PAEROA-POKENO LINE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4319, 19 September 1921, Page 3

PAEROA-POKENO LINE.

VITAL NECESSITY.

The increasing activity of the farming community on the Hauraki Plains emphasises' more and more the neces-

sity of the immediate construction of

the proposed Paerpa-Pokeno railway. New dwellings are continually being erected and fresh farms opening up the former waste lands being gradually cleared and made productive. During brief chats with the Hauraki Plains settlers, the conversation invariably turns to the proposed railway, which will open up their district and give them quicker communication with Auckland and the remainder pf the outside world., They all? want good roads, and some want bridges, but a railway through the heart of those fertile plains would be more than an ordinary benefit.

Speaking at the conference at Nga- ' tea a week ago, Mr Halliburton Johnstone urged on the'meeting to agitate for She construction .of the railway from Paeroa to Pokeno. There was a proposal, he had said, to duplicate the .line between Auckland and Frankton, and if the settlers took action in time they may forestall that

plan and have ' instead a railway -through their own lands. The matter was not further discussed at the conference.'

During a recent interview Mr. John-

stone stated to a "Gazette” representative that between Auckland and Frankton there was only one freight .train during the day time. The others, owing to the enormous traffic on the line, ran during the night. The P,ae-roa-Pokeno railway would, he continued, obviate the necessity for the

duplication of this line except as far as Pokeno. With these facts the proposed railway across the Plains would be a welcome relief and a huge benefit to more parties than one.