FARMING INTERESTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 348, 8 October 1932, Page 6

FARMING INTERESTS

COMMENT BY COUNTY CHAIRMAN ON RAILWAY Mr. J. II. Reid, of Toa Toa, the chairman of the Opotiki County Couneil, in commenting on the question of the East Coast line to a "Post" representative, said that some extremely important points which had not been mentioned in the recent art-

ieles which appeared'in the "Post" were that between Tauranga and Whakatane there was a distance of 60 miles with no port other than these two places. As a result of the railway being put through, / a considerable area of country had been and was being developed as dairy farms. This would not have been possible if the railway had not been put through and would be rendered impossible once again were it taken away. This particular point was extremely important -at this time when the Government were urging the necessity of closer settiement and there were still quite-darge areas capable of closer settiement. Another point was that a growing j number of ewes were required by | the Waikato every year. There were at present approximately 100,000 going from the East Coast and Poverty Bay districts each year. These sheep were a fortnight on the road before they reached Taneatua, but from there to the. Waikato by rail was a matter of a few hours only, whereas if they had to travel by road this section of the journey

would require another three weeks. In addition to the foregoing, the. fat lamb trade had increased considerably as a result of this. , He considered that it was a very | serious question indeed whether the harm which would be done to the country's export trade if the line were closed would not be very much greater than any saving made by such a drastic action. He had been a member of the last deputation to the Railway's Board, and the deputation had pressed this point then. The whole idea of the deputation in meeting the Railways Board was to further the interests of the Bay of Plenty as a whole and not only those of Opotiki and district. He considered that the continued running of the line was essential to the further development of the Bay.