THE Kaipara Advertiser, AND WAITEMATA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1914 THE SLOW NORTH

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 25 March 1914, Page 2

THE Kaipara Advertiser, AND WAITEMATA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1914 THE SLOW NORTH

Railway Progress SINCE we will not have the '' Poor IN orth " everlastingly thrown in our teeth, and the " Roadless North " is becoming too stale to swallow, it were better to look the whole world in the face and admit that all the troubles of the backblockers arise through lack of energy in pulling together and " demanding" that the district's wants be attended. The whole sum total is that the North is far too slow, and the various Governments in power make all things go slower by a system of bamboozling and hoodwinking the public when anything by way of works of utility and the utmost importance to one and all are asked for.

There is far too much " Party Politics," and you scratch my back and I will scratch yours' policy about our politicians one and all, arid when Northern railways are spoken of, it is worse than scandalous to have to refer to history, and the "enormous promises" made in regard to them, and that when the " little patches " are completed, the lines are run as they were made —SLOW There are always some excuses cropping up, and so the Government of the day are saved from a certain amount of blame —if all is believed.

Thus a Whangarei contemporary : "It is expected that within a month from now the railway bridge across the river at Young's Point, near Maungaturoto, will be completed. Years have been spent over this work, and the contractors have had a very difficult task owing to the foundations causing trouble. Eecently one of the big cylinders started to shift out of plumb, ;but by piling rock in the river bed this fault has now been remedied. The larger tunnel at Bickerstaffe is still uncompleted, but the work is progressing fairly well. The completion of the tunnel in this locality and the railway bridge will mean the opening of another section of the Main North Trunk line, and a corresponding decrease in the gap which now separates the railhead from Whangarei."