AUCKLAND FEARS LOSS OF EAST COAST TRADE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 619, 22 March 1929, Page 14

AUCKLAND FEARS LOSS OF EAST COAST TRADE

RAIL LINK WANTED BUSINESSMEN MOVING Urgent pleas are coming forward for good railway communication between Auckland, the Bay of Plenty and the East Coast. Businessmen in Auckland and the districts concerned consider that a direct railway service is in the best interests of trade. One fear is that the proposed railway communication with Gisborne, from Wellington, will mean a serious diversion of trade from Auckland houses after many years of regular ti*ading on the East Coast in what is recognised commercially as Auckland territory.

Opotiki is asking that the 25 miles between Taneatua and Opotiki should be covered by rail to allow muchwanted communication with Auckland.

These questions were raised at a meeting of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce yesterday afternoon. They were referred for report to the Communication and Transport Committee, and, at the suggestion of Mr. F. A. Hellaby, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce will be communicated with. OPOTIKPS AIMS From the newly-formed Opotiki ; Railway League, which is advancing the aims of the district, came a request to the chamber asking it to further the cause of the district by urging the continuation of the railway from Taneatua to Opotiki. The line is complete from Paeroa to Taneatua, and direct touch with the city would be established. “There are immense possibilities in our district," the league said. “It would take £500,000 to build the line from Taneatua and communication is needed with warehouses in Auckland. “The business is in Opotiki, and Opotiki people are out to make the railways pay. The railways would have a monopoly." Recent developments in the question of an Fast Coast railway were regarded as a serious menace by the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Warehousemen’s Association, wbich said in its letter to the chamber that the business community in Auckland would suffer were Wellington to be put in direct communication with Gisborne by railway. SERIOUS FOR AUCKLAND From an Auckland firm came a request for united action in Auckland. “The decision of the Ward Administration to link up Poverty Ray and the Fast Coast with the New Zealand railway system is wise, but it is going to affect the business of Auckland." • \Ve think that the chamber should use every endeavour to urge the linking by railway of Taneatua, Opotiki, Motuhora and Gisborne. We understand that there is a new and more feasible route to Gisborne through the Waioeka Gorge. In any case, a large passenger traffic is assured. “Again, we think that the chamber should urge the rapid completion of the line between Stratford and Ohura. Wellington now has the trade with Taranaki, and the communication from Auckland is round-about." Menib6rs of the chamber thought that the subject was deserving of close attention, and the letters were referred to the committee for full report.