OPUNAKE RAILWAY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 40, 23 June 1913, Page 5

OPUNAKE RAILWAY.

BATTLE OF THE ROUTES.

EG MONT'S FIRM STAND. Mr C. A. Wilkinson, M.P. for Egniout, has written as follows to the Secretary of the Eltham Chamber of Commerce: — Dear Sir, —1 am in receipt of yours of even date conveying resolution of your Chamber, viz.: —“That this Chamber is strongly of opinion that the time has arrived for the member for the district to urge upon the Govcrument the undoubted claims of the reserved route of the Opunake railway, and that he be requested to use his best endeavours in that direction.”

In reply thereto, 1 bog to advise that the claims of the several routes are under consideration by the Government —the reserved route amongst others. To my mind, it will be highly detrimental to the proposal to construct this important branch line, should a battle of routes ensue, and for me to adopt your Chamber’s recommendation would in my opinion bring about that very undesirable state of affairs. The construction of this line is most important to the district as a whole, and to Opunake in particular, and all parties should now leave the decision entirely to the Government and accept such decision—whatever it may he—with equanimity. Your Chamber only recently had an opportunity of impressing its views upon both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Public Works, these gentlemen afterwards going over the district and investigating for themselves, and they'are thus in a good position to judge as to where the line should go. As far as I am concerned, as member for Egmont, I must decline absolutely to make myself an advocate for one section of the electorate to the possible detriment of other sections. The railway should be built where it will best serve the district as a whole—for preference, along a route that will carry the greatest amount of traffic, thereby relieving county main roads of their enormous burden and earning as much revenue for the investment as possible, the cost of construction of course being taken into account.

I may say, in conclusion, that it is nothing short of a scandal that this line was not constructed in the past twenty years, during which period millions of money were borrowed and huge sums spent on lines in other parts of the Dominion which do not show a tenth part of the prospects that the Opunake line offers.

C. A. WILKINSON