STRATFORD-OKAHUKURA RAILWAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1919, Page 3

STRATFORD-OKAHUKURA RAILWAY.

Commenting on the recent meeting at Stratford relating to speeding up the above railway construction, the Auckland Herald says:—"The demand which conies from Taranaki for the completion of the Auckland connection in a healthy indication of the new conception of ia.ilway construction which is growing everywhere throughout the Dominion. AY hen public men in Taranaki are realising that the Stratford line is not provincial, but interprovmeial and national in its scope, it is evident that the snail's raJe of the construction of the railway must be accelerated and that Ministers can 110 longer take advantage of jealousies between two termini to delay (lie whole work. AA'hen public men in Taranaki can be found candid enough to admit the superior claims of the Hast Coast railway it is apparent that parochialism is giving way to a more liberal spirit, and that a national outlook on railway construction has been reached. If Auckland had asked that the work at the Taranaki end of the lino should be stopped and the labor and materials transferred to the Okahukura, end, the rebuke given by one of the Taranaki speakers would have been merited, but no responsible person or association ha-: suggested such a thing. The comi parative rate of progress at the two J ends of tho line is a small matter compared with the urgency of having the whole track completed as soon as possible. The railway was commenced in JiWl and 4:2 miles are now open for traffic, ft-.i average rate of construction of between two and thret miles a year. There is little wonder that Taranaki is at length losing patience. The two provinces will best serve themselves by uniting in a demand that the connection should cease to be a plaything of politicians, and that the Public Works Department. should treat it seriously Ample labor at both ends should be insisted upon by both provinces, and there should be common action to prevent delays in such key sections as tunnels and bridges. Sir AY'illiam Fraser has stated that it will take two or three years to ! finish the Okahukura tunnel at the pre- ■ Kent rate of progress. Taranaki is equaljly interested with Auckland in letting the Minister know that the present rate will not be tolerated."