RIMUTAKA DEVIATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1938, Page 7

RIMUTAKA DEVIATION

APPROVED BY WELLINGTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PROPOSAL TO DELAY WORK REJECTED. ROUTE A MATTER FOR EXPERTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce decided last night that a letter should be sent to the Prime Minister expressing appreciation of the decision to begin work on the Rimutaka tunnel. A motion that the Government be asked to defer the work until the labour situation made it desirable for the relief of unemployment, and that, in the meantime, investigations be made with a view to discovering, if possible, a better route, was rejected. Soon after the present Government came to power, said Mr M. G. C. McCaul, the chamber, with the Masterton chamber and other public bodies in the Wairarapa and Wellington, waited on the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Works urging that the tunnel should be begun. It was at that time still necessary to spend a considerable amount on the relief of unemployment and on that score the expenditure was considered justified. Now, however, although the work still had real economic value, and although gratitude was due to the Government for its decision, he thought the chamber should suggest that the time was not opportune to begin. The work was sound, but there were degrees of soundness; what was sound during "the depression when there were many out of work was not equally sound when the farmers were short of labour. He moved that the chamber express appreciation of the Government’s decision, but urge that the work be deferred until the labour situation made it desirable for the relief of unemployment, and that, in the meantime, investigations be made with a view to discovering a better route. He suggested that by travelling further up the Hutt Valley it might be possible to find a lower-level route coming out near Pigeon Bush or Featherston and shortening the length of the tunnel. Mr S. Cory-Wright seconded the motion. Captain S. Holm opposed the latter part of the motion. After strongly advocating the work, the chamber should not now try to hold it' up, he said. Engineers had investigated the proposal and, he understood, agreed on the best route. “1 feel glad that the chamber has an opportunity of congratulating the Government.” said Mr A. L. Wall. While there were many undertakings where the objections made by Mr McCaul might apply, the chamber had repeatedly pressed for the completion of the tunnel, and, if it was a good work, it could not be done too soon. Captain Holm moved an amendment that the chamber write to the Prime Minister expressing appreciation of the decision to begin the work. “I don’t think we should interfere with the route or the time at which the work is to begin,” he said. “If a shorter route between Wellington and the Wairarapa was needed in time of depression it is needed even more now.” Mr Wall seconded the amendment. Mr W. S. Cederholm said that the work would extend over five years. “If we have prosperity for five years and get it done so much the better,” he added. The work would not absorb a very large number of men, as only a certain number could be employed on the face of the tunnel at each end. “We should leave out any pros and cons in connection with such a work, which the people of Wellington and the district round about have been fighting for years to have completed,” said Mr A. J. Curtis. “If the experts have decided, we should take their advice and let it rest at that.” “Mr McCaul has apparently not absorbed the utterances of the Prime Minister,” said Mr R. W. Bothamley. “If we waited for a depression before doing the work it would be tantamount to waiting until the present Government goes out of office, because the Prime Minister has repeatedly asserted that there will be no more depressions and ‘it ain’t going to rain no more.’ ” Mr P. E. Pattrick said that there was general agreement that better communication between Wellington and the Wairarapa was essential. It would be better to divert men from other unnecessary public works than to delay work in the tunnel. The amendment was carried. A further amendment, moved by Mr F. Wilson, that the Prime Minister’s letter intimating that the work was to be prosecuted be received, lapsed for want of a seconder.