UNOPENED LINES

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 78, 4 May 1929, Page 4

UNOPENED LINES

Wheu Sir Joseph Ward made at Gisborne a definite statemenfc of liis intentions in regard to railway matters he manifested a wisdom greatly in contrast to the mistaken polie.y oi the Coafces Governnaent. The statement showed how seriously tlie country, speaking generally, and more partieularly the ! North Island wras suffering from j "Eeform" ineptitude. While at j the date of his speech the expenditure for the year on uneompleted I lines in the South Island stood at onl.y £470,000, the similar cost in the North Island was over seven millions. This huge sum represented expenditure without a penny of return, at five per eent £350,000 per annum. Obviously the policy which brought about this state of affairs was a ruinous one. Common sense dictated that instead of a number of uneompleted sections all involving interest payments without a penny in return, determined effort to concentrate upon and to bring to paying point one or two of those sections was called for. This is the line of action Sir Joseph Ward has declared for, and the country _ welcomes his decision. His policy is to push on main lines to completion, so that the country may obtain some return for its expenditure. The policy of the Contes Government — if such a series of blunders can be called a policy — was quite different. Instead of concentrating on main lines it undertook such ventures as a brancli line to Taupo and the diversion of the Palmerston North line. On both tliese much money was spent, upon the Palmerston blunder about £200,000. Neither of these works was justified, and both of them are now on the scrap heap. Of the two blunders the Palmerston venture may be regarded as the more indefensible. It not onl.y was not

needed, but it is a question whetlier if it had been completed it would not have been of actual harm to the district. But for the need to push on with main lines, to get some return for the money already expended, the Taupo brancli line might have been arguable. As things aetually were at the time the decision of the Coates Government was not only deplorable, but absurd also. The position was slightly bettered during the last year of the Coates Government 's tenure of office by the completion of the long^ TaurangaTaneatua section in the Bay of Plenty, but the inexcusable delay in completing this work, extending over a number of years, has to be placed in the otlier seale. We have in our own district a glaring example of the ineptitude and bad judgment of the Coates Government in regard to railway matters. At the close of the financial year 1927-28, if we include the small lfhe between Wairoa and Waikokopu, there had been expended on the various sections of the Napier-Gisborne main line £1,850,357. The line between Eskdale and Wairoa was reported as under construction, but, as Sir Joseph Ward pointed out in his speech, work had been started at a dozen different points, with little or no advance of the railhead. As illustrating a scheme to provide for unprofitable expenditure these methods are quite remarkable. "Beform" had an incentive to be prudent in tbe rcporfc of the Baven-Fay Commission appointed by itself. This emphasised the necessity for completing our main lines, thus giving advantages which remain beyond our reach while our lines remain m large part isolated or incomplete sections. Yet to ensure such isolation seems to have been the determination of Peform. Instead of pushing on with the Napier-Gis-borne line it embarked upon such blundering ventures as tbe Taupo branch line and the quite unnecessary — or even burtful — Palmerston diversion, at a total cost to ihe eounfry of somo £300,000. Both these, as set out above, have been abandoned. All this loss and waste of time would have been avoided had the Coates Government been wiser, had it decided noon n policy of pushing o» with ■nain lines to bring them to a payTog ■point. This is now the de"I'wed and definite policy of ihe Ward Government, and the coun- ' "v weleomes it eagerly. The -Lrorous noto struek by Sir J osoph "'m'd nccords with the, desires of Gjn eouniry, and we have no doubt that Parliament will approve progressive measures 4esigned to

hasten the completion of our main lines. Hawbe's Bay and Poverty Bay will both gain by tbe wiser pol'icv of the Ward Government, for it is certain that tbe line connecting these two centres will reccive ihe attcntion denied to it for so many years. Tbe ehange of Government bas made the position mere hopofnl for Ihe country in regard to railway construction.