LIGHT RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 119, 7 October 1912, Page 4

LIGHT RAILWAYS.

ARDENTLY ADVOCATED BY THE , GOVERNOR.

In his address to farmers at New Plymouth on Saturday, His Excellency th« Governor disclosed, the fact that he is a keen advocate of light railways for opening up the back country of the Dominion. A* essential condition of cardinal importance' to the profitable working of th* soil was a proper and assured means of communication and transport. Generally speaking railways had l bee* projected with wonderful rapidity- hi New Zealand, but there was a great deal tot be done yet in the direction he had" indicated. Personally, he hoped to see a new system for which the country waft v peculiarly adapted, and that was th» adoption of light railways. "Light railways," he continued, "are .going to he a very great factor in the progress of NewZealand in the next ten years." H 9 was speaking, he added, from a very intimate and close experience of the subject. For three years he was on th» Royal Commission set up to report cm the whole question of traffic for the city of London and the outskirts, and during that time he had to go through Canada and America, and part of another country, gleaning rnformation. He, therefore,, claimed to nave an intimate insight into the bearing of transport on a country'sproductiveness. "I do not «ay go straight ahead with light railways," explained His Excellency. "That is the business of Parliament; but what I do say is, turn your minds intelligently on the subject. 'lt is my hope that est-: ' perieneed men will be asked to go and [ investigate and report on light railways in operation in other countries. If suck men were sent, and a report were mad*. everybody would say in this country that the conditions are peculiarly applicable to light railways. You can construct them particularly cheaply—£lsoo to £2OOO per mile. You can construct them on the same roads an those which you use for vehicular traffic, and you can send thorn up very steep grades, for they are practically the same as trams." Citing evidence of New Zealand's adaptability to the proposed traffic, he pointed to the enormous amount of cheap driving powqr lying dormant in our unharnessed- rivers," which lie said could be used with great saving of cost on light railways. He added that they could be made the same guage as the trunk lines, with which they would connect up. The trucks utilised on them should be applicable for the djffercn* kinds of produce. If such lines were constructed and projected- in country districts they would add enormously to the wealth and prosperity of the Dominion, and contribute greatly to th* amenities, social and otherwise. of the life of those who lived in the back-blocks. The more he thought of the social and home life of the people, who were engaged in agriculture in tbt back-blocks—ho was not speaking out of mere sentiment alone—the more he realised that it was essential that they should have an opportunity of intermixing with those living in the town*. By a rapid and cheap system of looomotioa they could mitigate the hardships whicfc •bore so heavily on the shoulders of the** away back. This could he secured by a system of light railways,