EAST COAST RAILWAY

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 34, 12 March 1930, Page 10

EAST COAST RAILWAY

VALUE OF CONNECTING HIGHWAYS. NEW GATEWAY FOR HAWKE'S BAY STOCK. Considerable interest has been betrayed by residents and landowners in the Bay of Plenty area in the growtk of the East Coast Railway, the NapierWairoa section of which is now rapidly advancing, the hope being that it will be possible by the building of feeder roads, to link the outlying parts cf this area , with the railhead, opening up a new stock route to Hawke's Bay to the mutual benefit of the farming community in both areas. Settlers 'in the Rangitaiki Valley, running southward from Te Teko in the Bay of Plenty, through the great area of idle lands eastward of the Rotorua group of lakes and the Kaingaroa Plains have utterly exhausted their revenues in trying to establish communication with the East Coast railway. /In the whole area through which this road will run there are probably not more than a score of land-owners at the present time, and on a rough estimate. this road will run for the greater part of its length through State-owned and Maori-owned property. It is utterly impossible for a smail number of ratepayers to find enough money to form the few miles of road through the Rankitaiki Gorgo, in order to give them their muchdesired connection with the East Coast railway at Te Teko. Even if they could find the necessary money by heavily rating their properties it would be extremelv unfair to ask them to do so, because this road would benefit vastly greater areas than theirs, and is of much more national than individnal importance. Put in a brief form, this road, if made right up the valley of the Rangitaiki, would traverse 60 miles of more or less ploughable land, constituting one of the greatest areas of arafole, and therefore, small farm eountry now available in New Zealand. Apart from this, it would, undouhtedly, _ by connection with the Rotorua-Napier road, greatly benefit the western parts of Hawke's Bay by opening up a comparatively short stock route between tlie pastoral lands of that district and the -East Coast railway, and it . would open up new and practically unknown, but very promising, districts to settlement and development. Anotber road by vii-tue of- its effects npon the settlement of idle lands, and upon the traffic on the East Coast railway, should receive public attention and support. Tliis is what may be called the Waimana-Povertv Bay road. It is, stated that the Government have spent over £60,000 upon this highway and have left it at a dead end somewhere in the vicinity of. Rua's once-famous stronghold,_ Mangapuhatu. Tt is not good policy in an.y kind of work to spend large sums of money and suspend operations before the o'bjective is reacbed, and in this particular case the expenditure will be utterly wasted until the road connects with the Poverty Bay — Hawke's Bay system of roads, when it will shorten tbe distance between these districts and Auckland by a great number of miles. "This road follows the Waimana Valley as far as Mangapuhatu village, then turns to tbe left toward Mangapuhatu Mountain. It is clalmed by tbose who have explored this route than an excellent grade can be obtained good enough, it is said, for a railway, and it has even been suggested that the East Coast railway should be continued in this direction. But apart from this aspect of the case it is eer-

tain that this road would prove an important feeder for this line and would open up quite a large area of new pastoral eountry. The State has expended large sums of money in building tbe East Coast railway and it should fae good policy to give this railway as many feeders as possible, especially wben these feeders assist new settlement and new wealtb production.