THE OPUNAKE RAILWAY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 296, 9 May 1911, Page 6

THE OPUNAKE RAILWAY

lIAWERA AGITATION. At the I-lawera Chamber of Commerce meeting on Friday, Mr. E. Barton, the Mayor and president, read a telegram which he hud received from Mr. G. V. Pearce, M.P., stating that the Minister of Public Works was in New Plymouth and asking the Chamber to appoint a deputation to wait upon him with the object of urging the necessity for constructing the Opunake railway. The president said that Mr. Pearce had a plan prepared of the positions of all the dairy factories north and south of the railway reserve, and he was prepared to show the amount of produce, carried by all those lines south of the reserve. Mr. Pearce stated that all those factories with one exception south of the reserve shipped their stuff through Patea, and of those on the north side a numlber dealt with Patea. It was a question | whether they should urge that the [ branch line should junction with the I main line at Hawera or Normanby, but the latter was rapidly becoming part of I Ilawera, and he had sufficient faith in I the future to believe that the two places | would yet be united in a greater Hawera.

Mr. Baker said the chairman had omitted to mention that by taking the railway to Normanby the cost would be much less than if it was taken to Stratford. The further north the line was taken the more precipitous the country and the more difficult the grade. He did not think it mattered whether it functioned at Te Koti or Normanby, but if the line was taken to Stratford tie stuff would still have to, go to Paten, which would mean heavier charges than if the line junctioned at cither of the two places mentioned. The president mentioned that the arguments of those who recommended Stratford as the place of junction gave, as the principal reason that the main portion of the produce went to New Plymouth, and if Mr. Pen roe was able to prove otherwise, then they had a strong case to put before the Minister. The chairman said there was such a thing as being too modest. Hawera was a town of very great importance, and they nni-t not lose sight of that. He moved that a deputation be appointed to wait upon the Minister of Public Works on the occasion of his approaching visit to Hawera, and that the deputation urge the wisdom of making a deviation from the reserve laid down 30 years ago for the Opunake railway, so that the railway may junction with the New Plymouth line at Normanby. This was seconded and carried.

The Hawera county and borough councils will also be represented by deputations.—Abridged from Hawera fltfir.