SOUTHERN MAIN TRUNK

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 990, 5 June 1930, Page 18

SOUTHERN MAIN TRUNK

DEBATE ON MESSAGE FROM MR. COATES MR. W. J. GIRLING REPLIES Press Association BLENHEIM, Today. Replying to the comments made by Mr. E. F. Healy, M.P., in regard to his explanation relating to the now famous Coates telegram referring to the South Island Main Trunk railway, Mr. W. J. Girling made the following statement: — “I am surprised at Mr. Healy’s persistence in stating that I had received a wire from Mr. Coates on the eve of the election In 1928 to the effect that Mr. Coates would complete the South Island Main Trunk, and that I had waved the telegram in the air at my final meeting in Blenheim. This is incorrect, my reference to Mr. Coates being, as stated previously, that upon completion of the Westport - Ina ngahua line he would turn his attention to the South Island Main Trunk, this latter statement having been made in the House in reply to an interjection from myself. “I certainly interpreted that to mean that he would proceed with the line at a date when the Westport-Inanga-hua line was completed, that line having preference in his scheme of railway construction. “After the Coates Government had been defeated I informed Mr. Healy that I had not received a wire from Mr. Coates that he would go on with the line to which reference had been made in the House during that short session. Mr. Healy, in said: ‘Why worry about it?’ Mr. Coates did not deny it again during the session. “In 1929 reference to the wire from Mr. Coates to me that he would go on with the line was made, and again I mentioned the matetr to Mr. Healy. As references to the wire were made on the floor of the House I was expecting Mr. Coates to refer to the matter, but apparently he did not do so. Now that the statement has been made on a public platform I felt it my duty to reply to It. I certainly received several wires from Mr. Coates on political matters before the last election, but in only one was there reference to railway matters, and in that one Mr. Coates certainly did not commit himself to immediate prosecution of our railway. Sir Joseph Ward, fortunately, did promise it immediately, and his advent to power has witnessed the resumption of the work, to the delight and satisfaction of all Marlborough people.”