PAEROA TO POKENO.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4499, 4 December 1922, Page 4

PAEROA TO POKENO.

RAILWAY AN URGENT NEED. (By the Auckland Star’s Special Representative). (Reprinted from “ Auckland Star). Perhaps the most pressing need of the Hauraki Plains is a railway from Paeroa to Pokeno, without yrluch future development must necessarily be slow’ But for being blessed with navigable .waterways, the settlers would be in parlous plight for. communications, so bad are the majority of the roads and so terribly costly the work of maintaining and repairing them. With good roads the whole district would bound ahead, but there is no likelihood pf any great improvement in this respect within sight under present conditions, as by the time metal is quarried and handled half a dozen or moire.times in transit to where required,' its cost is almost prohibitive. Then, its carting over thoroughfares already bad made those thoroughfares infinitely worse, so that the doing pf one job renders others i necessary. RAILWAY WILL HASTEN PROGRESS The remedy for this state of affairs is a railway over the plains, which will carry metal at a cheap enough rate to make its purchase possible in large quantities. It would then be only a matter of a few years when the plains would be bisected by goo.l roads and not, as now, mostly by thoroughfares which become impassable bogs after heavy pain. With good roads, waterways and a railway, the settlers of the plains could develop their holdings to the highest possible pitch of improvement and make this former swamp the richest .agricultural area, acre for acre, of any land in the Dominion. There should be no. difficulty at all encountered in the economical construction of the line from Paeroa to Pokeno. It wil.l mean simply the laying of rails and ballast and the construction of a few short canal bridges pver country level ,as a billiard table from end to end. Such a railway would find plenty of produce to carry, and its capacity would be increased as time went on. Settlements on the Waih'ou would still continue to use the river boats, but'there would be plenty left for the railway from the plains for a wide radius on each side of a line drawn from Paeroa through Ngatea to Pokeno. GOVERNMENT’S FUTURE POLICY. The railway policy of the Government affecting this district, so far as is known, is that the construction, of

the Paeroa'-Pokeno line is contingent upon the duplication of the Main Trunk line from Auckland to Pokeno —duplication which is badly needed to relieve the traffic at present carried on a- single line. The line from Paeroa to Wailhi will be continued to Tauranga, and from there to Gisborne. In later years it is proposed to construct the line from Gisborne to Napier, to connect up with the Wel-'■'.lingtpn.-Napier line. On the duplication of the line from Auckland to Pokeno, and the construction of the line from. Pokeno on to Paeroa, all traffic bn the Main Trunk line for ; stations on the Paeroa side of Morrinsville and for all stations on the Mor-rinsville-Rotorua line will be carried by way of Pokeno and Paeroa, instead of all the way around through Frankton, as at present. On the completion of the line to Gisborne all Bay of Plenty traffic will be carried through Paeroa. The Auckland-Gisborne will be a Main Trunk line; Paeroa to Thames and Paeroa to Morrinsville will be branch lines. PAEROA TO BE A GREAT JUNCTION. It is claimed that Paeroa must become the most important junction on the Auck.land-Gisbor.ne line, employing a large number of railway men, for whom housing will be required. Local bodies are therefore pressing the department to acquire land for a railway employees’ settlement, and for shunting yards and other purposes, while land is available. —There is every indication that Paeroa will be a large and a more important junction than* Frankton,” declared the secretary of the local Chamber of Commerce, in speaking to me concerning the future of the district, “and, as ,a sound policy, land should be acquired while it is availabjb.. With increasing traffic there will be a corresponding expansion of the town and business, also increased river traffic ■feeding to and distributing from the railway. LESSON FROM OTHER FOLKS’ MISTAKES. “Experience in other towns has proved the necessity for such a course. At Auckland the station is to be moved to obtain more area and prevent the present congestion of road traffic. At Frankton additional area is now required—at Te Kuiti the station was shifted. At Palmerston North railway traffic through the town became a nuisance and restricted area prevented an efficient carrying on of the railway service. A Royal Commission recommended the Removal of the station and yards out ■of the town, which, work has 1 now been commenced, and will. ent,ail enormous expense. At Wellington traffic from Lambton Station through the city to

Te Arp has been discontinued for ■some years. At Dunedin road traffic ! is held up by barriers during the arI rival and departure of trains during j shunting operations. Other instances might be quoted, showing the necessity of looking ahead to prevent misi takes being made, which will probI would involve a heavy expenditure that might have been avoided by the ably never be rectified, or if rectified exercise pf sufficient foresight. 1 A CHALLENGE TO HAMILTON. I "Comparing the fertility of the Hauraki Plains and the country, surrounding Paeroa with the land around Hamilton it can fairly be assumed that when the railway is through, and the reading problem solved, the expansion and progress of Paeroa will equal, if not exceed, the progress of Hamilton, and provision for such expansion should, in the public interest, be made now on in the immediate future. Land apparently suited for the purpose mentioned, in close proximity to the town, is now available in the considerable area of! native land and farm land on the south bank of the Oihinemuri River, from the traffic bridge to Mill Road. In some years to come this land may be found necessary for rai.way expansion, and may then be found closely settled and not available without payment of an immense sum as coinpensation. Engine sheds, shunting tracks, standing room for rolling stock, railway .men’s dwellings, etc., on that area would not necessarily involve the removal, from the present site of the passenger station ; but that is a matter for the departmen’. to decide,”