Public Opinion.

Putaruru Press, Volume VIII, Issue 325, 13 February 1930, Page 4

Public Opinion.

(A COLUMN FOR THE PEOPLE* TOKOROA’S NEED. "H (To the Editor) Sir, —Judging by the report of the conference that met last week and discussed the Tokoroa settler’s transport problem, the meeting must have lasted some time, but it is in no captious spirit that I say that the results of the are in no way commensurate with the ability of those present or the time spent. There have been conferences galore in the past, and beyond a reduction in the freight on manures the settlers of Tokoroa are still awaiting a settlement of their difficulties, aptlysummed up by Mr. M. E. Fitzgerald as cheaper freights and better roads.< You strike an enthusiastic note in your leader, but might I be allowed to say that enthusiasm, desirable and all as it is, is not going to get the people concerned anywhere ? The only definite statement made at the meeting was that contained in the. Minister of Railway’s letter to theM Tokoroa Progress League to the effect that the Government had no intention of taking over the Totara Timber Company’s line. No ' other attitude could be expected from the present Government seeing that it stopped the Rotorua-Taupo railway (where land settlement and timber were bound up as potential factors, as in the case of the T.T.T. line). To my mind the local bodyrepresentatives who are to sit later at a round-table conference with the departmental heads should first get together and formulate a definite policy. It is no use having conferences unless there is something concrete to work upon. First it should be ascertained when the Railways Department intends utilising its bush, and secondly to get from the department an idea as to the meansV it intends adopting to get the timber out. Until this is definitely ascertained nothing is likely to be done to help the Tokoroa settlers, who apparently (according to my information) are getting slightly tired with so many conferences and no definite results. Then again the question of road versus rail enters into the final solution of the problem. The railways are a thing of the past—fluff: is as far as branch lines go—and the cry for first-class main highways comes more and more insistent. The day will soon come when a firstclass road will be put through to Taupo (and it is, at the present rate of progress of things, likely to be an accomplished fact long before the question of the T.T.T. line in its relation to the transport difficulties of the Tokoroa settlers is finalised), and, once given the road, the settlers in the vicinity of the road will/ not care a tinker’s cuss for T.T.T. line or any other line. As I said before, your enthusiasm, as displayed in your leader, is commendable, but hardly constructive. The time for talking has long gone by, and actions are wanted, but such seems impossible until a definite and feasible scheme is presented. The Government will not take over the line : then I suppose subsidy by the Government would be the next best thing, but if settlers and others living in the vicinity of the T.T.T. Company’s line are given this concession, why not settlers living in other isolated parts of the A>~ minion? The question teems vSh difficulties, but the latter are to be faced if anything of a practical nature is to be effected within a time that will coincide with the lives / of the present settlers of Tokoroa. A I am, etc., >l^ INTERESTED.