OUR OVERDUE DEVIATION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1938, Page 6

OUR OVERDUE DEVIATION.

AN obviously sensible view of an undertaking that means much to Wellington as well as to the Wairarapa was taken by the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce when it decided last evening to express to the Prime Minister its appreciation of Cabinet’s decision to begin work on the Rimutaka railway deviation.

The council showed practical wisdom both in rejecting the suggestion of one or two of its members that the work shonkfbe deferred to a less prosperous time and in refusing to reopen the question of routes. The route now approved has been selected by experts after very hill inquiry and consideration and it would merely be inviting needless further delay to advocate a reconsideration ol routes. There has been more than enough ol delay where the Rimutaka deviation is concerned.

It would be preposterous to suggest that any element of precipitancy is involved in putting in hand immediately a work that was approved fifteen years ago and was then given a place next to the Tawa Flat deviation on the list of railway improvement works. The simple truth is that works by'no means as important or as valuable have, over an extended period, been allowed to take piecedenee o\ei the Rimutaka deviation. It is more than time to make an end of delays and to give the Wairarapa a transport system that will contribute reasonably to its development. Apart from its value to this district, the construction of the deviation will serve a far reaching national purpose in facilitating greatly a desirable extension of regional planning and development in the southern part ol the North Island, outward from Wellington. Much may be done in this way to eliminate or solve the problems ol congestion that are becoming so pronounced m and about the metropolitan area.