COMMENCING WORK.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 355, 9 February 1937, Page 4

COMMENCING WORK.

MANGANUI GORGE. P. & T. Department Will Not Erect Telephone. Work on the Manganui Gorge track will be commenced this week, states a letter from the Public Works engineer, Mr H. W. Lindup, received this morning by Mr W. L. Kennedy, J.P., who as coroner at the recent Inquest on the death of Phillip Matthews, the climber, who was killed by a fall on Mount Egmont on January 19, forwarded a recommendation made by Mr Percy Thomson, a Park Board member, that the work be expedited. A further recommendation by Mr Thomson has not been received favourably by the Postmaster-General, from whom a reply was received this morning. Mr Thomson advocated that representations be made to the Postmas-ter-General that the telephone line erected by the Stratford Alpine Club from the Stratford Mountain House to the Manganui Hut be put in order and maintained by the P. and T. Department. He stated that part of the line consisted of fencing wire, and considered that with the increasing popularity of the fast ski-ing grounds it was highly desirable that this line shquld be kept in good order, especially in the winter time, in case of urgent medical help being required. He understood that departmental aid had beet, extended for the telephone line on the slopes of Ruapehu to the Salt Hut. The Postmaster-General’s reply states that it if not the policy of the department .to erect or maintain prlrate telephone lines except at the cost of the owners. Any departure from this policy to meet a particular case would create a precedent that wouIU ipvolve the department In heavy expenditure, for which there would be little or no return. In the circumstances the request that the deparment should maintain the above-mentioned telephone line could not be favourably considered. The line connecting with Salt Hut on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu was erected at the cost of the Tourist Department and no maintenance work is carried out by officers of the P. and T. Department, states the letter, in conclusion. Four Public Works employees will be engaged in the work from the time a start is made and it it expected that the work will be well forward in a month or six weeks. "It is very satisfactory to know that a start is being made with the Gorge work," said Mr Thomson, when i interviewed by the "Central Press’’ this morning. “The question of the telephone will be taken up by The next meeting of the East Committee."