CLOSER SETTLEMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8981, 15 November 1907, Page 5

CLOSER SETTLEMENT.

PROPOSED LIGHT-LINE I RAILWAY. MR J. C. COOPER' 3 VIEWS. At the meeting held at Eketahuna, on Wednesday night last, for the purpose of forming a railway and close 'settlement league, Mr J. C. Cooper spoke at some length on the advantages of close settlement. On the East Coast, he said, there were a number of estates eminently adapted for close settlement. The scarcity of metal in that district rendered it impossible to give access by ruad, therefore to settle the country it would require a railway. Another terminus besides Eketahura had been mentioned in connection with the proposed railway. Some considerable time ago the residents of Masterton had moved in the matter and had suggested a route through the Wangaehu Valley terminating at Masterton. Mr Cooper objected to this route, as the line would for a considerable distance run parallel to the present line, and quite close to it. To bring the line down the Taueru Valley would mean increased cost of construction. Another thing that militated against this line was the fact that it would run through a lot of inferior country. Mr Cooper considered that the Eketahuna route must recommend itself as from that town the country it was desired to tap was reached by the shortest and easiest route. Further it would run through estates in the vicinity of Eketahuna, which were, in his opinion, suitable for sub-division. There were close upon 1,000,000 acres of first-class land, which, if settled, would maintain a large mimber of settlers, and would be of the greatest importance to the Eketahuna district.