I aim sure that my colleague the Hon. R. Semple will agree with 'me, that the Napier- Wairoa railway Iras been built under csfficallies unprecedented in the history of railroad construction in New Zealand —-a land where engineering problems in railway construction have been extraordinarily plentiful, stated the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, Mini;.;er of Railways, in his address to ■a large gathering in Wairoa to-day, on .the occasion of the official opening of the East Coasit Main Trunk section from Napier to Wairoa. The Minister reviewed extensively the history of the line in recent years, his references including the decision of the Labour Government in 1935 to resume the programme of railway construction which Hie previous Government had begun and then suspended.

He pointed out that the department had made plans for a comprehensive passenger and goods service, and that the East Coast would have the advantage of railcar service, with its special 'features of speed and economy.

Mr. Sullivan, in the course of his address, paid la tribute to the work of his Cabinet colleague, the Hon. R. Semple. It was not too much to say that Mr. Semple had brought to the Public Works Department a new inspiration and driving force, a boldness of conception and execution unexampled .in .the history of public works administration in New Zealand.

“I say all honour to him, and to his department and 1 staff, for the good job they have - done in pushing through the construction of this line in the face of the severest hnnclicaos," he concluded.