The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED: The Evening News, Morning News, and The Eco. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1909. THE NORTHERN RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 35, 10 February 1909, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED: The Evening News, Morning News, and The Eco.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1909. THE NORTHERN RAILWAY.

Tor the cause that look* atiHatmnoe, for Mβ xerong that nmdt retiftunet, Pur the future m the distance, And Vie gaaithtt : ih,«h do.

The intimation that the Minister for Public Works and Mines will shortly follow-in the foots"eps of the Minister for Railways and pay a personal visit of inspection- to the Northern Peninsula has naturally roused, a great deal of ininterest among the North Auckland settlers. In the outlying districts of the North Island have been neglected' by successive Governments; -chiefly because Ministers personally knew: very little i aboufc them and their;, vast possibilities remained a sealed book, to majority of our legislators. Within the last .five or. six years there ha;s:heen a.marked change for the bett'et in •this respect, arid" with increasing, knowledge secured by Ministers and members through personal examination of tKe country, the prospects'of the North Island in general have perceptibly improved. But \fe believe, that very few people in the colony but those who have seen the North with their own. i'eyes realise its immense potentialities β^pidjtatjpnarid.development, ancLtheie-" -foro. -we regard these..ministerial .progresses as public events ■of serious im.-; portance t6 us all. ' By the time that' Mr McKenzie. has finished looking into. the agricultural and.'pastor&l and, mineral resources of the North, And its facilities for '• transport and ■ communication— these last co far ahnost.a negative quan-' tity-r-he will be in an infinitely better, position than he is now to direct the allocation and administration of the Public Works fund on bur behalf.

There is, however, in this connection tCxn'atter oJa:■ which <we~ venture to offer our Northern readers a word of warning. From-their-point of view it epems that by fir the most important question on which Mr. McKenzie can Be asked to form an opinion just,now; is , .the route of the coming-railway; arid-if we are aHe' to_ take •Mγ; Millar's recent'trip as a precedent, Mr. McKenzie may be expected to find himself inundated witH petitions and deputations and protests from all sorts and" conditions of people, all eagerly demanding 7 that the railway . ehall go in the direction they have chosen and no other.■■Wβ do not envy, the Mnjister for' Public "Works, fcftis 'experience, and we cannot imagine that "it will do much to assist..him in making up his mind about the matter. Jn the. last resort a Minister in' sueh 1 a position must depend upon the advice of' Departmental ejtperts, and .Mr; McKenzie no doubt shares Mr. Millar's convictions on this , , point , . But while we do not think_ that the eettlere ■on the Northern Peninsula will b-2 able' to produce much impressibn upon the mind of tie Minister, or the precise course of the railway, by these, means, they may easily obstruct the progress of the line. No Government ever existed that was not sometimes .glad ol - a reasonable . exeuee for deferring expensive public -works; aridj if Sir Joseph Ward- aad his colleagues find that.public feeling in the North is hopelessly divided as to the route that the railway ougEt to follow, we need hardly be eurprieed if Ministers .prefer to consider more unanimous and intelligible claims from other parts of the Dominion,

We do not intend to enter into the vexed question of the rival routes, except to say that the ■ important object to be achieved is to get a railway of some kind running through the .North- as; speedily, as possible. We must confess that,. considering no settlers in "the debatable district fian be more than 15 or ?6 miles from the jiine, wfiichever direction it takes, the. controversy that is now raging about the route .seems to us "much ado; about nothing.' . It is imppseiblb for every settler to -havo a .railway line at his own front. doorj.«nd one central line, whichever-' route it takes, can easily be fed by rb'adecohvSrgrng'nnd (ioncentrat--ing upon it from all sides. If our Northern friends are not satisfied te leave the eholce of route to the jutlsment of the

Department's engineers, who may fairly be regarded as competent arid impartial authorities* they may find not only that they tfail to get their ■>awn. way, but havei'hung" up the whole projeefc. for indefinite tiiria to coined For these, reasons ihat the Northern eettlere will not worry Mr MoKenzie too persistently, about the rival routes, but will expend their energies in urging the promotion'of the line on general principles,' without farther unnecessary I . _ . * - \\ '