FILLING THE GAP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 19 July 1929, Page 8

FILLING THE GAP

(To the Editor) Sir, —There does not seem any hope of getting much ••forrader" in arguing with your correspondent signing himself "Cylinder"' so long as lie persists in quoting grossly inaccurate figures in cost of construction of the Nelson-West Coast railway between Glenhope and Inangahua, of which less than nine miles have been completed, and only four miles actually handed over to the railways department, and quoting same as costing up to 15i- months ago, the colossal sum of £433,000. If the "Dominion" or any other newspaper quoted such figures, they quoted what does not appear in the annual report of the Minister of Public Works. Whether the figures were used with deliberate intent to deceive, or inadvertently used wrong place names we can leave "Cylinder" to unravel, but he must not expect to impose these inaccuracies on your readers and get away with it. There is one thing certain that lNelson cannot expect to, be showered with any favours in North island newspaper statements of Nelson's case; and claims lor its Gap lulling, but like the Christchurch paper was doing a few. aays belore the Dig earthquake, would prefer to draw the red herring of build- * uig a road over Lewis iSadoie or any otner route, tor the use of motors, as a arithmetic will be found to work out at iUurchison audi Inangahua. The distortion of the cost of the nine miles between Glenhope and Gowau as amounting to the incredible sum of £4b,000 per mile, can best be exposed by quoting the average cost per mile of the whole length pf railway between Nelson and Greymouth, up .to 31st March 192 b. The total distance is given on page 3d

of the Public Works Report, as 177 miles • , 51 chains. Of this 129 miles 50 chains has been completed' and the total cost to the above date is stated tp be £757,721, which ' with a iittle simple arithemtic will be found to work out at a little over £5,873 average cost per mile, which includes all post-war increases in materials, wages and general costs of construction on the nine miles ." beyond Glenhope. If we had to spend the full amount of the political bogie estimate dished up by the anti-Nelson MirtisteTs of the last Government—amounting to £1,600,000 which is far in excess of what it is likely to cost—for completing our Gap, we shall find that it will even then, only bring the average cost of construction per mile for the whole length of railway between Nel- ' son and Greymouth up to a' little over £13,320 per mile. The Minister of Railways' very pertinently pointed out on the floor of the House of Representatives oidy a few days ago, that in the case of • the South Island Main Trunk, which is equally applicable to the Midland Railway or Nelson-West Coast as it is better" known —"they could not logically separate and quote the cost for any one part such as the present Gap, but must quote the average cost of the whole section, say'between Pictpn-and Christchurch, when it would be found that the average cost per mile for the whole sec- , tion would only work out at a little over £14,000 per mile even though the filling of that gap has been estimated at over £2,000,000. The present gaps will of course disappear in both railways, with' their completion, and they will become an inseparable part and parcel of the whole railway system of this Island, so what after all is this pother about by "Cylinder"? The figures "Cylinder" again repeats of the mileage of our. gap were the route £o be eventually changed to; link up with the main system at Reefton, instead of inangahua still remain distorted, for the simple reason that whether we link up with the former, or the latter, the line .'■ from Inangahua to Reefton will be just as essential for connecting the Westport Icangahua section with Reefton and the main System, and in the matter of freight mileage revenue will probably rank among the best, and there is no sense in quoting that section as another 20 miles on to our gap, so that by no rule of the thumb, nor that of common sense, or simple .arithmetic ceuld it be added to our Gap-filling mileage. v ■ What a cpntrast is shown in the attitudes of "Cylinder," compared with that of the Nelson Provincial Progress League. In the one case it is full of . doubts and bogies; in .the other case we have an organisation representative of the commercial, industrial, primary industries, and hardheaded farming interests, showing no signs of doubts nor of. raking up any phantom bogies about the cost of our Gap Filling, but actually expressing its reiterated approval of the Government's declared intentien pf fill- f ing pur' gap within the next 3 er 4 years, ! and show an almost sublime faith in the .wisdom and determination, of the Government to end Nelson's isolation by speedily linking it up with the whole of the South Island Railway System. We i have neither seen nor heard or read of the slightest sign of either the Prime' Minister, or the Government wavering in its intentions as a result of the recent disastrous earthquake. Not even the pleading of Mr Coates caused a ripple in that direction. On the other hand the Prime Minister in this evening's "Mail" is reported as expressing his approval and appreciation of the league's .optimistic attitude of implicit faith in his declared policy and intentions, and broadly hints that Nelson will not be the loser by it. Does "Cylinder" set himself up as possessing greater acumen and concern for the welfare of Nelson, than

all these? Are they all wrong and only "Cylinder" that is right? It was interesting to hear a local business man who was down at the Maruia Springs, at the time of the 'quake, declare that lie considered the line would probably be run by that route because of the amount of land and settlement it would help to develop. I am etc., WIDE AWAKE. Nelson, 17th July. t