CORRESPONDENCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 485, 24 July 1912, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor

Sir, —Just now there is a general revival in railway matters, meetings are being held, and there is much discussion everywhere. Considering how little is known of the King Country as a whole by the average settler, and still less by the township communities, there is no butter way of ventilating the subject than through the columns of the press. A rneeting was called at Aria on the ]2th inst., by Mr Finnigan re supporting a proposed railway from Mangaroa to Te Kuiti —a loop-line to the Main Trunk would be the proper term for it. The same proposal was practically adopted at a meeting at Pio Pio on the same day. The bad conditiun of the Awakirto road, nnd the deplorable waste of time, energy, and money in getting bare necessities to the back block settler were the main arguments in support of the proposal. It is surprising to me how cramped and parochial are the ideas of the long suffering settlers when it comes to improve the present state of affairs, they show as little consideration for their fellow sufferers as is being shown to them by previous administration. A railway from Mangaroa to Te Kuiti is a ridiculous idea from a national point of view, when thefe are such splendid possibilities for a railway from Kawhia to Mangaroa direct. A line from Mangaroa to Te Kuiti would only serve one little corner of the King Country, and twenty miles of it ten miles at each end—would be through country already supplied with a railway, it would exploit, nearly as much native land as European, and at about its centre would be less than twenty miles from the Main Trunk, whereas a line from Mangaroa to Kawhia harbour would not be nearer than seventeen miles to the Main Trunk at the nearest point. It would pass through all the isolated settlement which is linked up from end to end by Crown tenants, most of which are in small holdings. It would give easy access to thousands of acres of unoccupied land between it and the coast, and above all it would pass through the best land in the King Country, that which is attracting the settlement that patronises the railways and producers and consumes its freights. Such a railway would cross all the main arterial roads to the coast about the middle, and would relieve the traffic, not only on the Te KuitiAwakino road, but also on the ArapaeKiritehere, the Hangatiki-Marokopa, and the Mahoe-Awarua, it would bring the whol6 of the King Country from the Wanpanui river with its valuable assets of timber and coal into direct communication with its natural endowment, Kawhia harbour. I would like to tell your readers that this line's advantages are recognised by all who know the country well, but; the commercial interests in the Main Trunk townships that are exploiting the far back settlement have not the slightest consideration for its welfare. The interests of the patrons of the railways should b« the first consideration and should not be subordinated to commercial interests. Under existing conditions trade is terribly handicapped by the long distance of haulage through roadless country, improvement of the land is retarded, and supplies have to be cut down to bare necessities, no railway will be satisfactory that does not relieve all this. No other connection than the Man-garoa-Kawhia would do so much towards making Kawhia harbour a seaport and incidentally do so much to make the King Country prosperous. I hope by rousing the interests of settlers north of the Mokau to defeat such a parochial idea as a Te Kuiti-Mangaroa connection. Hamilton ia already agitating for a railway to Kawhia via Raglan from the north, and a connection from Ohura from the south would complete a system that could not be improved upon.—l am, etc., V. S. JACKSON.