MILSON DEVIATION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 154, 17 July 1937, Page 3

MILSON DEVIATION

-Presa Association.)

Not Proposed for the Present GOVERNMENT'S PLAN i «

(By Telegraph-

PALMERSTON N., Tliis Day. When a Press Association telegram from Wairoa at the beginning of the month contained a Ministerial announcement that £100,600 had been budgetted for the deviation at Palmerston North, certain circles in the city were all amiles. An organisation anxious to see the rails laid outside the town boundary even went as far as to pass a.resolution of satisfaction. It eeems, however, that the hand-clapping has heen a little , premature and that the clang of hammer cleating rail -to •leeper at Milson is as far ; away as ever it was. When. Mr. Hodgens, M.P., was in Wellington yesterday, he madp.inquiries from official circles as to what was • Intended, as the Minister had failed to disclose any thing except„the. bare announcement that the work was to be proceeded -with. The people of Palmerston North, he knew, would be anxious to know just when the work would be re-commenced and if there "would be any chance of getting some of the sustenance men into jobs. But his inquiries revealed' that Something ha"d gone wrong. Either the Minister had been not quite explicit enough or the Press message had been" condensed to give a wrong impression. There is no money to be set aside at the moment for work at Milson, and possibly what tfie telegram ref erred to was work at present under way further up the line - at Kakariki or Turakina, where deviations of some magnitude are under way to easo steep grades in the permanent way. "Here's hoping/' rnmA remain Palmerston North 's slogan.