THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1912. NAPIER-GISBORNE RAILWAY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10718, 11 October 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1912. NAPIER-GISBORNE RAILWAY.

The announcement by the Hon. W. Eraser, Minister of Public Works, that lie intends allowing the Napier end of the Napier-Gisborne railway to proceed along the extraordinary route selected by the selfish little clique which controls 'che destiny oi Scinde Island, or "Breakwater Town," will be received with intense disgust, by everybody, outside the decadent \yat- , eri ng-place, who knows the history of the railway movement. Fifteen or twenty years ago an agitation was started by the late Mr Whvte, ol rliuiroto to secure the opening up of that vast area of country extending between Has'tihgs and Wairoa, and thence to Gisborne. At that tinje Napier had 110 thought of a railway. It was quite content to potter about with its breakwater, and extract large sums of money from the pockets of Hawke's buy land-owners to throw, as it were, into the sea. When the Hastings moveemnt assumed a definite form, and the natural centre of Hawke's Hay began to throw off the yoke oi Scindc Island domination, the Xnpier clique became visibly perturbed. It shook in its wrath, and resolved upon, moving heaven and oarth to centre the railway terminus round Bluff Hill. Timo rolltsd. on. 'T]h> originator ot the. railway movement passed away. Politicians pulled the strings, and when the psychological moment arrived, it was found that the railway, instead of starting from Hastings or thereabouts, as was originally intended, and opening up a large slice of splendid country, was to bo conducted along the sea coas't for miles, for no other apparent reason than to placate a few shopkeepers and merchants in the decadent seaport town. The feverish haste

iv"Mi which Sir Joseph Ward rushed to Napier after he was defeated, to metaphorically rub noses with th.' agitated and depressed Mr Vigor JJrown (the gentleman who was so ■fend of descanting upon the soup-kit-chen days whc. i he was himself connected with the Conservative Party), and to perform the important ccromo.iv (f turning the iirst so:L < f railway which will be an everlasting monument to tho supinonoss of a l:.g rolling Ministry, is now a m.tter <1 history. The turning of that sod was the tuning of one of the darkest pages in the history of the Dominion. And yet wo arc cold that- the engineers recommended tho railway to proceed northward from Napier. The engineers recommended it, forsooth! Yes, the engineers recommended -the construction of the Rimutaka railway. And whit a blunder it has bwii! The M.lnif/er for Public Works owes dtoty to the Dominion. He must nr regard the Napier-Gisborne railway from a parochial standpoint. The money \o be expended upon it will come out of tho pockets of Unpeople, and the people have right to know that it is being expended to the best possible advantage. The few hundred pounds which were hurriedly spent in construdting earthworks where and when they were not required. should not influence tho Minister in the least. We are conj vinced that a huge and irreparable blunder will be perpetrated if this line is allowed to proceed along the route .selected. And we say this, in due deference to the engineers, who may be satisfied that they have chosen the quickest and most economical route.. Wo maintain that tho ques- ,. tion is not so much one of engineering as of public policy. The policy of the Government should be to consider the development of the resources of 'the country as a whole, rather than tlie exigencies of a few merchants and shop-keepers. if this policy is pursued the railway will not be taken ' along a barren sea coast, but will pass through country that is adapted* for closer settlement. We earnestly commend this aspect of the question to tho Hon. W. Eraser. We have no interest in the matter other than'that of the good of the community as a whole. But we are persuaded that if an independent commission of experts were set lip, and they were askj ed tn t'.ke the railway where it would be cf the. greatest,, service ,to the country, they would Have no hesitation i:i abandoning the selected route in favour of another. Wo. trust that it is no'it even now too late to avert a national calamity in the way of blundering railway construction.