RAILWAY MATTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 174, 10 December 1912, Page 4

RAILWAY MATTERS.

Mr, H. Okey, the member for Taranaki, made a singularly naive and frank statement at the meeting held at Oakura last week, in connection with the Motu-roa-Opunake railway project. He was referring to the authorisation of railways, and exclaimed: ''Why, the Prime Minister has been asking for a railway to Waiuku for years, and could not get it authorised until he got into the Cabinet himself!" There was a time, and not so very long ago, when the electors of- this sorely misgoverned and unhappy country, were told, in a voice loud and insistent, that upon a change of administration the interests of the Dominion as a 'Whole would be placed before the interests of a particular district, that spoon-feeding of favored localities would be discontinued, that the ''spoils to the victors" policy would at once be stopped, and that Ministers would do their duty without fear or favor, and give a "fair deal" to every person and to every district. But lo and behold! no sooner does Mr. Massey assume the reins of office than lie has authorised a railway in his own district, blessed as it is with fairly good roads and water communication! . It does not matter that th» claims of other districts, heavily handicapped and reduced to desperate straits because of the lack of adequate transit facilities, are ignored. Mr. Massey, after his long and weary wait, has got .authority for the building of a railway that previous administrations would give no hearing. Doubtless he is satisfied, and certainly his constituents should be. But what of Mr. Massey's former professions of unselfishness and disinterestedness and declamations against "spoils to the victors"? lie has done, in thi3 instance, precisely what he roundly condemned in the case of his predecessors. Whereat, the public will agree that Mr. Massey has concocted the same sauce for his goose as he previously objected to being served with the Liberal gander. Mr. Massey might profitably occupy some of his time in Taranaki. He would be shown the impossibility of maintaining roads in our closely settled parts, made •acquainted with the failure of every means that have been attempted to solve the question, and the urgent need there is for the installation of a light railway line. Also, he would find a readiness on the part of the settlers to back their faith in the success of such a project by guaranteeing the line against loss. Then lie could explain why it is that men at this end of the Stratford-Te Koura line have been "sacked" wholesale, while at the other end work is being prosecuted as vigorously as before. Is it because of the greater "pull" of the northerners? Where is the redoubtable Mr. Hine? How is it that he is unable to sustain Stratford's—indeed, Taranaki's—end of tho_ beam.'? Has his nrnna with the chiefs of his.party so waned that he is unable to (have maintained, the rate of progress set by the Ward Party,'whose sins of commission .and omission he has never 'neglected a chance to trumpet? Whatever the reason, it behoves Taranaki to be up and doing, or it will continue to be side-tracked more persistently than even in the past.