LINKING UP THE MAIN TRUNK LINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1516, 29 February 1916, Page 2

LINKING UP THE MAIN TRUNK LINE.

The Palmerston Chamber of Commerce is firing up opposition against the linking-up of the Main Trunk Line between Marton and Levin. A member of the Masterton Chamber of Commerce stated at Friday’s meeting that he considered the proposal to deviate the railway at Greatford in order to save halt an hour between Wellington and Auckland would prove a scandalous waste of public money. This remark was made after a communication had been read from the Palmerston Chamber of Commerce asking that a protest be entered before the Commission that was about to take evidence on the proposal. The meeting decided that the proposed deviation was inopportune in view of the more pressing national requirements and more especially the deviation, of the Rimutaka. To refer to the carrying out of this national work as a “scandalous waste of money” implies that dust has beeu thrown in the eyes of the Masterton Chamber by the Palmerston Chamber, and also that the Masterton Chamber is ignorant of the national importance of the work. The deviation of the Rimutaka line is urgent, but local, while the link-ing-up of the Main Trunk is of vital national importance. The saving of time quoted is ridiculously underestimated.