WEST COAST RAILWAY.

Patea Mail, 7 April 1881, Page 4

WEST COAST RAILWAY.

On account of the provisional directory of the West Coast Railway Company, disagreeing with Mr T. L. Traver’s action in speaking decidedly as to Palmerston being the proposed terminus, he has withdrawn from the directory. The Wellington Post referring to the resolution of the provisional directory of the 28th ultimo, to the effect that the terminus was yet an open question, considers it a “ sensible resolution.” Mr Travers says ;—“ I look upon it as a piece of clap-trap, the meaning of which is palpable enough to those who see below the surface. It amounts, in effect, to a plain declaration in favour of Foxton, although those who passed it had not the courage to say so in terms. It proposes the three following points for consideration in fixing the terminus: 1. Relative engineering difficulties. 2. Relative commercial advantages. 3. Relative expenditure in construction. As to the first, if we disregard Sir William Fox’s unfounded assertion that the line to Palmerston would necessarily have to cross 30,000 acres of deeply flooded swamp, the engineering difficulties in the two cases are equal, or rather each line presents about equal facilities for construction. As to the second, arguments on both sides may be advanced which would, to say the least, puzzle an outsider, and practically leave the question at issue to be determined by considerations applying solely to the third point. As to this third point, it requires no great genius to determine that the construction of seventy-two miles of line, other things being equal, would be less costly than the construction of eighty-two miles of line, and so Foxton would be adopted as the terminus, and the ends of Sir William Fox and of those who work with him would be gained.”