Railway Construction to Be Pushed On

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 542, 20 December 1928, Page 17

Railway Construction to Be Pushed On

SIR JOSEPH’S DECLARATION CROAKERS OF THE PAST Press Association WELLINGTON, To-day. In an interview to-day Sir Joseph Ward stated that, for the information of the public, he wished to say the Public Works Department had been instructed to arrange for additional men to be put on railways construction as part of the general policy of the Government. The department is to make arrangements to push on with the construction of the Taranaki-Auckland railway, the Gisborne-Napier line, the InangahuaWestport railway and the Midland railway to Nelson. Definite instructions had also been given that surveyors were to be put on without delay to survey the South Island trunk railway, and it was to be done as expeditiously as possible. Similar expressions to those which had been urged by some opponents of that line had been, in his experience, made against some of the principal lines that had been constructed in the country. The North Island Main Trunk railway was a case in point. He was head of the Government when this line, in its later years, was prosecuted vigorously. There were croakers, no doubt with the best of intentions then, as is the case now, who predicted failure from the point of view of the railway paying its way. Statements of that kind were circulated for years and it was so also with the Canter-bury-West Coast railway, the opposition saying it would be a great “white elephant.” The Government did not hesitate to push these lines on as fast as possible to completion. Now anyone was making similar statements regarding any of these five lines, including the South Island trunk railway, all of which the Government "as determined to push on with in order to complete them as early as possible. Regarding the Gisborne-Napier railway, some question had been raised as to the route. Naturally those who were raising the questions were entitled to consideration. There was a difference of £600,000 between the cost of the two routes, and official representations were quite clear that the shorter route, which would have £600,000, would meet the whole of the requirements that the GisborneNapier railway was started with the object of providing. Before definitely deciding this, however, he was quite certain that if the results required could be obtained by a saving of £600,000, the Government would most unhesitatingly adopt that course.