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Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1918, Page 4

Picture patrons are reminded that tonight is the. last opportunity to see Mabel Nonnand in her first Goidwyn picture, "The Floor Below," at the Empire. To-morrow there will be a, complete change when the star attraction will be the film version of that popular hero of college life, 'Thrown of Harvard."

THE RAILWAYS AND THE HARBOR. It is now over four and a-half years since the construction of the railway from To lloti- to Opunake was commenced. For two years fair headway was made, and several of the heavy cuttings and bridges were completed, but the exigencies of war have caused a cessation of operations. Now, the Minister for Public Works made an jiimequivocal statement that as soon as money,' labor and material are available the work will be gone on with. But for (lie war, lie says, the line would have been completed to Opunake long ago. This news will be received with great satisfaction by the people of the Plains. The Minister, however, went further. He stated that the l;ne should be continued right around to New Plymouth. This part has not been authorised, though surveyed. Some years ago, it will bo remembered, the coastal settlers formed a Railway League for the purpose of promoting the construction of a railway, being willing to undertake and finance the work themselves if; the Government were not disposed to carry it out. The Government, after taking evidence and giving the matter careful consideration, decided that the work was of national importance and would of itself pay, apart from the through traffic from the Plains to New Plymouth. Indeed, the railway commission that was set up regarded the continuation of the line from Opunake to New Plymouth as a necessity, for the reason that it would give the Railway Department the required relief from the expense of heavy haulage over .the Waipuku saddle and Ngaere bank, realising that when overseas vessels berthed at Moturoa the imports and exports of the closely settled southern part of Taranaki would have to be railed from and to New Plymouth. On this ground alone they showed thegconstruetion of the line to be justified. This testimony as to the part the harbor is to play in the life of Taranaki in the near future js a justification by itself of the harbor improvement scheme now projected, The railway development of Taranaki, both from Te Roti-Opun-ake-New Plymouth and StratfordOkahukura is, therefore, inseparably bound up with the development of the New Plymouth, harbor, and this fact should not be lost sight of by our good friends on the Plains, where Uisy have been led to. believe, by leaders whose motives cannot be described as disinterested, that the continuation of the railway from Opunal;e to New Plymouth is only a phantom pursued by ardent supporters of Taranaki's deep sea harbor. Now they have before them the declaration of Sir William Fraser that the work is to be completed as soon as the conditions imposed by the war are removed, and they would consult their own interests by bearing in mind this most significant fact, which cannot be explained away by those who are, out of interested motives, striving to prevent the development of one of Taranaki's greatest assets—the deep sea 'harbor at Moturoa.