The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1919. GETTING A MOVE ON.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 June 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1919. GETTING A MOVE ON.

New Plymouth and Stratford residents cannot be alive to their interests, or they would have shown a greater interest in the meetings held in both places during the past week to hear the address given by. Mr. Cheal, president of the Auckland Railway League, who has been visiting various parts of the North Island to organise forces in connection with forcing the Government to push on with railway construction. The future of both towns is largely wrapped 'np with the completion of the Stratford —Okahukura line and the consequent development of that extensive district, and for that reason it is to be regretted that the public displayed such apathy. In the paat Auckland has shown no solioitude for the welfare of Taranaki, or any other part of the Dominion that did not bring grist to its capacious mill. It probably has not changed its nature in this respect, for it happens that it is to Auckland's advantage as much as it is to Tarainaki's l that the Stratford line should be completed as speedily as possible. Hence Auckland's apparent altruism. The country as in no mood to put up with the ,snail-like, obsolete methods that have characterised railway construction initfas North Island durMgwgfftenbggps. It desires the-

country opened up and the railways pushed vigorously forward, well knowing that only by doing so will the hunger for land be appeased, and the burden cast upon the country by the war be borne without hardship. The Government has evinced no disposition to get a move on with railway construction. About two or three miles a year has been about the average rate. The Governments have never troubled about concentrating on the main railway works. Th.ey have been chiefly concerned with keeping districts quiet, and using public works votes for electioneering purposes. The country, we hope, will never tolerate such a wicked and foolish policy again. The* works should be scheduled by independent engineers and an impartial board, and the works concentrated upon and completed in the order of theil national importance. Taranaki can well afford to leave its works to such a "board, knowing full well that no part of New Zealand is so ill served by railways as is this province, and no part that could respond more quickly to the extension of the railway lines. It is not generally known that to-day nearly three-quarters of a million acres of the Taranaki provincial district is unoccupied, and much of the 1,701,397 acres that is returned as "land occupied" is only partially occupied .for want of adequate communications. Last year our exports reached a value of three and a half millions, which work out at about £SB per head of population, as against New Zealand's average of £3l. In other words, at the present time Taranaki is producing double per head of population what the rest of the Dominion is. This is despite the disabilities under which it is suffering in respect of railway and road communications. Supposing the present benevolent but tot&lly out-of-date gentlemen Who control the destinies of the country were relegated to private life—a change that certainly would not occasion any deep regret—and men of vigor and ideas, untrammelled by the old party ties and prejudices, put in their places—why, Taranaki and the other undeveloped parts of the Northlsland would go ahead by leaps and bounds, and production —great as is Taranaki's to-day-would be doubled in ten years. The fact is now being generally recognised that we cannot hope for any departure from precedent or true progress from a Cabinet composed of men who have lost their "punch" and are out of touch with the needs and necessities of the times. The pathetic part is that they firmly believe the country would go to the "demnition bow-wows" if their hands were removed from the ship of State. That opinion, of course, is not shared by the general public, which, while giving them credit for their past services and a desire t9 do their best, recognise that the war has brought about a new situation and new problems that only men of the brightest and most alert minds, and the greatest capacity, can solve. Once the "dead hand" is removed from such an important department as public works, reconstruction will commence. The "go-sloW" methods of the past must be jettisoned, and the construction of lines like the Stratford one treated as a vital and serious matter, and not as a joke. The public of Taranaki really ought to take more interest in the development of their own resources. If all parts sink their own petty differences and show a united front, and work with Auckland, Hawke's Bay and Gisborne, no Government will be able much longer to ignore their just claims. It should not be necessary to have to advocate what is the obvious thing to do. It 4s to be hoped that a national public works programme will be formulated by the new Government, and carried out with the utmost vigor, and the present system of voting small sums for small sections of lines all over the country be knocked on the head for ever.