PREMIER UP NORTH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1401, 11 March 1905, Page 2

PREMIER UP NORTH.

THE SUBJECT OF WESTLAND REVIVED. (Per Press Association.) - Auckland, last night. A deputation waited on tho Premier at Maungautoroto, requesting the extension of the north of Auckland railway. The Premier said he would undertake to prove that the North of Auckland had had a greater expenditure than Westland. Mr Harding : You can’t do it.

The Premier said Mr Harding and others had orred through gross ignorance of Westland geography. Ho then repeated the figures previously quoted in support of his statement. Nearly £200,000 a year was being spont oh the main trunk line, and he asked whether it would not have done more good to the province and the city if some of the money had been spent North of Auckland. In making the allocation the strongest argument in favor of extension was that until the railway was completed to a paying point the £104,000 already spent wonld not be reproductive. The Government had decided to iocroase the road expenditure, and if it was finally decided to increase the railway allocation he would most decidedly do his best to see that the district had a fair share of the increase.

Mr Seddon pointed out that he could not borrow more than one million pounds annually without'jeopardising the credit of the colony, but he admitted that a mile a year was a slow rate of progress. He had been more impressed with what the deputation toM him than over before.

Mr Beecroft stated that the rate of construction last month was very pleasing, a satisfactory number of men being employed.