STRATFORD MAIN TRUNK

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 45, 16 May 1927, Page 12

STRATFORD MAIN TRUNK

GREAT AVENUE FOR TRADE THE MISSING LINK When the Main Trunk lino was first projected there were many powerful advocates for the Ohura Valley l-oute instead of the one which was finally decided upon. Taranaki commercial interests were strongly in favour of the former, as it was hoped that the trade developed by the opening of the line would flow Stratfordway instead of tending to Auckland. Even after the Main Trunk line was finished, a strong agitation went on to make a subsidiary line by continuing the Taranaki west coast line through the Tangarakau Gorge and the Ohura Valley to junction with the Main Trunk near Taumarunui. The Government adopted the policy, and the line from south crept onwards to Whangamomona, and even to Tahora, nearly 10 miles beyond it, while the northern branch was begun from Okahukura, seven miles from Taumarunui, necessitating at the very outset the construction of one of the longest tunnels in New Zealand (one chain less than a mile). In 1913 the late Mr. Massey promised Ohura residents, when he was visiting their district, that the connecting line would be finished in four years. The war intervened, and that promise has not yet been fulfilled. The line from north has got as far the Ohura township, and from the soi.it n is now at Tahora, nine and threequarter miles north of Whangamomona, leaving a gap of about 30 miles to be completed. The Hon. K. S. Williams, Minister of Public Works, visiting Stratford a few days ago, received a deputation urging him to complete the railway, and claiming that it was possible thereby to exploit extensive coalfields which had been already tested, and which would be of great importance to Taranaki. Mr. Williams assured the deputation that there would be no slackening up in the work. The point of special interest to Auckland in this matter is that her merchants should maintain their hold on their present trading connections with Ohura. and when the sluice-gat.3, as one might term it, is opened between the two streams of traffic divided by the existing gap in the Stratford Main Trunk line, they -should see to it that the northern trade does not gravitate to Taranaki Yesterday the Minister heard deputations in the Ohura district regarding the rival routes, Tatua and Tokarima.