OPUNAKE RAILWAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 27 November 1914, Page 6

OPUNAKE RAILWAY.

>o . ] Mil PEARCE AND MR DIXON. ! lit his Normanby mooting on Tuesday., night, Mr Pearce made further reference to the Opunake railway line, lie said ,tlint some time ago he had gone very carefully into the whole matter and found that nine-tenths of the produce of South Taranaki was shipped to Pa- i tea; consequently in the interests of the settlers in whose district the line was to run, and whilst not considering the , interests of any particular town, he was ! forced to the opinion that the most suit- { 'able junction would be at Normanby. The Commissioners' route, deflected so as to pick up the produce from Okaiawa, j 'would be the best for the district, and ; it would come through very easy country ito its junction, with the main line. He | had previously stated that there was a I strong pull by the three North Taranaki members to have the junction as far nortli as possible, and in addition to , this there was the publicly expressed ' opinion of the then 'Mayor of Hawcra that the line should follow the reserve route, which opinion, doubtless, had some [ weight witli the Government. Patea must be the shipping port for practically fall the produce from South Taranaki. 'Consequently consideration should be ' given to a route that would enable producers to get their goods to that port ."by the shortest and quickest route. Not- | withstanding the announcement of the I Minister for Public Works that the junction was to 20 or 30 chains north of Te. Roti, the point of junction had not been • finally fixed, and tl)0 enginecr-in-chief [had said that it must be a matter largely 'for the working railways department to decide. "When lie (Mr Pearce) went to [Wellington to interview the Minister for | Bail ways and the general manager, and the position was now that after carefully examining into matters, the general maniager had strongly recommended that the | junction should be at or south of To I Roti. He had that statement from the (Minister for Railways.

THE QUESTION OF QUESTION'S. , Whilst on the subject lie would like to say a few words in reply to Mr Dixon. In tlie questions that that gentleman has sent to his Hawera meeting,' Mr Dixon had made some very funny suggestions. Ho had also in a letter to the papers made some references to I his (Mr (Pearcc's) refusal' to 'janswcr written questions. He (Mr Pearce) had previously stated his intention not to [reply to written questions for the rea- ' son that if he* did so, the candidate's [opponents could employ a typist and [type out a whole bunch of questions, j which could not be dealt with before I the meeting broke up. At the last election a bunch of questions was sent to I him which he refused to answer, and he | did not know until afterwards that they had come from a lady. A day or two j ago he nret Mr Dixon in Wanganui—he was staying at the same hotel that Mr Dixon was. A voice: "Dixon was not at an hotel!" (Laughter.) Mr Pearce: "Yes; Mr Dixon was at the same hotel, and this matter was mentioned, and also the previous incident. Mr Dixon remembered that the questions were from the president of the Young Women's Christian Association, which was proof that ho knew of his (Mr Pearce's) decision not to answer written questions, although in the last letter he professed ignorance of it. Mr Dixon further referred to the (Mr Pearce's) request to a questioner in a hall, on the occasion of his last meeting at Hawera, to put his question in writing. This particular question had reference to a iiian who was trying io ask some question which he could not apparently express, and to him (Mr Pearce) it was hopelessly involved. What he suggested to this man was to write this question down so as ho could then make it intelligent. The suggestion was to assist the man out of the tangle he had apparently got into, and to enable him to put his question in some coherent form. He was never opposed to answering questions put at his meeting; on the contrary, lie welcomed them, but any politician would be foolish to undertake to answer all the written questions which might be sent up to him. Finally, in regard to the railway again, he would suggest that the Hawera people should wait on the 'Premier.—Star.