RIVAL ROUTES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 8 May 1925, Page 5

RIVAL ROUTES

SOUTHERN PRESS COMMENTS LEAGUE STRONGLY SUPPORTED (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH. This Day.

The Canterbury Progress League's report on the main trunk railway routes has aroused a great deal oi" interest here. The document runs to nine foolscap pages of print (equal to about ten columns of ordinary newspaper matter) with a large and really instructive map and eighteen photographs. I lie full summary which 1 sent you last night, though it contains all the essential points, of course hardly does justice to the gravity. diligence and solemn impartiality with which ihe committee set to work. All the Christchurch newspapers make lengthy editorial comment on! the report. The Press says:—The two questions to which the committee addressed itself were: —(1) The comparative suitability of the Wharenui-Paniassus and Glcn-hope-Inangabua sections of uncompleted'railway to serve as links in the New Zealand main trunk line and (2) the commercial and developmental possibilities, both immediate and in prospect oi the more suitable of the two lines under review. The first of these issues hardly needed investigation, if the qnes lion was which of these sections would most suitably complete the main line of communication from Auckland to the Bluff and not which section should he first constructed. There could be only one answer. The East Coast route is 85 miles shorter by land and 148 hv land and water. It is hours faster and it is the only possible route on which a train ferry service could be established. in-'other words, it is the. only natural express route and the only possible route, therefore, for a main trunk line, but- knowing which way a hue should run is not knowing when, if c-ver, it should be constructed and the. most interesting part of the report- is that- which contains the committees answer in the second question, What are the present and future prospects of the East Coast line and what steps should he taken to realise them? The committee has made a really heroic attempt to answer this question and has failed to give a convincing answer, only because the iacts out of which the answer would have to be compiled have not yet- been lived. It is interesting, but valuable only as a speculation to estimate how many people move North and South now by waier and from that estimate say now many would take the land route, if there were one. The Lyttelton Times says:—The report crosses the T's and dots the I s of tlie recommendations made by the recent Royal Commission. The commissioners gave it as their opinion that completion of the 81 miles of railway between Wharanui and Parnassus on the East- Coast of this Island and the establishment of a_ railway terry service between the North and South Islands is necessary to give New Zealand a main trunk system, linking together all parts of the Dominion. Iho people of Nelson, encouraged perhaps bv the sympathetic attitude oi the Public Works and Railway Departments have suggested that the host route for the main trunk line to follow i 6 through their district, via Hie West Coast. Such an arrangement would bo calculated to take some additional traific through the Otira Tunnel section, the accounts for which for some unexplained reason,, seem to be kept separately, and for this so, it is saut,‘ the linking up of Nelson and Westland bv means of the railway through the Buller Gorge is regarded with more favour in official circles than the project of completing the East Coast line One of the most valuable services rendered by the Progress Leagues Committee is that it has marshalled with relentless logic, the case against a main trunk line that- should zig zag across the Island and back again. Itis pointed out that Hie Nelson-West-land route would cover nearly 15U miles more on the journey from Christchurch to Wellington than would the route directly north from Christchurch to Picton. As the committee points out. the very long mileage involved by the Nelson proposal, would militate against the success of the hue as a carrier of through traffic, because cornnoting methods of transport would be able most probably to offer a saving both of time and cost . . • • . >-o ncise in form, judicial and impartial in tone, the League’s report Constitutes a x etv valuable contribution to the study o New Zealand railway problems and should be instrumental m promoting reallv lively and forceful agitation for the completion of the East Coast line. The Star says:—ihe most- definite recommendation of the English railwav’* experts who reported on the hew Zealand railways recently was that, the Government should complete the man trunk svstem of the Dominion by Liming up * Wharanui and Parrini-us amt preparing the way for a train terry between. Picton and Wellington I tie commissioners had ever heard of no alternative proposal to link up the South Island mam trunk hue by wav of Otira Tunnel and Nelson, (hey certainly did not waste any words on it, and it- would be a poor compliment to t;jiem to think that they cionld have regarded it seriously. Ihe East Coast route to- Wellington is 85 miles shorter bv land and 148 miles shorter by land aiu! sea than the West.. Coast route and iiobftdv could show that the Western deviation could he justified under any circumstances. The Progress Leagues Committee ‘'points out that to follow sucli «‘i course would he to piny into ino hands of other forms' of transport, and it can readily Be imagined that competing against a Lvttelton-W ellington ferry connection, u Xelson-W forrv would soon go out of business, mdcaf the agitation for the main trunk line by way of Nelson is not only unjustified on*all the probabilities <1 traVic by that route but is calculated with, out achieving its own object to delay completion of the natural link m mam trunk system. The .Sun makes the following comments: —There is a. tendency in a corner of Conservatism to belittle the t «n----ierbury Progress League for its lack of authority, 'Wiis need not cool its. ardour. nor curb the enthusiasm of its Northern supporters, the .Marlborough Progress Leagues. There is no adverse criticism of the League’s policy and recommendation, no argument against the. completion of the main trunk juk* •aIon" the shorter route on the way to the -North Island which is valid, and its “unofficial” advocates have the support of the recent Commission ot railway experts What's the use. of paving for an impressive advance if it is to be ignored or side tracked by politicians. It may still be some tune before the (.ovciiiment. can see its way clear to fill the rail wav gap between 1 arnassus and Whnremii, hut until it resumes construction of the direct line to t ook Strait, it is the duty of progressive citizens to accelerate essential work. A broken railway fine is a mockery oi progress.