THE RAILWAY ROUTE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 86, 18 April 1913, Page 4

THE RAILWAY ROUTE.

Opinions certainly do differ. Our esteemed Eltham contemporary, the “Argus,” for instance, thinks tliat, “while there may still ba some doubt as to whether or not tho Opunako lino will junction at To Iloti, there need be no shadow of a doubt concerning the Opunake-Kaponga-Strat-ford route. The common remark of those who travelled with Mr Massey in his tour to Kaponga, Manaia, and Opunake, was that the Stratford-Ka-ponga route was dead as a dodo. It may be built some day, for no one can say what progress may yet be made in Taranaki, but it will be many years before a start is made with it.” It is quite possible that the “Argus” is right so far as the “common remark” referred to is concerned. Tho worthy gentlemen who travelled with the Ministers from Eltham to Opunake could hardly be expected to advocate openly tho StratfOrd-Kaponga route, however heartily they might bo convinced in their own inner minds that tho Stratford route is the right onci and tho only one that ought to be adopted unless tactics are resorted to and jobs perpetrated of a kind which the present Government have said they will not sanction. It is a pity that we cannot all get what we want, and it certainly would be nice to have branch railway lines running into all tho towns with, say, a ten-minutes’ service, from 6 a.m. until midnight, with Sunday quick-trips to the seaside. But that cannot be, and we have to face things as they are. Our desire has all along been merely to show why and on what grounds the lino should junction with tho main line at Stratford. We have put forth many good reasons for the StratfordKaponga route being chosen. For this good work we have received some abuse, but on no single occasion yet has any sound practical argument been adduced in favour of any other suggested route as against the one wo advocate. Is there any to produce P