WANGANUI MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13526, 7 November 1911, Page 4

WANGANUI MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

One of tho greatest needs, commercially speaking, which Wauganui has to-day is a railway through its hinterland, linking up with the Main Trunk line, and serving tho fertile district lying between this town and the inland centres of Ractihi and Ohakune. Such a railway is as necessary to Wanganui’s commercial prosperity as a deep-sea harbour. In fact, the harbour goes hand in hand with the inland railway—tho latter supplemented and .fed by better and more numerous roads than we now have—as a factor in tho future progress of Wanganui, for tho reason that wo must have an Output to fill the big ships, and to secure that output the back country must be settled and developed by roads and railways. The' importance of the connection with tho Main. Trunk, via Ractihi and Ohakune, can, therefore, bo very easily appreciated. By reason of the foregoing, tho people of Wanganui and district will note with satisfaction tho decision come to by tho Wanganui Chamber of Commerce last evening, when a strong and representative committee was set up to further tho construction of the line referred to at the earliest possible moment, and to urge the Government to put a survey in hand at once. The remarks of the various speakers in favour of tho proposal need no comment, for they will commend themselves to everybody One remark, however, may bo singled out for special notice, for iit expresses an idea that tho committee, tho Chamber ,of Commerce itself, and. the people of the town and district must continually bear in mind. The remark was, “If Wauganui does not hustle, it will get loft.”, Tho significance of tho advice therein expressed will ho at once grasped when it is remembered that the commercial interests of Wellington ancl Auckland are hard at work to secure (dl the interior trade for themselves that can bo secured. Further, there is an East Coast Railway League, comprising the people of Auckland, tho Bily of Plenty, Gisborne, and Napier, width is hustling for all it is worth, and with considerable' success, to get its own railway built. There is the North Auckland Railway League, and a league to secure the extension of tho South Island Main Trunk. \V r e do not suggest that these bodies are not justified in their agitation, for the lines they advocate aro desirable. But the WanganuiMain Trunk line is equally desirable, and what tho above bodies can do with euoccss by hustle, Wanganui can equally well achieve by tho same means. With auch competition for railway construction expenditure, Wanganui simply must hustle if it is to get its rightful share. Otherwise it will get left, and it will have no one to blame but itself if it does. The Wanganui people have, too,, every right to point to the starvation, from a railway point of view, of this part of tho Dominion, and to contrast it With the generosity exhibited towards the South Island, particularly Canterbury. Otago, and Southland, where a perfect network of branch railways lias been and continues to be constructed in districts which already aro ten times better served -than this part of the North Island. Half, if not all, the money spent on branch linoa in southern districts which do not urgently need them, could be more justly spent bn districts in the North Island which need them badly. Towards the diversion of some of this at present unnecessary expenditure the Chamber of Commerce should bend all the energies it possesses, for only by continual pegging away can tho justice of Wanganui’s claims be brought home to the powers that be, and only by still more pegging away can the recognition of those claims take shape in tho practical and tangible form of a finished railway. Wanganui, unless it is to get left, must hustle, and’ hustle' all the time. ~