RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 137, 19 September 1910, Page 8

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

NORTH ISLAND NEEDS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Saturday. A large deputation from the North Island Railway League waited on the Premier to-day to urge the construction of the East Coast railway. The deputation suggested that the main arterial railway for the North Island be proceeded with and particularly urged the necessity of linking up Hawke's Bay and Gisborne and the need for rapidly pushing on the Stratford-Ongarue line. Sir Joseph Ward, in reply, said that if the Government were to yield to all the demands made upon it, it would simply burst the country up. He reminded the deputation that at the present time the Government was carrying out large public works at the rate of £2,200,00 a year. That was the utmost limit the country could do at present. The demands for public works expenditure totalled thirteen or fourteen millions and the Government could not look at these demands "unless," he added, "we are going to borrow an amount this country has never dreamed of. We cannot, in the matter of railway expenditure, do more than we have done in the past, and we are not going to exceed that." The Premier affirmed that the present Ministry had spent more on public works than any of its predecessors. It was the duty of the Government of the day to consider how far railways should be constructed before settlement took place. All over New Zealand there wae a demand for settlement, and in many instances the Government could not make purchases because of the high prices brought about through railway development. As far as the railway poUcjy was concerned, trunk lines would have to come first. -The Government would consider the representations of the deputation and do the best with the money at its command.