CONSTRUCTION COST

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 13 July 1929, Page 8

CONSTRUCTION COST

SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

MINISTER QUOTES FIGURES

“AVERAGE SIIQUEP BE TAKEN

(By Telegraph) (From “The Mail’s” Parliamentary • N ' Reporter)

WELLINGTON, 12th July. A suggestion that the cost of the South Island Main . Trunk line completion work would bo £32,000 a mile was controverted in the House of Representatives to-day by the Minister of Railways (the Hon. W. B. Taverner). He produced detailed figures to show that the average cost was more likely to work out at £17,600. The Public Works estimate was £27)715. “But is it fair,” asked the Minister, “to take even the last mentioned sum as a basis for determining the operating results? It is a matter of historical fact that the line from Hurunui to Bluff and the various branches wero built at an average cost of £12,200 per mile but none would be so foolish as to conclude that the line through very difficult*country in parts of Otago was built at that figure. Why, therefore single out. the line between . Wharanui and Parnassus? Should we, not rather take • the average cost of ■ construction at least from Pielon to Christchurch? Here are the figures:

Picton to Wharanui, £12,143 per mile; Christchurch to.. Waipara, £15,000; Waipara to Parnassus, £8,681; Wharanui to Parnassus 1 £27,715. per. mile.” . This, he said, worked out, at an average cost per mile over a distance of 218 miles of £17,600. . v. The Minister also quoted railway construction figures of recent years, in the North, and-South Islands to show that they ranged, from £14,600 to £30,000 per mile and in the case of the Waiofourteen ntjle section ‘had cost £75,000 per mile. Leaving out ' the latter and the Tauranga-Waiotira section in both cases difficult country, only in ono case, at. Tauranga, had the cofct of construction exceeded £20,000 .per mile. ' \ : ' The tendency seemed to be to take the section from Wharanui to Parnassus by'ltself and’ask: Will it pay? The v Minister suggested it must he considered ,as part and parcel of the South Island Main Trunk line and not as a branch line or a dead end.' The-.area to\be traversed was approximately 1,039,787 acres with a . capital value-of £9,792,684 and a population of '• oyer 19,000, i while the districts indi- , rectly served by the. line contained a i, population of 29,000 J ‘ '