"FILLING THE GAP"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 15 July 1929, Page 7

"FILLING THE GAP"

iTo the Editor) Sir, —AL tliu risk of stretching to breaking point, your endurance and the generosity with which you have afforded space in your columns to the argument between "Wide Awake" and my-H-lf, I must ask you to permit me to reply to one or two points in "Wide AwiikeV letter in your issue of 11th insl. He still refuses to believe the source of my quotation of figures, although 1 gave chapter and verse for them; not only that, but in this last letter he accuses me of ''distortion with a vengeance" of the facts. May I therefore give ' the following extract' from "The Dominion" of <ith June last? "The figures in regard to the Glcu-hope-lnangahua section of the West Coast railway arc even more illuminating. They are set forth in the following tabie, compiled from the figures given in the Publiv Works' Statement: Date Length Amount Estimated Ist of section, expended amount April, in. ch., to date, to complete

As I have stated previously, those ('mures have not been corrected or contradicted in "The Dominion," and I quoted them in good faith. "Wide Awake" says the figure of £433,020 is the total cost of the whole line to Ist April. 192 H. If that is so, he accuses "The Dominion" of deliberately falsifying the figures to mislead the public on this question: that is a serious matter, f confess I was puzzled by the birr jump in the cost from 1926 to 1927, but I find it hard to believe that a typographical error in the 1927 figures should lie carried on to those for 1928. ft is either an inadvertent mistake, or else a deliberate falsification, if "Wide Awake" is correct. Tn cither case one would-have'expected a careful paper of such high standing and large circulation to have corrected the or else someone to have drawn attention to them. Thev have never been challenged—and I read "The Dominion" closely. I repeat that I quoted in good faith," and if I have been misled, so

have thousands oTotW-people in the country. Secondly, I know all the leagues' which "Wide Awake" mentions have at times endorsed the completion of our railway. That waS not the point: the point was a reference by "Wide Awake" to one particular report, i" which he drew, on the evidence of the printed words, a false, conclusion. j Lastly, "Wide Awake" accuses me of bad arithmetic in that "by adding 20 miles to our present 40," I made the ' gap via the Matakitaki into 97 miles, j I assure you, Sir, T am not quite as bad as that, and this statement is but | another example of "Wide A'wake's" i careless thinking. He quite overlooks the fact that the alternative route : would join the West Coast line at j Recftoii, not at Inangalnia, and that ] the 1!) miles from Reeftoil to liiangahua would be wasted as far as the Nelson line is concerned. The New Zealand Government railway timetable.'

sLates that it is 57 miles from MurI'hison to Keefton via the Buller. We are told that the new route is "about 20 miles" longer between those points. As present railhead is about 20 miles Trohi Murehisou, T find that 57 plus 20 plus 20 is "about 97 miles," po by leave of "Wide Awake," 1 think my .simple addition is fairly correct. _ In conclusion, Sir, 1 should again like to thank you. for the have so generously .devoted to our difference of opinion. I am, etc., CYLINDER. 12th July. ]

102.'! 5:5 £63,341 £1,300,000 1024 "1") — £80,020 £1,300,000 1025 55 _ £111,653 £1,300,00(1 1020 5.") — - £140,008 £1,300,000 1027 ~ t - t £370,417 £1,600,000 102S ■111 4:: 1 £433,026 £1,600,000