OPUNAKE RAILWAY COMMISSION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 273, 15 May 1912, Page 4

OPUNAKE RAILWAY COMMISSION

THE SITTING AT HAWERA. THE PRKsTTexcLUDED. (»' (•".:• special reporter.) The Opimake Railway Commission commenced its sittings yesterday at Hawcra. Mr. H. W. Holmes, chief engineer of the Public Works Department, presided, and the other commissioners' were Messrs. James Burnett (chief engineer of Railways), G. Bullard (Commissioner of Crown Lands in Taranalri) and R Clifton (director of the Fieldt and Experimental Farms Division of the Department of Agriculture).

When the Commission' opened, the chairman announced that the proceedings would not bo open to the press, and the reporters withdrew. The following summary of the evidence is supplied bv Mr. W. McXamara, secretary to the Commission.

Mr. G. V. Pearce, M.P., was present, and introduced the .witnesses, who were given every latitude in expressing their views, and were questioned bv the commissioners to further elucidate some of the points raised.

Mr. G. V. Pearce, M.P., advocated the location of the line about three-quarter* of a mile south of the Skeet road, so as to enable the large factories on the southern portion of the Waimate Plains to use the line, and thus relieve the roads of the heavy traffic now going over them. He claimed that most of the factories at present shipped their produce from Patea by coastal boats and would continue to ship this wav! The line should therefore be located so as to give the shortest possible rout* from the factories to the Port of Patea He was not in favor of a tramway from Manaia to Hawera. And tramways constructed should be from the factories to the railway which he advocated. The main object of the line was to tap the dairy factories, two of which were responsible for half the total output from the plains.

Mr. J. B. Murdoch, chairman of the Joll Dairy Company, gave statistics of population over the district to be served by the proposed railway. The expenditure on maintenance of the main roads was becoming a burden on the county ratepayers. Six miles on the Main South road cost £I2OO per annum, and four miles and a half on the Skeet road £4OO per annum.

The directors of dairy companies in South Taranaki recognised that it was to their advantage to ship through Patea.

Mr. A. W. Gillies, Mavor of Hawera strongly advocated the construction of a tramway or light railway between Hawera and Manaia.

Mr. C. Goodson differed from this view n«d urged that the railway was pre' ferable to tramway.

Mr. T. Barmhy held similar opinions. Mr. W. D. Powdrell. chairman of the Kaupokonui Dairy Company, advocated the construction of a railway along {he route suggested l>v Mr. Penrce, M.P with tramway feeders from Kaupokonui and Kaponga. Patea would probably remain the shipping port for many years to come. The produce from South Taranaki was likely to double in volume in the near future.

Mr. A. Christensen, chairman of the Patea Harbor Board, gave evidence of the facilities provided at Patea for shipping. He pointed out that many of the South Taranaki dairy companies were financially interested in shipping at Patea, and urged that the line junction at the_southernmost possible point with the main line.

Mr. Walter Good-land, chairman of the Hawera County Council, urged the claims of the Xormanhy route, on the ground that it would serve better country than the more northern routes, and that if the line junctional north of Te Roti it would not serve these richer lands. He opposed the Manaia-Hawera tram. Mr. Edward Dixon, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, gave evidence on similar lines, and in addition urged that to place the junction far north of Te Roti would he to rob Hawera of trade from Te Roti, Matapu and other centre* which had for years been coming to Hawera. Hawera business men favored the Xorrnahby route, and did not support the tram scheme.

Mr. Oswald Hawken, president of the Egmont A. & P. Association, urged thai the construtcion of the line to junction at or near Normanby was the only solution of .the Hawera County roading problem. Patea would be the port of South Taranaki for many years to come. Really, to fully serve the district, two lines were required—one joining the mam line at Normanby, and the other perhaps at Eltham, to relieve the El* tham road. He thought local bodice would allow railway feeders to be constructed along the roadsides. Mr. T. MePhillips, chairman of tht Waimate West Road Board, concurred m this view.