TRAMWAY TO OPUNAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 4 March 1912, Page 4

TRAMWAY TO OPUNAKE.

THE UPKEEP OF THE MAIN SOUTH ROAD. EGMONT COUNTY" RATEPAYERS' PROPOSALS. (Special to News.) Warea, Last Night. A meeting of ratepayers was held in the Pungarehu Hall on Friday evening to hear and discuss proposals of the tgmont County Council In connection with the upkeep of the main roads. Mr. M F eming was voted to the chair, and called on Messrs. T. Harvey and J Bur. gess (County Councillors) to lay the views of the Council before the meeting At the request of Mr. Harvey Mr Burgess first addressed the meeting He pointed out that the traffic on thf road had increased, and was likely to increase C st f £« the revenue to maintain them In his opinion it was quite impossible to maintain the road on ordinary revenue. Last year the expenditure m the Rahotu riding was 20 per' cent more than the revlnue accruing to it whilst the county overdraft was eSf U /A° iS . limii *> Bh'owipg the,! ' l°f the dair y trafite to New Plymouth, the Northern Rahotu riding had a revenue of £l3O per mile, as afainst a revenue of about £B3 in the Southern rjdmg, and yet the overdraft of that riding was more than that of the all the lest of the county put together. The pioposals of the Council were-First an increased rate; but that, the speaker thought, would not meet the difficulty, as the whole road needed renewing at once; second, a large loan, the charges on which would be met by a special rate: and, third, a large loan, secured by special rate, but paid for by the collection of tolls.

Mr. Harvey thought the state of the roads was due to the exceptionally wet spring, and that they might rub along ,in the way they were doing.. , The chairman expressed the opinion that toothing- but a tramline of some sort would meet the difficulty, not necessanly an electrified system, but something after the style of a bush tram, with steel rails and a locomotive for heavy traffic, and possibly something much faster for passenger traffic Mr. Burgess explained that, although *?'*? ° ounci . llor he had P ut the views of the Council before the meeting, he was personally in entire accordance with the opinion expressed by the chairman. After considerable discussion, Mr W R. Wright moved, and Mr. v W. H. Keasbery seconded, that a loan be raised for the purpose of constructing a tramline between Opunake and New Plymouth and that the Egmont County-Council be asked to confer with the Taranaki County Council at the earliest opportunity to consider the same.

The, motion was put to the meeting and carried without dissent °

A meeting was to have been held at Warea on Saturday night to.discuss the question, but tin incessant downpour kept all but a few adjacent ratepayers away, and the meeting was postponed till this week. gto MEETING AT PIHAMA. . _ At a meeting of ratepayers at Pihama on Friday the question of a railway .through the district was introduced into the discussion. It was recognised by all the. speakers that the railway was an absolute necessitv to' the district, and there was no "battle of the routes." Mr. Conaglen said it was ridiculous to have to .keep on transporting their produce and bringing in their supplies by waggon, which resulted in heavy expenditure on road maintenance, when the whole could be placed on a steel rail. The comparison in the cost of the two systems was that of 12 to 1. What would cost Is for transportation on the roads would only cost Id on a railway. Cr. Campbell said that for some considerable time he had recognised that what was required was a railway from • New Plymouth to Hawera, round the coast. If such a railway were constructed, the four local bodies round the mountain would reap the benefit. Personally he thought that if the ttramline were constructed from .Manaia to Hawera it-would block the railway being taken round by that route. If the railway followed the main arterial*round from New Plymouth to Hawera there would be no further necessity to raise loans for road maintenance.

The consensus of opinion at the meeting was that the railway would finally settle the question of road maintenance and loans, for that purpose, and would be the means of wiping out what were loans for road maintenance.