THE CASE FOR THE TUNNEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 658, 9 May 1929, Page 8

THE CASE FOR THE TUNNEL

ACCORDING to information supplied by the Minister of Railways /to Mr. J. S. Fletcher, M.P., the Government still preserves an entirely open mind about the Morningside Tunnel. As representative of the Grey Lynn electorate, Mr. Fletcher was naturally concerned by the report that the proposition was to be shelved altogether, but in the meantime he can glean very little more satisfaction from what the Hon. Mr. Taverner has told him, which is that “the matter is the subject of departmental investigation by a committee of executive officers who will collate all essential facts to allow us to get down to a proper basis of calculation.” All credit to Mr. Fletcher for making prompt, representations and thus informing the Government of the body of local feeling that will he alienated by an adverse decision; but as far as the committee’s work goes, proper confidence cannot he placed in its judgment without a knowledge of the directive forces behind it. If untrammelled by any notions of predetermined policy, the committee would no doubt return.recommendations wholly different from those it would advance with the settled lines of Government action in mind. The bearing that Government poliey or political whim has upon the reports of experts seems to have been illustrated in the cases of the Taupo railway and the Palmerston North deviation. Has the attitude of advisers who had earlier favoured the works been moulded by the outlook of the party in power? And if Sir Joseph Ward was serious when he said at Hawera the other night that one big railway workshop instead of four could do all the work required, then here, too, a change of heart must have been registered. Should the committee by fortunate chance be able to proceed in complete independence, it will surely find that the factors in favour of the tunnel proposition are more clearly defined than ever. Traffic in both goods and passengers on the North line is increasing at a great rate. Suburban trains operated electrically should return handsome revenue if the Railway Department manages to be first in the field with the logical facilities. Passenger traffic over longer distances Northward is hound to increase in volume so long as the departmental procrastination does not allow service-ear competition to become established on the rapidly improving roads. Mr. Taverner has stated that “costs, traffic and the economic factor” are to be taken into consideration. The last alone is all that he should worry about, for it governs the others. And -with traffic increasing, and costs no higher than they were two years ago when the work was considered one of urgency, the economic factor needs little further examination.