Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1941. PIERCING THE RIMUTAKA.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 October 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1941. PIERCING THE RIMUTAKA.

TN reply to a question asked in the House of Representatives by the member tor Masterton (Mr. J. Robertson) the Minister of Public Works (Mr. IL T. Armstrong) has stated that it is the intention of the Government to proceed with the construction of the Rimutaka tunnel and that the job would already have been under way had the war not intervened, lhe scheme had not been abandoned, the Minister added, and it would be gone on with as soon as the time was opportune. While it was crediting the Government only with ordinary good faith to take these things for granted, the Minister’s statement will give satisfaction to the people of the districts concerned, which include not only the Wairarapa, ■ but Wellington City and intervening areas, as well as others to the north.

It is, of course, well understood that large-scale development and improvement works, entailing the employment of a considerable amount of labour and a heavy financial outlay, must in general stand over until the war has been won. Where labour and other factors are concerned, works of this kind may be commended not least, after the war, by the very reasons that now dictate their postponement. Much of the work involved in the Rimutaka deviation, particularly the improvement of li.nes on either side of the projected tunnel, no doubt is of the kind that should be allowed to stand over meantime.

An exception possibly may be justified, however, in the case of the actual boring of the tunnel —work which under modern methods is carried out largely with the aid of machinery and with a comparatively small labour force, and necessarily is slow. Tunnelling work'is still being proceeded with on the East Coast line and as the special machinery employed is released from that undertaking and others it may be much better and more economical from a national standpoint that it should be employed on a work like the Rimutaka tunnel .than that it should be allowed to stand idle.

It has to be-considered that the radical improvement of the Rimutaka railway is an undertaking capable of taking an important and valuable place in the after-war development of the Dominion and that this 'not only justifies the work as a whole being kept in the forefront, to be gone on with as soon as the time is opportune, but may justify an early beginning on the necessarily lengthy task of boring the tunnel. All who have given the matter thought no doubt Avill agree that the establishment of efficient, quick and convenient railway communication between the Wairarapa and Wellington would in a number of ways favour an extension both of closer settlement and of industrial development at a wider view.

If it is turned to account as it ought to be, this longawaited improvement in railway communications will open the way,to development over a wide area in accordance with wellconsidered regional plans. The establishment of factories and. the extension of residential areas in the Wairarapa and in other districts offers a way of escape from the foolish and unwholesome congestion of industrial and living accommodation which has taken shape and is developing in Wellington and-the Hutt Valiev.

AVhatever the attitude, of this or that individual may be, there is no question here of setting the interests of one area in opposition to those of another. It is a matter simply of doing what is possible to ensure that development shall proceed on the lines that will best advance the welfare of the people of the Dominion. The undesirable congestion to be seen in and about Wellington and elsewhere in the Dominion is not an inevitable condition of industrial and commercial development. Still worse conditions of congestion of course exist in countries of older development, not least in Britain, but in these countries there are also examples of modern and well-planned industrial and residential development in which a complete departure is made from the standards and conditions of the Black Country.

Involved as she is in a war of existence, Britain today is promoting far-reaching plans for the improvement of cities, towns and rural areas and legislation is promised which will extend these activities considerably. The wide distribution of industries is not by any means only a matter of anticipation in countries of advanced industrial development. In Britain, the United States and elsewhere a great deal has been done in the way of establishing secondary industries in lightly-populated areas.

The construction of the Rimutaka Tunnel commends itself not least on the ground that it would facilitate and encourage development on these lines and in that way and others would contribute very materially to 1 the welfare of the community in general. At the broadest view, the establishment of efficient railway communication between Wellington and the Wairarapa will remove an existing handicap and open the way to progress and development.