SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 17 July 1929, Page 4

SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK

SHOULD IT BE COMPLETED?

(By Telegraph—Special to "The Mail") CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. In an editorial on the South Isfand Main Trunk Line, this morning's "Press" says: "The cost of bridging the 'gap will be approximately £2,000,000, and a$ interest alone on that sum will be £IOO,OOO per annum it is difficult to see how the traffic can pay working expense's for many yearsto come. In fact, no one has put forward the carrying capacity of the line as a reason why it should be built. If the annual loss were only a small one the country could, and should, bear it, for there can be no doubt the railway must some day go through if railways are to continue to he used at all. There. is, indeed, no other line in the Dominion which has a better claim to completion, if it is necessary, for reasons other than strictly economical ones, to go on laying lines down; but th e simple fact is that the Prime Minister is threatening us already with higher taxes to provide for an unavoidable deficit, and if we are to take a national view it is difficult to argue, even in Canterbury, that completion of this line should be rushed."