THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 March 1920, Page 4

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

COMPLETION OF GREAT NATIONAL WORK DEMANDED.

(Leaflet by the Canterbury Progress League).

The story of the Midland Railway is a chapter of history with which it is unnecessary to depress the reader of this circular. This great national line was commenced over thirty years ago. It ought to have been finished long since, but the important provinces of Canterbury and Westlanl are still divided by the range of mountains between Bealey and Otira and unless something is done to stir up the dry bones of the Public Works Department it will be several more long years ere the “iron horse” runs from coast to coast. To move the Government in this matter will be the endeavour of the Canterbury Progress League. The League realises that to achieve success it must have the backing of public opinion, publicly expressed, in order to impress the politicians; and in the confident hope of obtaining a large amount of moral support and active cooperation it is proposed to set out the principal merits ot this railway, the huge bentfits its completion will confer and diffuse, and the absolute folly of delaying the opening of the line for a single week that is unavoidable. Let us glance for a moment at the position of Westland—neglected, backwari, isolated Westland, the Cinderella of the provinces of New Zealand. A fail test of the activities of a district may be made by examining the movements in regard to population. Well, there are fewer people in Westland to-day than there were when the first sod of this long-deferred Midland Railway was trned. To be well within the mark we will go back a quarter of a century. The census figures for the province are: — Males. Fe- Totals, males. April, 1891 ... 9,255 6,632 15,887 October, 1916 ... 8,088 7,414 15,502

Increase ... Decreases ... 1,167 In the same period the population of the whole Dominion grew from 626,658 to 1,099,449. While the population of Ne Zealand increased 75 per cent, Westland’s decreased 2J per cent. So far as the number of people which it supported is concerned, Westland was not only stationary for twenty-five years, but actually went back. This retrograde movement can only he attributed to want of access and communication. It would have been impossible if the Midland Railway had been open for traffic. It will be impossible—stagnation will give way to progress—as soon as trains run through the Otira Tunnel.

Canterbury, of course, suffers as well as the West Coast, for the two districts are peculiarly interdependent. Their climatic conditions are opposite, and their forms of indurtry vary correspondingly, each producing what the other requires. The Railway is needed for the interchange of products of a varied nature, and only the Rail connection stands in the way of a great, profitable development of trade and commerce.

The coal and timber resources of the West Coast, for practical purposes, cannot easily he overstated, but the economical commercial exploitation of those resources is now sadly handicapped by the long, circuitous and expensive sea route by which they have to be sent to market. For instance, when the Railway is available there will he savings in carriage as follows :

s. d. "*Si On every ton of Coal brought to Christchurch, about 5 0 On every 100 superficial feet of Timber 1 6 In addition, there will be a large saving in the quality of the Coal, which now depreciates to the extent of 5s or Gs a ton on account of the descreening that results from numerous successive handlings. The West Coast sends annually to the South betwten 600,000 and 700,000 tons of coal and more than 20,000,000 superficial feet of timber, so that if those quantities could be carried via Otira instead of by sea there would be, on a conservative estimate, savings every year ns follows:—

On Coal, say 650,000 tone-'Ss, less freight and 5s rfnproved quality 325,000 On Timber, say 20,000,000 at Is 6d per 100 feet 15,000

340,000 In three years these savings would exceed 1,000,000 In ten years they would reach 3,400,000 These savings alone would in a comparatively few years be sufficient to pay for the Midland Railway from coast to coast.

It is imposible in the compass of this circular to assemble the multiplicity of facts and arguments that should urge the Government to proceed with the Otira Tunnel with all possible despatch. There is, however, one very solid fact that ought to weigh heavily. That is the loss the State is suffering by way of interest on capital expended, but lying unproductive while the lino is unfinish' ed:

This loss of interest now amounts to about one thousand pounds a week.

That the Government could accelerate this work if it wished to do so admits of no doubt. The truth is that there are too many different pieces of railway construction proceeding in various parts of the Dominion. There are at present about a thousand men spread over something like a score of separate works. This means that only small progress is made at all of them, and the completion of any one is indefinitely postponed. The League maintains that the Government should concentrate on important works, and the greatest of these, without a shadow of doubt, is the Otira Tunnel.

At the very least, however, the South Island should demand a fair share of the Department’s energies, whereas the North Island is being specially favoured. Tlie following statement of the distribution of Public Wodks employees during December, 1919, is typical:— Rail- Roads. Totals, ways. North Island i,337 1,026 2,363 South Island ..... 295 451 746 Totals 1,632 1,477 3,109 For every 100 men employed in tlio

North Island the South Island was fobbed off with 31'. Out of 1,632 men constructing railways, only 189 were engaged on the biggest and most urgent enterprise the country has on hand, the one of all others which has claims because of long years of delay and neglect, and unquestionably the one whose completion will give the largest public benefits. The League submits that this state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue without vigorous, emphatic, and, if necessary, sustained protest. The League urges that Canterbury, which, at the abolition of the Provincial Governments, joined the common State free from debt, handed to the State a large Provincial credit balance in cash and assets, and took over its share of other districts’ liabilities, has a moral, no less than an economic right to agitate for the Midland Railway. When Provincial Institutions were abolished, Canterbury, besides the splendid public works, schools, railways, and Lyttelton tuniiel, also handed over to the General Government no less - sum than £750,000, and the following year £1,000,000 was handed over as the proceeds of land sales in Canterbury. The League maintains that Westland is absurdly and cruelly handicapped through isolation, while it possesses enormous latent wealth which the whole Dominion might share. And it insists that in the best interests of New Zealand as a whole the policy of tinkering®with a great national undertaking ought to be immedately abandoned in favour of a policy of enterprise, progress, efficiency, and true national economy. ..... . .... „