The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on tne West Coast. SATURDAY, JUNE 19. 1886. THE GORGE LINE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XII, Issue 1738, 19 June 1886, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on tne West Coast. SATURDAY, JUNE 19. 1886. THE GORGE LINE.

We are^glad tor see a section ©ft the Wellington press taking up the cudgels on behalf of the Gorge Line. There is no doubt there has been far too much 6i the " to-be-kept-steadily-in-view " policy adop{-? Ed by the Government with regard to this most important link. The Minister of Public Works was recently asked m the House, by '■•■jjjfc. member for Mariawatu, when cam*; iriunication via , the . Gorge „ ■ tijqifrwould be completed? The >^lyt was to the effect that the line will* take more than two years to complete ; and further, that it is not intended^ out of the loan which is to cover works for that period, to provide a sum sufficient to complete jtv Of couric, it may not b« completed m two v<*ri, nor m twepty yeari f if the reqqiiite energy j| g O |

tance of this piece of railway. The delays and disappointments with regard to it have been most aggravating. It was once promised that it should be completed simultaneously, with the Wellington- Manawatu Company's line ; but, according to present appearances, the iotter will be opened for traffic throughout before the former is started. It is one of the most essentially necessary and important 'works m the whole of the Colony, and one, every section of which will prove remunerative as it is opened. As a - Wellington contemporary truthfully remarks: ?' The ; Ministry is undoubtedly to blame for not, now it has an opportunity of doing' so, showing any desire to make up for lost time, and endeavouring to hurry on the completion of this most necessary work. In the whole schedule of proposed railways, there is not another line which is at all likely to yield such large and immediate returns, directly and indirectly, as the Manawatu Gorge line when once it-is completed." The more closely the question is considered, the more inexplicable seem the apathy,, indifference and tardiness displayed by Ministers with regard to it.