The Sun THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1928 A DESERT RAILWAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 392, 28 June 1928, Page 10

The Sun THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1928 A DESERT RAILWAY

THERE will be some joy over the Government’s surprisingdecision to begin forthwith the extension of the railway line from Rotorua to Taupo. Those labourers skilled in railway construction whose prospects of continued work had become dim through the completion of contracts on the East Coast Main Trunk, will certainly rejoice, the State Forest Department may look forward to profit from its splendid plantations in the district, a bus-load of settlers will be glad of an opportunity to enjoy cheaper transport, and the landowners who bought cheap areas in the pumice wilderness, should experience a jubilation that has been denied them for nearly a score of years. It is a poor railway that does not carry profit to someone. Taxpayers, business men, and economists, however, will find it difficult to enthuse over {he Government’s project. No secret is made of the fact that the enterprise is an experimental one, quite certain to be expensive, hut wholly problematical as to profit. And this is odd, in view of the Administration’s declared and vaunted policy in respect of the wise principle of concentrating railway construction on new lines almost guaranteeing a profitable return. There is no suggestion of any profit at all for many years to come. Indeed, it is known quite well that there is no hope of the new line earning anything more than interest on capital expenditure and working charges, if as much as even these, within the next decade or two. This, in view of the tremendous loss on existing railways, aggregating some £BQO,OOO a year just now, to say nothing at all about motor transport competition, makes the experiment a bold, if not a hazardous enterprise. The announcement by the Prime Minister to-day shows clearly that the Government’s decision to start work on the Rotorua-Taupo line represents a drastic change in policy. The extension is to be undertaken and pressed forward as part of the Government’s new land settlement and development of lower class land schemes. As Mr. Coates has explained, “the Government has been considering for some time the opening up of further areas of Crown and other land, which might be suitable for settlement.” “Might be suitable,” is rather good. Most people in these days of adverse financial circumstances would have thought that if the Government could afford to spend a million pounds on the assistance of land settlement, it ought to spend the money first on providing access to lands which are suitable for closer settlement, instead of spending the big sum on a railway to serve an area which only may be suitable, for settlement. It is true that some notable results have been wrung out of the pumice areas at a relatively great cost, but the socalled pursuit of research has been very limited. It is admitted that there are many difficulties to be overcome before the pumice desert has been transformed into a vast field of profitable cultivation, but it is confidently believed that all these obstacles will be mastered, and full development of the land made possible. Political optimism is to be commended and encouraged, and if economic conditions had been anything like normal, everybody would have cordially applauded the sinkingof £1,000,000 on a railway extension in the Taupo district in the hope of decorating a volcanic desert with verdant farms and tall forests. But the chronic manner in which the State railways are losing heavily all the time throughout the country, and even in districts where settlement has been achieved, scarcely justifies the Government’s policy in incurring heavy expenditure on a project that has no chance of yielding a substantial profit for this generation. Still, the certainty of a railway across the Taupo desert will at least ereate a boom in pumice land. The Government is assured of some support that was inclined to be hesitant and wavering. AMUNDSEN’S “BEAU GESTE ” DISASTER seems to be treading on the heels of disaster in the icy wastes round Spitzbergen. The tragic story of General Nobile’s ill-fated expedition has been followed by two tragic sequels. Captain Lundborg, pilot of the plane which rescued Nobile, is stranded on an ice-floe, his machine having capsized as he was returning to effect further rescues, and no word has been heard of the daring explorer, Roald Amundsen, and his party. Amundsen whose Arctic and Antarctic conquests and whose adventurous life might reasonably be supposed to have left him with the desire to spend the remaining years of his life in the peace of his Norwegian home, started out over a week ago with two companions in a French seaplane to take part in the search. The gallant rescuer—he is now close on 60 years of age—flew into the north and into silence. Faint wireless signals have been received, leading rescue parties to hope that he may yet be found alive. Amundsen’s attempt to discover Nobile was chivalrous as well as gallant, for it is known that the two men were far from friendly. Following the “Norse” expedition, in which Amundsen and Nobile took part, both explorers wrote biting articles to the Press in which personalities freely figured. Amundsen has indeed made a splendid gesture. Out of the grim business radio emerges triumphant. A few years ago such rescues and attempted rescues would have been forlorn hopes. Had it not been for Nobile’s appeals over the air the relief parties could never have located the moving icefloe. A desperate fight is still being waged in the inhospitable north and unremitting hope will be expressed that good tidings may be heard of Amundsen, and that the remaining explorers may he removed from their dangerous resting place "before further disaster overtake them.