The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 19. TARANAKI RAILWAY REQUIREMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 76, 19 March 1908, Page 2

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 19. TARANAKI RAILWAY REQUIREMENTS.

Our esteemed Strathiuore correspondent, or his mentors, at very considerable length, lias, elsewhere ill this issue, endeavored to take us to task with ra--pcet of our statements on the above subject on sat unlay last, ami fraiitially appeals I" all,'tin' Deity included, to hear witness lo his exclusive knowledge of the correct position. At Hi" I uutsflt, we desire to correct the wilful I niisinlerprcLiiinn placed on the remarks we made ii-^ralilinji Mr. "key, and tin? equally misleading inferences regarding our own views on the public works dis--1 cus,eil in the particular article. We j found no fault with All'. Ilkey for his | adwiracy of the works mentioned. What I we ilid stale was our opinion "that th" united front which we all, with M'\

Obey, hope lurunaki will present when I I';' demanding the pushing on of the Strat- ot . ford-Ongarulio railway in the near '" future would he more likely to liar- I "'' niouiously materialise luul Mr. Ok \v [ '® had the' ihonghtfulness to convey his j ''" ideas to bis brother members in the I"'.' province, whose support and active av I" sislancc he could never have duubted.'' "' To that opinion we still hold, and had * l Mr. Syme.s or Mr. Jennings similarly j , treated Mr. Okey with regard to any ° important work in his district, wo would *' as certainly have taken up the cudgeu " on his behalf. We still trust, however. ° I as we said before, that Mr. Okey's over- l sight will not interfere in any way with ' the enthusiastic response his suggestion deserves. With regard to the elaborate n history of the ICast railway as set out, i Iby our correspondent, we have no iutcn. s lion of delving into the history of the r line. We made no single statement \ with regard to it, and our remarks ap- ■• plied directly and conclusively to the I future. Assuming, however, that our ; I correspondent's figures are reliable, we I cannot sec where the "sheer mismanage- | meal-' on the line has occurred if -I ; miles have been completed at "a cost ' to date within a few pounds of .UOO.OOO," or .C47U2 per mile. If thai < cost is an excessive one, as our eor.-c----s]Kindelit implies, we think it will b<- ' news' lo most of our readers. We generally understood that modern rail- ; ways with ordinary equipment cost nearly double that sum per mile. If, we repeat, the Government have constructed the railway for that sum, then "we do call it business." With regard to the progress of the line to date, we leave time, and again advocated more rapid progress, but we have also recognised, as with other urgently require! railways in the Dominion, that all have had to give way, during the past two I years, lo the Main Trunk line. The wisdom of that policy is generally approved in this island, and the pit v is that the policy was not initiated yea is ago. Had such been the ease, Huina would to-day have been many miles on the Stratford side of the terminus of the East railway. With regard to the future, we reaffirm that the Governmeiit is already giving evidence* of redeeming the promise to push on the line as soon as the Main Trunk is an accomplished fact, and has been for some time transferring, and has in tra-i----sit, railway building machinery from the finished inland works to lluiroi. Fifty additional men. also, as a first instalment, are being sent on to the head be secured. With regard to the "incontrovertible" facts of our correspondent regarding the Mount Egniont line and his perverted and lloridly descriptive views of the "ghastly state of all'aivs" there presented, his gross exaggerations _ are suilicient to carry their own contra-

diet kins. Again, however, wc have no desire to deal with history: the present and the future are our concern. Crushing, as we said, has been in progress for some time. We also said that withi.i tlii! next fortnight the works will be taken over from" the construcling (or Public "Works) department by the Ki'lv.ay Department. If our eorresponile'it we're as conversant with the conduct of Government business as he euileavo s to lend ilie jmhlie to believe, liis knowledge would tell him that it is the KailMay Department which is to contrd the line and quarries, and that the crushing we spoke of was the exhaustive trials of the builders prior to liamliiu tiie work over to I lie owners who will run it. Although Mr. Smith poses ,>s an authority on the Egmont work-, until we learn to the contrary we prefer to accept the opinions of the lioveinnient engineers as to the quality an I quantity of metal available at the pre sent terminus of the line. And since Uf. Smith ap|K'ars unable to distinguish lv tween stone and gravel, either his knou-. ledge of tin' line is far from being acomplcte as lie would have us believe it to be. or he. viewed it through |x>iilie;illy colored spectacles, However, we need'only again stale that the completed work is now under inspeetio.i with a view to being taken over by the Working Railway* Department on Ist April if everything is satisfactory, if is fully intended to supply local bodi'S with stone when the crusher is at work under the new regime. A certain amount of stone will, of course, lie required for ballasting open lines, and this must have prior consideration. For the purposes of his bitter hostility, and from the tone of his letter, wc rather opine .Mr Smith's doubt that the Department will lie able to supply "a single truck-load of cheap metal witllin the next two years" is a case of the wish being father to the thought. One further matter. We are sorry, for the good name of Stratford, to believe Mr. Smith's damning allegation that "in lour of the live cottages at the Waipiiku* tenniuuK erected clow on two i years ago," the paper is rotting oil' I the walls. This exaggeration is quite in keeping with our correspondent's other wild assertions, and is a libel on the work of the Stratford contractor who built the cottages only fifteen months ago. In eonchtsion, let us say we yield to none iu recognising tits necessity for pushing on the SlratfordOiigarulie railway and supplying local bodies with metal from the Kgmont crushers, and it shall never lw for want of persistent advocacy and criticism on our part that such will fail to lie attained. Wc do, however, stand for fair play and honest criticism, and believe if there were loss of chronic growling and more eil'ori at honest co-operation between all concerned l'aranaki would lose nothing.