TAUPO TIMBER COMPANY

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10712, 18 September 1912, Page 7

TAUPO TIMBER COMPANY

FURTHER EVIDENCE TAKEN. 'Bu TcUa-ntiih-- t' r -)* A winatv.-n.) WELLINGTON, T.r.st Ni-ht Furtiior evidence was heard to-day in connection with the Taupe Totara Timber Company's petition. Mr J. H. Blow, Uivder-yoci'(!'.nry of Puttie Works, referring to the company's line, said it would cost about £15,000 to put the railway into proper condition for the general traffic of a. light railway. The formation would have'to be improved, and bouses for the employees would have to be i erected. Then the general equipment lof rolling stock would have to be dealt with. Tlu< general traffic of the district would have to be provided, and this would probably cost £40,000. Tr» this estimate he had allowed for four locomotives, only considering that locomotives at present in u«mvoiilcl bo required for the ordinary traffic. In reply to questions witness said that he hardly thought it would pay to run a standard'lino at the present time. Ji o sta.ubrd line was to h* constructed, lie would recommend the Eotonv route to Taupo. Rotorua could .nob hj" out out of the tourist traffic, if tiv Tauranga line was connected with Rotorua (there is a gap of 22 mile*), the Rotorua line was then extendi to Taupo. a total distance over the whole route being 100 miles. There was no doubt that Tauranga. would lithe shipping port for Taupo, and not Auckland, which was 240 miles distent E. R. Voile, farmer of Waiotapu. wave evidence strongly supporting th' construction of a line from Rotorua f Taupo. If the Government constructed such a line, he said, it would lin* / up all the thermal district in one I tinuous journey and it would oper. settlement in a vastly larger ami thar. any other railway that could- be constructed. He claimed that there was ] nothing to be gained from the public point of view, by adopting the ] jany''-. proposal. _ j The committer adjourned till Thu:v j day. ]