The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, MAR, 27, 1906. EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1709, 27 March 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, MAR, 27, 1906. EAST COAST RAILWAY.

The Auckland ' papers are now infusing some vigor into their advocacy of railway connection with the fertile East Coast, and the unwisdom of applying all energy in the direction of the Main Trunk line is being realised. Tho one of course seems grander, but that it would give greater benefits to Auckland remains open to question. We have already quoted the morning journal’s warm support of a lino ultimately connecting with Gisborne. Tho Star, in an article on the subject, states :

few men who know anything about the needs and the possibilities of Auckland will be found to deny that what ;his district requires most urgently for ts speedy development is bettor in;ernal communication. No other part of the colony is. so poorly provided with roads and railways; and the inevitable consequence is that large areas of rich and valuable land are now lying absolutely useless, while our isolated settlors are struggling on, hoping against hope for the longdelayed fulfilment of the promises lavished so plenteously on us in the past. While other districts have been able to secure for themselves a reasonable amount of recognition in the matter of public works, Auckland has had to be content with far less than her rightful share. It is true that of late our position has been greatly improved in this respect; and the Seddon Administration has done more lor us than any Government that previously held office. But chiefly owing to the lack of union and co-operation among our representatives, Auckland s just claims have been allowed in past years to fall, comparatively speaking, I into the background. Nothing but j unanimity and concerted action among | the members whom we send to Wellington can secure for us all that we have good right to expect from the allocation of the public funds. It is therefore with great satisfaction that we observe the efforts now being made by the,Auckland .Railway Leagues to co-operate with railway leagues in other parts of the district, and the interest displayed in this matter both by our members and by Ministers on tour through the East Coast country and our detached and isolated “backblocks ”

The energies of our railway leagues (continues the Star) have hitherto been chiefly devoted to the promotion of the

Main Trunk and North Auckland lines. But the East Coast Railway League has a work to perform which is scarcely second in importance oven to these great projects. When it was suggostod at a recent mooting of the Chamber of Commerce that the East Coast line meant quite as much to Auckland as the Main Trunk, the speaker was hardly guilty of exaggeration. So far as Auckland itself is concerned the great stretches of lirstclass land between Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty and so onward toward Tauranga and Rotorua would bring, when opened up, far more wealth to Auckland than the country through which the Main Trunk lino will pass. The connection with Gisborne alone is well worth the trouble of preserving ; and Gisborne trade of late has been setting steadily toward Wellington. But in the intervening country, along the Motu and between Tauranga and Opotiki, there are immense possibilities of wealth. The level strip between the Bay of Plenty and the low hills behind the coast is extremely fertile, and there is an immense amount of swamp, which when drained, will become as valuable for agricultural and pastoral purposes as any land in the colony. The natural resources of Auckland are still almost undeveloped : and even if there is nothing behind the many indications of mineral wealth in that part of the island, the importance of this section of the district to our extractive industries, still in their infancy, can hardly be overestimated.

As it happens, most oppoluncly, the Minister for Publio Works is now making a tour of investigation through the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua districts, and is seeing with his own eyes and evidently to his great astonishment the vast possibilities of this neghoted and almost unknown portion of the island, Mr Hall-Jones is clearly muoh impressed by what he has seen and in the speech whieh ho made last night at le Puke he assured the settlers that he intended to take praotioal stepi to show his confidence in the distriot. The Minister for Publio Works proposes to arrange at once for a trial survey so as to disc over the beßt routo to bo followed in connecting the Tauranga country on the one hand with G'sborne, and on the other with Rotorua. It is held, by those who know the country well, that a Hue could be run with comparatively littlo trouble or expense from Tauraoga via To Puke to meet the Rotorua lino at Mam&ku. Mr Hordes, whose opinion on this point is espeoiolly valuab e, thinks that the line should prooeed from Rotorua by Te Ttko round Ohiwa Harbor to Opo.iki, and thenee to join the extension of the Gis-borne-Karaka railway along the Motu. But whatever route be ultimately ohosen it is vastly important to the whole of Auckland distriot that active atops should be taken at once to push on the East Coast railway. The Hon. J. Oorroll, who feels natu.a'ly a strong interest in Hast Coast affairs, has recently oommunicated with the Auckland Railways League to the effect that the precise choice of routes at the present moment is a matter of Secondary importance. The great point to be gained in the opinion of the Native Minister is to secure the co-operation of iho Bay of Plenty aod Auckland Railway Leagues with the East Coaßt League ; and this done, the united efforts of these powerful organisations should give the East Ccast line a stronger impetus than it has ever yet received. We need not enter just now into tho question raised by Mr Hail Jones as to the necessity for native land-holders paying their quota for tbe purposes of loosl taxation. But the native land problem can never be finally solved till proper communication is established throughout the distriot; and nothing will assist Auoklaud toward a settlement of this vexed question more expeditiously and more'profitably than the completion of that system of railways, of which the East Coast lice is by no means tbe least important seotion.