RAILWAY WORKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1922, Page 7

RAILWAY WORKS.

POLICY OF CONSTRUCTION

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Jan. 28.

The Minister of Public Works made a statement concerning his method of railway authorisation and construction in the House of Representatives last night. He said that very many lines had been authorised, and very many others had been advocated by the people interested. The method in the past had been to get the line authorised as' the first step. Parliament had given the- authorisation before anything else had been done. Then it became a question of using sufficient influence and pressing the Government with sufficient determination, and the line was gradually piade. That had been more or less the method in the past. He did not wish to discuss the old system, but he thought it was not a practical system, and that it should not be continued.

His idea was that a line should not be authorised until the department was in possession of definite information as to the cost of construction, the cost of operation, the amount of traffic and so forth. When that information was available the Government could decide if .it would be in the interests of the Dominion to construct the line. He thought it quite possible that within a fevij years motor traffic would serve all purposes over short routes, and take the place of branch lines. That applied to many proposed branches and deviations.