THE HUTT RAILWAY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10097, 20 September 1910, Page 4

THE HUTT RAILWAY.

If an illustration were wanted of tire utter recklessness with which the revenues of this Dominion have been expended during recent years, it is to be found in the piece cf bare-fac-ed political humbug described as the straightening of the Hutt railway line. When this undertaking was first mooted, apparently with the intention of strengthening the' position cf Mr T. M. Wili'ord with j the Hutt electors, the cost was estimated at' not more than £IOO,OOO. Even this amount was rather heavy for th* purchase of a single seat. But when it transpires that the country is being called upon to pay between £300,000 and £400,000 for this doubtful luxury—moaning, of course the straight railway, and not Mr Wilford—one is tempted to ask whether the whole box and dice of Liberal members are worth the money. If the amount involved in this costly, not to say useless undertaking, had been employed in deviating the Rimutaka railway, the Dominion would have saved thousands of pounds annually, and a lilip would have been given to one of the most fertile and resourceful districts in New Zealand. The "straightening" of the Hutt railway has meant the "straightening" of the Dominion's finances.