GISBORNE TO NAPIER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2422, 10 February 1909, Page 4

GISBORNE TO NAPIER.

It. is satisfactory to find that the decision come to a few months ago in regard to the connection of Gisborne with Napier by rail does not represent the matured reflection of the local Chamber of Commerce. On that occasion. it will be remembered, there was only a small meeting, and the members decided not to co-operatc with the Hastings Chamber in urging upon the Government the claims of the line in question. This extraordinary attitude was based upon the argument that as Olsboruc was chiefly interested in the Gisborne-Rotorua line, it should concentrate all its efforts upon the completion of that work. Yesterday the -matter again came up as the result of another communication from Hastings, and the members after some discussion agreed to cooperate with Southern bodies in this matter. Although the motion was ultimately carried without dissent, it is as well to note the remarks of some of the members as showing that tho isolation of the place has a narrowing effect upon our public men as well as upon the rest of the community. There were members who feared that Napier, by the construction of the line, might he reaping some advantage. with consequent detriment to Gisborne, and the fear that our merchants might lose trade by the opening up of communication with the South was evidently very real with some of the speakers. This, of course, is carrying district loyalty to such an extreme as to defeat its own ends. Gisborne will never .achieve its destiny by any endeavors to shut out the outside world either in regard to commercial products or to population. It is doubtless a fact that tho opening lip of the Napier-G'isborne line would give to the southern town the chief trado south of AVairoa, and .also of AVairoa itself, but this is nothing compared to the general effect the construction of such a lino would have upon Poverty Bay district as a whole. If Napier is naturally the best distributing centre for AVairoa, it is bound to get that trade sooner or .latci®. As a matter of fact, it has tho chief business now, and no efforts to keep the people of AVairoa as well as ourselves isolated will lead to our mutual advantage. The prosperity of the Dominion, and also of individual districts, depends very largely upon tho facilities for communication with other centres. Gisborne more than any other New Zealand town is being kept back because of the lack of those facilities, and no opportunity should be missed to improve our communication by sea and land. AVe should like to see the local Chamber of Commerco not merely acquiesce in the project for rail communication between Napier .and Gisborne, but actually make it a burning question amongst our public .affairs.